Friday, December 21, 2012

Cypress of Kashmar Source Texts 6. Various

In six parts: » 1. Shahnameh » 2. The Dabistan » 3. Thomas Hyde » 4. Qazvini » 5. Burhan-i Kati
Hamdallah Mustafi (1340 CE) in Nuzkat al-Kulub Translated by G. Le Strange
(London, 1919) Part 2, page 142.
As cited by A.V.W. Jackson in The Cypress of Kashmar and Zoroaster published in Zoroastrian Studies, the Iranian Religion and Various Monographs (1928).

Kashmar is a provincial town of this district, and here of old was a cypress tree, taller than any other in all the rest of the world. It was planted, it is said, by Jamasp the Wise , and more than once in the Shah Namah the Cypress of Kashmar is mentioned, as for instance in the couplet:

"And a branch of cypress from Paradise they brought
Which he planted before the gate of Kashmar."

In the village of Kashmar no earthquake is ever felt, although in various other places, of all the neighborhood round and about, earthquakes are common

Ḥamza Isfahani (10th century CE) in Mowazana Bayn al­-ʿArabiwa’l-ʿAjami
Translated by Fozuni Astarabadi
Pages 484-­85
Mustaufi states that the Abarkuh cypress of his time was famous throughout the world, even as from the days of the Kayanian kings the cypress trees of Kashmar and of Balkh were famous. And at this present time the cypress here (i.e. at Abarkuh) is taller and of greater girth than those others, and in the Land of Iran there is none now it’s equal.

In the time of the ʿAjam (Persian) kings there was at Nīšābūr a tree called sarv-­e sahī under which all Persian notables gathered for a few days every year to worship it; it served as Mecca to the ʿAjam. Several thousand people lived on the votive offerings and sacrifices to that tree, and several thousand pictures (naqš) and songs (ṣawt) had been made to describe it.

In six parts:
» Cypress of Kashmar Source Texts 1. Shahnameh
» Cypress of Kashmar Source Texts 2. The Dabistan
» Cypress of Kashmar Source Texts 3. Thomas Hyde
» Cypress of Kashmar Source Texts 4. Qazvini
» Cypress of Kashmar Source Texts 5. Burhan-i Kati

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