Folktales and Storytellers of Iran: Culture, Ethos and Identity 9780755608423, 9780755613014

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Map of Iran and Research Area.

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SPAR ROW’S SONG

At the time when there was nobody except God there was a sparrow and there was an old woman. One day Sparrow came into Old Woman’s hut and said, ‘Give me some bread to eat’. The Old Woman said, ‘Go get me some firewood’. The Sparrow left and brought her firewood and said, ‘Now give me a little bread to eat’. The Old Woman said, ‘Let me first bake some bread’. She baked flatbreads, and then the Sparrow said, ‘Now give me some bread to eat’. The Old Woman said, ‘Let me first sprinkle water on the bread’. She sprinkled water on the bread (to keep it soft), and then Sparrow said, ‘Now give me some bread to eat’. The Old Woman said, ‘Let me first fold the bread’. She folded the bread and the Sparrow said, ‘Now give me some bread to eat’. She said, ‘Let me first put the bread into a napkin’. She put it in a napkin and the Sparrow said, ‘Now give me some bread to eat’. She said, ‘Let me put it away on the shelf’. She put it away, and the Sparrow said, ‘Now give me some bread to eat’. The Old Woman said, ‘Why should I give you bread?!’ The Sparrow was angry and said, ‘I’ll fly hither and yon and take the bread with me’. It took the napkin with the bread and flew away. The Sparrow came to a cowherd and said, ‘Meat from you, bread from me’. The cowherd agreed and killed a cow. When they were about to eat the Sparrow said, ‘First I will wash my hands’. When the

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Sparrow returned the cowherd had eaten the meat. The Sparrow said, ‘I’ll fly hither and yon and take the brown cow with me’. It took the cow and flew away. It flew to a village where there was a wedding. The people were so poor they were about to kill a dog for meat when the Sparrow said, ‘Kill and cook this cow instead’. They did so, and when they were ready to eat, the Sparrow said, ‘Wait until I have washed my hands’. But when it returned the people had eaten the Sparrow’s share too. The Sparrow said, ‘I’ll fly hither and yon and take the bride with me’. It took the bride and flew away and came to a musician sitting on a big rock, singing. The Sparrow said, ‘From me the bride, from you a song’. The musician agreed. The Sparrow gave him the bride and took the song and flew away, singing. Told to Manuchehr Lama’e by Safdar Da¯ varpena¯ h, a male student in 6th grade in the village of Tira¯ bgun, southern Boir Ahmad. (Translated by E.F. from Manuchehr Lama’e, Farhang amia¯ ne asha¯ yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye [Tribal Folklore from Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad] (Tehran: ¯ shrafi, 1349 (1970)), pp. 69–71.) Sa¯ zma¯ n Entesha¯ ra¯ t A

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ACK NOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks for support for various phases of my longitudinal research in Iran since 1965 go to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Social Science Research Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and my scholarly home base, Western Michigan University. Without these institutions’ grants and encouragements I could not have visited Iran as often and as long as I did. As this book reflects many years of fieldwork the circle of support is wide, spanning three continents over nearly five decades. Grateful to all our friends, I will limit special thanks here to those whose generosity furthered in particular the making of this book. In Iran, Professor Sekandar Amanolahi and Mr Yaqoub Ghaffari most graciously discussed their tale-collections with me, thereby greatly increasing my insights into storytelling in Boir Ahmad. The issue of research permission in Iran for outsiders like Reinhold Loeffler and myself always has been a problem for the authorities, and I thank the many people there who helped us jump the hurdles: bureaucrats, colleagues and local people who made it possible for us to do ethnographic work in a sensitive tribal area. Difficult as the visa and permit situation was in the past, after 2006 we were not permitted to visit Iran at all. Because of the problematic circumstances I refrain from thanking Iranian friends and supporters by name. They know how much we appreciate them and how indebted we feel to them, especially our generous and tolerant friends in Sisakht, Yasuj and Shiraz.

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In the United States I thank Reinhold Loeffler, my comrade everywhere, for patiently showing interest in my work. Ms Ella Mehr and Dr Fatemeh Azizi answered many questions about topics they thought to have left behind in Sisakht when they came to Michigan. For advice and editorial help I thank Professor Elizabeth Harries of Smith College, Jan Sloan, MA and Kim Ballard, MA of Kalamazoo, and Pat FitzGerald of Shoreham-by-Sea, UK and Maria Marsh of I.B.Tauris. For optimistic moral support of all my professional endeavours I thank, as always, Professor Mary E. Hegland of Santa Clara University. In Europe I greatly benefited from the encouragement and suggestions of Professor Ulrich Marzolph in Göttingen, and of Professor Bert Fragner and Dr Afsaneh Gächter in Vienna. Professor Fragner, then the Director of the Institute for Iranistik of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, allowed me to use the Institute’s library to track down folktales from Iran. Dipl. Ing. Helmut Friedl and Mrs Sylvia Friedl in Vienna and Mrs Inge and Mr Walter Kanzler in Neuberg, Austria, have my eternal gratitude for their inexhaustible hospitality over many months while we were waiting for Iranian visas. Without the narrators’ love for stories and their willingness to work with me I could not have confirmed and expanded the insights about philosophical matters I gained from the literature and while accompanying my friends in Boir Ahmad through their days, watching and listening. The tales are their own: no outsider’s questions or expectations pushed the storytellers into thinking in unfamiliar categories or about topics they did not care for. All narrators I worked with liked to record their tales and to have them return to Sisakht in print – they said so often, and most local people appreciate the published tales as a unique historical record of their culture. For the narrators in the other collections, most of them anonymous and dead now, I confidently assume similar sentiments. Erika Friedl Kalamazoo

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NOTE ON TR ANSL ATION

Luri is an unwritten language of many dialects and thus the same words can sound and be transliterated differently. The simplified transliteration code I use for Luri and Persian words is geared to English pronunciation, with this addition: a¯ is pronounced as the ‘a’ in ‘law’; ‘gh’ is a soft, guttural sound between ‘r’ and ‘g’; ‘kh’ (‘x’ in some sources) is the guttural ‘ch’ sound in German or Russian.

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INTRODUCTION

In the early decades of ethnology, anthropologists worked with folklore data extensively; later, several anthropologists/folklorists advanced themes and theories in folklore studies.1 Recently, the trend towards postmodern and socially relevant issues in the social sciences moved most folklore scholarship away from ethnography into departments of literature. Bauman’s repeated admonition, ‘… to understand a culture, examine its texts … to comprehend a text, read it in relationship to the culture to which it gives expression’ proves to be a tall order.2 Scholars who see folktales3 mostly as a genre of literature have little access to the ethnographic dimensions of stories and ignore the tales’ relationships to ‘real’ life.4 But even scholars who record tales in the field, close to ethnographic reality, tend to use folktales as texts to be analysed in the framework of a theory such as, for example, psychoanalysis, structuralism, functionalism or feminism, ignoring the ethnographic context. The ‘meaning’ they are after transcends the meanings local people give the tales.5 This local meaning is my main interest: I aim to unite folktale texts with life as lived by the storytellers and their listeners. My comments represent their views rather than those of scholars within a cosmopolitan intellectual frame that ignores local sensibilities, the ‘period eye’. I offer a view from below that affords recognition of people’s philosophical biases. The lack of interest of most social scientists in tales and of folklorists in ethnography is the more pronounced and the more regrettable for Iran, where folklore is popular and ethnic minorities and others use folklore to express and bolster their identity. There, folklorists’ lack

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of sophistication in ethnographic methodologies and analyses leads to accumulations of texts without attention to cultural significance and to interpretation.6 As far as I know, for Iran this book is the only attempt to root a large body of tales in ethnography. Methodologically this approach is justified by the use of primary-source material: the tales were recorded, more or less verbatim, directly from a storyteller. Minimally edited, they closely represent the oral performance, the ‘authentic’ oral event. The two contemporary folktale-scholars I feel close to in my emphasis on ethnography are Linda Dégh and Margaret A. Mills. Dégh’s monograph on Szekler folktales in Hungary showed us the way beyond formalistic, classificatory and structural approaches to tales.7 Mills’s work with storytellers in Afghanistan showed us how minute attention to performances of a story increases insights into the workings of a culture.8 Within the traditions of the performance-school, who was telling a tale and how became as important as the tale itself. Carefully attending to the narration performance increases the accuracy of the documentation of an oral text but not necessarily the access to ethnographic messages.9 Occasionally I refer to teller–listener interaction or to performance-aspects, but for my purpose of tracing the fit between stories and life the focus is too narrow.10 An anthropologist/ethnographer by training and circumstance, I have worked in the tribal area of Boir Ahmad in south-west Iran since 1965, acquiring vernacular competence in a dialect of Luri, the local language. My approach to folktales reflects this competence: I can discuss the tales with tellers and audiences and can ask local friends to elaborate on meanings of words and idioms. Furthermore, my long involvement with the local people – over seven years of residence in Iran between 1965 and 2006 – provided me with insights into many aspects of life, including how people think about their lives and their culture, and with records of many storytelling events. Regarding the (slight) influence of my presence on the stories, I confine the acknowledgement to occasional remarks about circumstances and my interactions with tellers or listeners. I was not a passing stranger with a tape-recorder who recorded a performance and then left. People knew me well, and

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although I might have occasioned a tale, I was never the only audience and I never asked for a particular tale. At many story-sessions I just listened and took notes, as indeed people expected of me: recording meant that I took the narrator seriously. Indeed, the sheer number of story-sessions I attended poses a much greater methodological problem than my presumed influence on the tales: performance analysis, for example, is hardly possible with repetitive performances. The other collectors in this book provide little information on narrators and ethnographic circumstances. However, as they all are from one linguistic and cultural area, the Zagros range of south-west Iran, my own ethnographic understanding developed in Boir Ahmad justifies my interpretation of the others’ tales. Two of the collectors, Amanolahi and Ghaffari, also discussed tales and ethnography with me personally.

Aim and Methodology On the assumption that tales articulate, confirm and affirm philosophical tenets people base their values and actions on, my main aim is to identify messages in the tales that shed light on people’s philosophical tenets. Adults see those confirmed in the tales, children learn them. In particular, I aim to identify in the tales cognitive schemas and values that people can choose from, and the logic of actions and judgements as presented by the tales’ actors; and, secondly, to analyse the assumptions that structure relationships in the tales between categories of beings from God to people and animals, and people’s evaluations of these social constructs. Towards these goals I proceed on the premise that people base their stories on themes and motifs they select, interpret and vary according to ethical, emotional and practical tenets their culture provides about life in general, and that these are accessible to analysis. They provide a key to how people position themselves in their grand scheme of things and to what people think about their own culture. Through the protagonists’ actions in the stories, no matter how formulaic and motif-determined they may seem, the narrators express fundamental

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assumptions about their own existence and comment on them without having to put themselves on the line. The audience shares the assumptions, sentiments and bias of the comments, or else it could not appreciate the tales without modifying them. Thus, over the generations the Grimms’ tales changed as our family structures and criteria for topics we think suitable for children changed: the Grimms’ ‘Frog Prince’ is hardly recognizable in Disney’s 2009 Princess and the Frog.11 If sensibilities and tacit expectations are not shared, discomfort, boredom and misunderstandings arise. A recent example from Iran of such misunderstanding concerns James Cameron’s Titanic (1997). The young people in Iran who discussed this popular movie with me said that they were puzzled by the heroine’s rejection of her fiancé: not only was he rich and handsome, he really wanted her, and her parents approved of him! How she could prefer an insignificant pauper to this substantial man was incomprehensible. Obviously their understanding of a solid basis of marriage was so different from the romantic Western one in the movie that not even Leonardo DiCaprio could sway them. Looking for the shared aspects of the culture of the people for whom the tales make sense, I dip into shared schemata and common-sense knowledge for judgement and behaviour – a collective understanding – that guides people’s interactions and sense of self. In other words, I proceed on the assumption that narrators and their audiences express in folktales shared beliefs, shared ethics, shared concerns, experiences, behaviour patterns and assumptions about how everything works. I suggest that tales go beyond expressing a world view, an ethos, though: they are documents of philosophy, logic, ethics and theology, and express what choices the culture provides for how people may live and what to expect as they are making their days.12 Tales do this even where the specific content of a tale is quite removed from everyday local happenings and where protagonists such as princes and fairies seemingly have nothing to do with local, ‘real’, conditions. In fact, with this view it turns out that the tales are much closer to everyday life than one might think, given their fanciful, fantastic settings and plots.13 Pierre Bourdieu discussed these issues extensively while analysing everyday practices of the Kabyle in North Africa.14 He described ‘doxa’

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as a society’s taken-for-granted, non-questioned truth that permeates everyday practices. Regrettably, few folktale scholars use his insights and methodologies. Reductionistically labelled ‘worldview’, such themes easily are dismissed as outdated essentializing and generalizing. Yet, nobody who knows the ethnographic background of narrators and tales can ignore this kind of obvious content in tales.15 Methodologically, this approach ideally includes performanceobservations such as an audience’s reactions to comments on happenings in the tales; the elicitation of a narrator’s total active repertoire of tales, that is, the tales he or she likes to tell, in order to see the narrator’s favourite themes and messages; the formulation of categories of actors and things and their relationships – categories like Father, Wife, Girl, for example – and what their interactions presuppose. Noting expressions of affect, of recurrent schematic sequences and tropes facilitates insights into what the actors in the tales (that is, the narrators and audience who infuse them with sensible speech and behaviour) take for granted in interactions beyond what the narrator actually has actors say and do. In such an analysis, more emerges than a sketch of the local worldview: read closely and within the ethnographic context, the people talk about their philosophy of everyday life. Attention to explicit and implicit messages thus turns a tale into a projective device. As such the interpretation rests on the (psychoanalytic) premise that all utterances a person makes reflect facets of the person’s inner world.16 As it is nearly impossible to hide deep-seated feelings and assumptions completely, one can expect them to surface in the telling of tales. The basic structures of folktales and the motifs are given, as it were, (and are widespread in Iran)17 but around them the storytellers can and do choose, explain, comment, embellish, interpret and elaborate as allowed by their personality and the palette of possibilities the culture provides. Storytellers do not simply re-tell tales or react to stimuli during the performance – they create meaning.18 When storytellers project into their tales their culture’s value system, the customary order of things, the schemas in which they learned to think and act while growing up in their communities, they might do so intentionally, such as when a narrator uses a story for

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political criticism or to make pointed comments about actual people and events. But such direct comments, although occasionally appearing in the present collections, are not the focus of my analyses.19 More often projections happen unintentionally, below the narrator’s awareness, without purpose or reflection, and these are the most revealing. In their tales, narrators do not need to articulate their personal beliefs and values. From the safe distance of an outsider-narratorentertainer-commentator, they let actors do the talking and acting. The distance allows the narrator to shift responsibility for the content of these comments away from him or herself onto the actors in the tales. Thus one can expect that the narrators will talk about sensitive topics with less inhibition or self-reflection through the proxies in the tales than they would in everyday situations where one has to own what one says and does, and where opinions and comments, especially critical ones, have social consequences. Tales, we know, can unintentionally be revealing and subversive. For example, in the communities represented in this book, a person may make fun of a high-ranking dignitary such as a vizier or a cleric openly and safely through a tale’s actors, or may punish an immoral princess in a story, while in everyday life the same person would make critical comments about high-ranking people only surreptitiously, if at all. Likewise, family relations that people consider to be God-willed cornerstones of the society such as the hierarchical one between father and son or husband and wife, in tales are routinely and implicitly criticized and subverted: a father’s jealousy of his son brings hardships on everybody; a father’s infanticide propels sorry happenings in the story; kings and fathers who act foolishly are rebuked, at least indirectly so; wives outperform their husbands; God is near-absent. A last assumption in my approach is that every culture, and be it ever so small-scale, provides choices for how to move in this world. Rarely is there just one option for dealing with a situation. This assumption is documented well enough in the social sciences as to be a ‘fact’. Few folktales are homogeneous, without contradictions, especially when compared to other ‘texts’ from the same community. The variations reflect obvious choices people have for thinking, feeling and acting.20 Many choices are contradictory, mirroring, for

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example, different philosophical or theological traditions and showing various cultural roots. In our case these roots extend to antiquity, to pre-Islamic cosmology and Zoroastrian customs, to Islamic theology, to tribal customs, to modernity.21 In folktales, features of diverse provenance combine to furnish alternatives for living, in other words, for a variety of philosophical tenets. With this analytic focus folktales become philosophical texts.22 As an anthropologist I am interested in these choices: in the cultural repertoire of behaviours and of the concepts people use when they think or explain, and of criteria they have at hand for evaluating what goes on around them. Obviously the choices people make are not entirely free; they are linked to power relations in the community and to social conditions that shape access to them. This is one more reason to look at tales carefully: through a narrator who is telling a ‘lie’23 that nobody need take seriously, a person can choose arguments and ideas with much less restraint than in any other social capacity.

Ethnographic Background The idea of seeing folktales as a key, a shortcut even, to the cultural logic of the people who tell the tales and listen to them came to me in 1965 while learning Luri during my first visit in Boir Ahmad. Studying grammar, vocabulary and idioms in tales I recorded, I learned how the people who told the tales thought and argued. The tales reflected their everyday world. This insight stayed with me throughout my visits in Boir Ahmad, eventually providing the impetus for this book. Together with the neighbouring Bakhtiari and most tribes in Luristan Province, the Boir Ahmadi belong to the cultural area of the Zagros, a mountain range running roughly north–south in western Iran. In the 1960s the area had about 1,200,000 inhabitants (nearly three million by 2006). The local people speak three main dialects of Luri, a middle-Persian language, and share important cultural features, from religion (Shi‘i Islam) to technology, economy and social relations within patrilineal families organized into tribes and sub-tribes headed by tribal chiefs. The Boir Ahmadi are one such tribal unit, living in the province of Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad in the south-eastern valleys and

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plains of the mountains. Like their tribal neighbours in the Zagros, until about two generations ago they mostly made a precarious living by transhumant sheep and goat herding and agriculture. Most people were dirt poor by any standard. Men, women and children had to work hard to make it in a tough world where tribal chiefs oppressed them and where want, war and illness made for an austere living in tents, branch huts and mud-brick houses. Morbidity and mortality were high, especially for children. To this day all adults remember the hardships of the recent past well. Most express satisfaction with the rising standard of living over the past two generations as the rapidly modernizing and globalizing Iranian society was providing more amenities, comfort and security.24 Around 1966 the Iranian government started to integrate the region fast into the economic, administrative, educational and media networks of the state, with an influx of many non-Lur outsiders and a concomitant loss of some cultural traditions such as story telling. Yet, while time and culture change obliterate details of traditional life, the basic attitudes toward life, assumptions about how the world works, and philosophical tenets that are expressed in the tales are still in place. Since 1965 Reinhold Loeffler and I have been studying the culture of Boir Ahmad from a base in the village of Sisakht below the highest peak of the Zagros range. We visited last in 2006. For the ethnographic interpretation of the tales I use mostly the people of Boir Ahmad, whom I know best. Locally, all tales are matil, although in a literate, ‘modern’ context people sometimes also use the Persian term, a¯fsa¯neh. (Ghaffari calls his compilation of tales ‘A¯fsa¯neha¯ye Mahalli’ [Local Stories].) Stories from the Persian epic, ‘Shahnameh’ [Book of Kings] and stories from books were called dasta¯n. The request, ‘Tell me a matil’ likely would – and will – bring a folktale, while demanding a dasta¯n might bring any kind of story. When we first listened to folktales in Boir Ahmad, the stories were valued as entertainment for everybody, old and young, rich and poor. It seems that there were no local resident professional storytellers in the Zagros, and itinerant ones came to the high mountains only rarely.25 Instead, some local men and women had the reputation of being good storytellers and developed their own repertoires. Everybody

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knew stories learned from listening, especially the short, simple matil, that one could amuse children with. Likewise popular and ubiquitous were hero-stories from the Shahnameh that a few literate men in the area recited at social occasions. As most people were illiterate and no written folktale texts existed, tales were told from memory. This oral art allows wide variations in how narrators link motifs and interpret events in the stories. Such variations emerged even from one telling to the next of the same teller. This situation poses a methodological problem for the proper recording of tales, no matter how meticulous the folklorist is when documenting a story-session: which tale in what variant and told by whom at what occasion is one to ‘privilege’ over other variants and performances? This is a rhetorical question here, but worthy of consideration in the grand scheme of postmodern folklore-practice.26 Over the years I have heard many tales told in many slightly different ways and occasionally refer to variations outside the published texts used here if they clearly make a point. When we arrived in Iran in the 1960s, the cultural basis for the tales in the Zagros was still solid and had remained what we tend to call ‘traditional’ (in contrast to ‘modern’). For example, the fairies (peri) of the tales were ‘real’ in the sense that people claimed or expected to see them, and most people feared the jinns’ mischief, tried to avoid attacks by demons, told anecdotes of such interactions. There was no deep divide between the realms of extra-human beings and people, between what happened to both in tales (‘lies’) and in ‘true’ stories, that is, those involving oneself or a person one could identify. Thus, for example, a tale about the abduction of a girl by a jinn in the shape of a ram prompted a man in the audience to tell a ‘true story’ of a girl abducted by a bear-ghoul in a high-pasture camp of a neighbouring tribe a few years earlier. He used the same narrative pattern as had the storyteller, except that he omitted the formulaic beginning (‘There was a time when there was nobody but God’) and the ending (‘My tale is so nice …’) that the storyteller used. Fairies and demons were not so much symbolic as tangible, co-existing beings with benevolent and malevolent traits. Yet, tales already then were called lies – nobody had witnessed the happenings personally and there were too many foreign elements in them to be taken as

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‘true’: princes that nobody knew, flying horses nobody had seen, kind fairy-wives that nobody expected to meet among local women and lucky paupers wholly unbelievable in the harsh local circumstances. A popular end-rhyme to a tale goes somewhat like this: ‘There was straw and there was rye, all I said was just a lie.’27 We caught story telling just when tales were changing from being meaningful on many levels to ‘just-so’ stories that competed with the entertaining lies on the radio, in books and, a little later yet, in movies and on television. In the late 1960s local people started to realize that their oral traditions were changing; many feared they would disappear soon. Some literate ones started to collect tribal folklore. The first such collector in Boir Ahmad who published regional folklore was a Persian government physician working in the south of the tribal area.28 He let schoolboys write down riddles, rhymes and short tales that he then published in Persian script, some even transliterated with a Latin-based script. (Luri, an unwritten language, so far has not been transliterated phonetically in a standardized system using Persian script.) The most extensive local compilation of tales I know of in Boir Ahmad is by the self-taught Boir Ahmad historian and folklorist, Yaqoub Ghaffari, a high-ranking tribesman and former teacher from north-eastern Boir Ahmad. Unfortunately, he documented only a few of his 70 tales in Luri, translating most into Persian as he was writing down what he heard.29 A third local collector, Nushaferin Boir Ahmedi, the first woman teacher in our base-village, fully aware of the drawbacks of writing tales down in Persian that are told in Luri, urged me to tape a neighbour’s stock of tales because, she said, the elderly woman would soon forget them, and I could transcribe them from the tapes in a way that local people could read (that is, in phonetic Latin-based script). Thus I became an incidental folklorist, eventually taping more than 50 tales from several narrators. Mrs Boir Ahmedi and others also have small written collections of tales/stories, but told in the collectors’ own voice, in Persian. Aside from being an unwritten language, in Iran Luri carries the negative connotation of tribal/rural boorishness and until recently Lurs avoided its use in an ‘educated’ context where Persian was spoken. Only during the past few years is a growing Lur-pride noticeable, a revitalist reaction to the loss of local traditions.30

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This last point is true for the Zagros generally, but I have no information on the history of the recording of folklore by local people in Bakhtiari and Luristan. In all Lur areas in the Zagros political and socio-cultural conditions were quite similar to those sketched above for Boir Ahmad, as were the sentiments, assumptions about life, cosmologies and the taken-forgranted truths that guide action and actors in the tales.

Data I: Sources One hundred and fifty-eight tales from five primary-source collections, all from the Zagros area in Iran, constitute the basis for my analysis. This body provided me with enough messages to arrive at the point where statements about life became repetitive and analysis provided diminishing returns, that is, theological, ethical and philosophical statements became predictable. The time difference between the oldest collection and the others does not figure much in the happenings, in the style of narration, or the underlying theological and philosophical tenets. This also is true for the 13 tales Susan Wright collected in a Doshmanziari group in the 1970s.31 It speaks to the volume of tales circulating in Iran that less than 10 per cent in my texts share enough motifs to qualify as variants of the same tale. Not that a tale’s status as a variant would matter much, though. My assumptions led me to expect that even variants of the same motifs might differ enough in their cosmology, the portrayal of relationships or the moral derived to be of value heuristically; that narrators invest the tales with their personal circumstances every time they tell a tale; and that all tale-variants express a culture’s choices for behaviour, beliefs and interpretation of existential circumstances. There is no one ‘right’ version of a tale. The five main sources are: • The Lorimers’ collection of folktales from Iran, especially the 28 Bakhtiari tales.32 A few times I quote from their Kermani tales as well – these are, indeed, quite similar in tone and message to those from the Bakhtiari.

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The Bakhtiari are neighbours of the Boir Ahmadi, speak a Luri dialect, and shared the traditional lifestyle as hunter/gatherers, transhumant pastoralists and farmer-peasants in a tribally organized society. The Lorimers, amateur folklorists fluent in Iranian languages, wrote down the stories they heard without providing information on the tellers or the audiences, transliterating Bakhtiari with a Latin-based alphabet, but their publication only provides the translated English text. Unfortunately, it does not include local terms for important concepts such as ‘luck’ or ‘fate’, and we simply must accept the Lorimers’ assertion that the translation is as true and literal as was possible. (In the following, L15 etc. refers to the respective tale number in their collection.) • Lama’e (1970) published 17 tales from southern Boir Ahmad, most of which were written down in Persian by boys in elementary school (the boys could not render Luri in Persian script). Lama’e transcribed a few stories in Luri using a Latin-derived code but did not provide ethnographic information. The tone of the tales is that of rowdy fun and humour. (In the following, Lama’e: 15 etc. refers to the page number in Lama’e’s book where the tale I am referring to begins.) • Forty-five tales from my collection, mostly tape-recorded between 1965 and 1975, were published with verbatim transcriptions of the original Luri texts in a modified Latin alphabet, English translation and short discussion of each narrator and tale.33 For the present purpose I used ten more tales from my unpublished notes, providing the text of one in Appendix 1. As a woman in a gender-conscious society, I socialized mostly with women and the narrators in my collection reflect this: four are women, represented with 40 tales; the two male tellers contributed five tales. We can safely assume that the narrator’s gender influences the tales as told (see Chapter 1), but there is too little information in the other collections to address this topic.34 (In the following, F15 etc. refers to the respective tale number in my collection.) • Amanolahi published 18 tales from Luristan he had taped in the 1970s, with mention of the narrators but no further information or ethnographic comments.35 A Lur from a chief’s lineage, Amanolahi

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is an Iranian anthropologist. He provides the texts in Luri transliterated with a Latin-based alphabet and an English translation (together with W.M. Thackston). The narrators are two men and two women. The tone of these tales is more aggressive than the tone in the other collections, but in the absence of pertinent and comparable information on the storytellers no further discussion of this interesting observation is possible. There is no information on any performance-related aspect either. (In the following, A/Th15 etc. refers to the respective tale number in this collection.) • Ghaffari’s 2006 collection of 40 tales from north-eastern Boir Ahmad circulate in a computer-typed manuscript in Persian, with a copy in the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. Unfortunately, Ghaffari – a high-ranking Lur from northern Boir Ahmad, former teacher and amateur folklorist-historian – did not tape the tales. He transcribed all but two into Persian, of necessity editing them while writing them down, because Luri does not lend itself easily to being phonetically rendered in Persian script. He does not provide comments, information about the narrators or on audience reception. Nevertheless, he is a Boir Ahmadi Lur and the tales are in his own passive repertoire (that is, he grew up with them and can tell them) and thus they are quite ‘authentic’. Compared to the tales in the other collections, his are less coherent in plots and actors, with occasional confusing non sequiturs. However, allowing for sloppy structure and a few details such as some modern Persian words or the expurgation of fairies from the tales, in tone and messages they fit well with the other collections. (In the following, Gh15 etc. refers to the respective tale number in Ghaffari’s collection.) All collections used here are primary data, presenting tales recorded at storytelling events. No written sources existed for the tellers to re-tell. All five collectors documented tales at the point where a myriad of stories in countless variants were floating around in people’s memories, and where tellers were shaping and creating while they were talking without being tied down to an authoritative, written text. Tellers could compare oral stories from the Shahnameh to the ‘true’ book-version (and

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I have heard a dispute about whose version of Fareydun was the ‘right’ one) but folktales had no standard to compare them to. They were only more or less entertaining. As to accessibility of the tales, the Lorimers’ book is in print again and thus available, as are Amanolahi’s and my own books, in English. I quote more from Ghaffari and Lama’e, whose respective collections are in Persian and not easily found in a library. As examples I insert some tales fully, most in shortened or summarized form, and from yet others I quote relevant passages, for obvious reasons of space restrictions. All translations from the tales are my own except for some from Amanolahi’s book, as are all other translations quoted in this book. Reading tales in collections from other parts of Iran or from other times, especially variants of those that appear in the above-mentioned sources, one finds many parallels with generalizations and insights I got from the Lur sources. This speaks to the question of cross-regional comparisons of tales in Iran but is not relevant here, and neither is the question of historical and literary influences on the tales.36 To fit my purpose, and in accordance with my assumptions, I treat the stories as contemporary texts that make sense to the people who tell and listen to them in the ethnographic present. Were they complicated or ‘weird’, narrators would either have adapted them to contemporary sensibilities or else they would have forgotten them. Since the time when the Lorimers and, later, Lama’e, Amanolahi, Ghaffari and I listened to storytellers, tales in Iran have lost significance as entertainment and didactic devices, being replaced by television shows, movies and formal education. Recently they are gaining some popularity again with amateur folklorists, with people using their local language and regional/tribal traditions as ethnic identitybuilders, and with scholars at various cultural heritage institutions in Iran documenting the traditional popular culture.37

Data II: The Tales Most tales told in Lur areas belong to one of two kinds: the epic, long ones in the tradition of the Shahnameh38 and of the 1001 Nights39 with complex plots involving kings, battles, heroes in faraway places.

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These grand tales create an escapist, fantastic world where paupers can become kings, evildoers are punished, shepherds marry princesses, dragons are slain and fairies help men. Their settings have little to do with the local culture, but the narrators ‘lurify’ settings and happenings, and thus the tales reveal familiar cultural schemata beneath pomp and fantasy. The other kind consists of short tales with simple plots and mundane characters – people, animals and things – that make clear statements about life. Reliably and quite explicitly they express a sense of how people think about themselves, how things fit and how the world works. Some of these tales derive from fables, others from legends and yet others are told as if they were stories about something that just happened nearby. In these tales fantasy is used to make plain statements about the workings of the real world in plain language rather than coded in symbols. For all the talking animals and what Westerners call magic, these tales are realistic. Humans and animals may talk to and understand each other, which is not supported empirically, but the animals always act predictably according to their purported, stereotypical nature that people construct on the basis of their observations and their intimate experiences with animals. In these little tales people lay out the rules for the struggle of daily existence openly, and endings, if positive at all, are not so much ‘happy’ (in the sense of a hero attaining his or her wish) as satisfactory: the dangerous wolf is dead. Text interpretation largely is a statement of the obvious as the narratives are uncluttered and free of coy subtexts and coded or contradictory messages. There are many such stories floating around in Boir Ahmad. Of those Ghaffari collected in eastern Boir Ahmad, only a handful overlap with those in my own collection. Although they differ in motifs and actors, they share laconic simplicity in describing philosophical tenets about life. From them, we can elicit the ethos of a tribal people that otherwise people nowhere express as clearly. All but one of the narrators in my own collection looked out for chances to elaborate on twists in the tales that produced laughs. Many funny asides are non-verbal though, and do not show in the plain text. In other cases the editorial voice is so strong that one cannot say whether it filtered out funny frivolities and impolite language,

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or whether the narrators themselves were disinclined to humour. For example, Amanolahi and Thackston turn a rude but funny expression of disappointment and disgust in the Luri original (‘shit on my grave’)40 into the humourless phrase, ‘you’ve dishonored us …’ 41 and comment it with the footnote, ‘There is no real equivalent in English for the scatological expression of the original’. Of course, the audience in question laughed at the curse, but one cannot laugh at the translation. This editing is hardly helpful for an understanding of local humour and, in this case, also worthless for an understanding of local mortuary ideas. My own observations strongly suggest that narrators and audiences look for occasions to find funny moments even in dramatic stories. I heard this also when Mr Ghaffari told me stories he had collected: he always made sure that I would get his funny points. Likewise, Professor Amanolahi told me that his narrators and audiences were often ‘rowdy’. Humour, aside from being a kind of judgement and commentary on happenings, provides a counterweight to drama.42

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CHAPTER 1 HOW NAR R ATOR S LIVE IN THEIR TALES: T WO CASES

Tales are free-phrase items that reflect the culture in which they are told and are subject to modifications by the narrators who, of necessity, stamp the circumstances of their personal lives on them.1 Without acknowledging the narrators’ creative influence on the tales, folktale scholarship is an academic exercise, removed from the people who live with the tales. I am not stating anything new here, but our collective experiences in folklore have shown how difficult it is to live up to this insight: ethnography is time consuming and difficult; demands for transparency, circumspection and minute attention to performative aspects are increasing; rarely do folktale collections provide information on the process of narration and recording. I simplified the methodological conundrum by assuming that tellers create their active repertoires by selecting those that appeal to them from a body of tales they know passively. They select them according to personal inclinations, philosophical or moral principles, emotional appeal and political messages, and then creatively shape the tales to express favourite themes. These amount to narrators’ validations or explanations of certain aspects of their culture. By stamping personal experiences and their philosophy of life on the tales the narrators add meaning beyond that inherent in the motifs of their stories. It follows that the better one knows the narrators and their cultural background the more meaningful the tales will become.

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As for this approach familiarity with the storytellers’ life circumstances is of great importance, in this chapter I will stay with two narrators in my own collection because the other collections provide little or no information on narrators and ethnographic circumstances. In the favourite tales of these two narrators from Sisakht I can go beyond a literary analysis or a close-up view of a particular performance only because I have known the two narrators well for many years. I selected these two people because they are extreme exponents of a shared culture, and therefore we can expect in their tales contrasting and thus easily recognizable statements about this culture. The tales’ motifs are common in Iran. But both narrators put their personal stamp on them by using, creating or elaborating certain themes that are dear to them, giving their tales a distinct emotional flavour and conveying distinct messages. In order to identify the personal comments in the tales I apply what I know about the two narrators to three aspects of their tales: to details that distinguish each narrator’s own, preferred version of the tale from other narrators’ versions; to the active repertoires of the narrators, that is, the tales they like to tell; and to the commentaries they make while telling the stories. The features I chose for comparison are women, servants and poverty. The complete text of the tales mentioned here is in my Folktales from a Persian Tribe.

Mr Shukrullah Hoquqi The late Hal Shurgela (Uncle Shurgela) was about 50 years old when I was listening to his tales, an elderly man by local standards, and illiterate. He was small, lean, wrinkled and wiry. As a young child he had been abducted from neighbouring Fars province during a raid on his village under circumstances he did not like to talk about. His family apparently would not or could not get him back, although he kept loosely in touch with it through some visiting back and forth. In Sisakht one of the better-to-do local villagers brought him up in his house as a servant. Mr Hoquqi did not talk about this time, either, but from occasional remarks it was clear that he had to work hard. As he had no relatives nearby he was completely dependent on the good will of his masters. At that time life was difficult in Boir Ahmad for most

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people, for all children, and even more so for servants and retainers. Mr Hoquqi ascribed his short, light body to the privations while growing up. As adults, his biological brothers, whom we met once, were considerably bigger than he was, as were his own children. Counted as a member of the endogamous local barber-class (salma¯ni), he eventually married within this group, that is, his master arranged a marriage for him and paid the small brideprice for his bride in lieu of most of Mr Hoquqi’s accumulated wages.2 He moved to a small, tworoom mud-brick house, and together with his wife took care of the local bathhouse and its clients. He also continued to provide services for villagers such as running messages and errands (this was before there were cars and telephones available locally), occasionally herding the cooperatively pastured cows, sheep and goats for a co-op member who could not go out himself, and supervising the serving of food at feasts in the homes of many villagers. Everybody knew him; many called him by the familiar-respectful kin-term ‘uncle’ (halu, motherbrother). As he had almost no land, the income from these jobs, mostly paid in kind by his clients, kept him, his wife and his children poor even by local standards. But his indispensable and skilled services secured him good standing in the village. They were a source of pride for him. At home he was somewhat less successful. He, his wife, seven children and a daughter-in-law lived together in one room, later two rooms. This put considerable strain on home life, especially so as his wife’s sharp wit and sharp tongue frequently caused noise and friction. In his eyes his womenfolk gave him a hard time in the cramped house. However, he managed to feed his children, send all but two to school, and provide spouses for all, which means he discharged his parental obligations satisfactorily. Usually he bore his domestic hardships with humour and countered them with disapproval of women in general. Master Shukrullah (‘Esa¯ Shurgela’, as he also was called) had quite a reputation as a storyteller. His tales entertained guests at dinner parties in other people’s houses, as well as his neighbours (including my family) in his house. We would sit around the fireplace drinking tea and listening, while children fell asleep in the unsteady light of a kerosene pressure lamp and the flames of the fire. At that time,

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local people provided all entertainment themselves on long evenings, especially long, snowy winter nights. The village did not yet have electricity. Battery-powered radios and tape decks were becoming popular, mostly for listening to music, but not every household had one yet. Occasionally, itinerant entertainers passed through the village offering sketches, stories and exhibitions of physical prowess by athletes (called hero or strongman, pahleva¯n). Storytelling amused young and old. Regarding themes, style of delivery and repertoire, Mr Hoquqi presented himself as a professional storyteller, a ‘master’. He liked to tell only grand stories with long, elaborate plots about kings, intrigues, battles and princesses, and introduced and ended them with formal phrases he had picked up from professional itinerant storytellers and, later, from the radio. Occasionally, however, he ended them with a bawdy joke about the protagonists, such as, ‘. . . and then they got lost’. The plots of his tales had little to do with his tribal/peasant environment, but they gave him the opportunity to dwell on his favourite theme, the servant. No other storyteller in Sisakht focused on servants. Servants In several of his favourite tales the servant-motif propels and integrates the whole story. In a trickster-tale (F38) the protagonist brings death to and misfortune on several people as a revenge for these people’s mistreatment of their servant, the trickster-protagonist’s brother. It is understood that the trickster’s inclination toward creating havoc is due to his snake/dragon (div-) father’s nature, but the motivation the narrator gives for the violence is revenge for a servant’s mistreatment. In the version of the tale told by another local narrator, a woman who loved absurd plots and characters (F36), the same misdeeds are not at all connected to this motif: the protagonist is destructive because he was conceived of an ‘illegal seed’ (tokhm hara¯m) which, to the storyteller, completely explained his weird, destructive behaviour. In yet another, more recent, version of the motifs (Gh13), the unidentified narrator explains the havoc with self-defence: the protagonist was escaping his div-captors. Mr Hoquqi’s emphasis of the servant is unique.

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In a long fairy tale (F40) Mr Hoquqi inserted an episode with a servant washing tea glasses at the pool in the courtyard, acting out the characteristic sequence of hand gestures for washing tiny tea glasses, while talking. While working, the servant catches a fateful glimpse of the young protagonist, a guest in the house, admiring a beautiful fairy-feather. The servant tells his master, the prince, about the feather, and thus starts a long string of adventures around the prince’s lovesickness and a capricious fairy. Clearly, Mr Hoquqi inserted himself and his own work into the story – another narrator of the story in the village omitted the servant-episode, letting the prince simply ‘see’ the feather without further explanation. In F41 Mr Hoquqi referred to himself explicitly when he remarked on a protagonist’s generous tip to a bath attendant. ‘Sadat and Seïd’ (F41: 195f., excerpt) [The protagonist, Seïd, had just offered to cure the Shah’s blind son.] The Shah said, ‘Many doctors have tried to make him well and could not do it’. Seïd said, ‘With trust in God I will make him well’. The Shah said, ‘If you make him well I will give you your fee’. Seïd said, ‘Give orders that the bath be heated’. So I, Shukrullah Hoquqi, went and heated the bath and got everything clean and ready, and in the morning Seïd . . . took the Shah’s son into the bath, and I washed him and he gave me 100 Toman, and then he took him to the underground room . . . Indeed, whenever the opportunity arose in his tales to elaborate the lot of a servant (mostly men), on his skills and duties, loyalty and honesty and on his treatment by the master, Mr Hoquqi did so with care, and was often visibly moved. Although he did not talk about his past or his status, rather shrugging off even direct questions, in his tales he dropped hints and made comments. Above all, he painted the picture of the ideal servant. He described him as loyal, an indispensable adviser, nurse and guardian of the master’s interests that not even the mightiest man can do without (F39). Conversely, he showed that servants validated a master’s social

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standing. A house could not be great if it did not have servants. Servants worked, while great chiefs and kings gave orders. Without servants, the rich and mighty would have to herd, cook and serve their own food, which does not fit the status that wealth and importance bestow. Without ever talking about it outright, Mr Hoquqi, like other narrators, commented on the value (or lack of it) of manual labour: work equals drudgery, indicating poverty and low status. Referring to physical labour local people used a term literally translating as ‘to do bad luck’ (badbakhti kardan). Rich people did not work and they were not hungry and skinny either but fat: describing one of his wealthy actors, Mr Hoquqi inflated his cheeks and indicated a big belly. Without any necessity as far as the plot was concerned, Mr Hoquqi described servants’ work. He let one servant enter a gathering saying, ‘The servant brought tea and sweets’, with an exaggerated gesture of balancing a serving-tray (F39). Only with such service was it a proper party as far as he was concerned. The servant-hero in this tale, a hired shepherd, first saves the Sultan’s life, applying his knowledge about health and food in a lengthy scene in the wilderness that let Mr Hoquqi exhibit his own dietary knowledge, and later advises his master exceedingly wisely and well. Nevertheless the master loses faith in him and sends him away. Indeed, servants often receive no thanks for their trouble. But Mr Hoquqi’s sense of justice usually vindicated the servants in the end, even providing just rewards. In F39 he spun the end out into a scene where the unjust Sultan is humbled when the servant-hero confronts him with his injustice. (Mr Hoquqi, as Sultan, accompanied the scene with putting a finger in his mouth, a gesture signing humble perplexity.) In F40, the king’s wife and mother of the protagonist sends her maid to the camp of a visiting rich nobleman to gather intelligence about her lost son. A lengthy scene unfolds between the nobleman (who is the lost son) and the maid. Misunderstanding the message the maid brings back, her mistress scolds her. But when she realizes that the maid had brought her good news she kisses her, which Mr Hoquqi demonstrated with appropriate noises and with giggles. Similarly, in the same tale, the beautiful, ‘bad’ lady in a castle relies on her maid to prepare and serve food and to fetch young men upstairs to trysts

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that cost them dearly. When the invisible protagonist is eating her food, she scolds the maid for either not having cooked enough or else eaten half herself. Stealing food was a common accusation against servants when Mr Hoquqi was growing up. The maid protests (‘Lady, dear, I did not . . .’), the mistress believes her, and the story resumes. There was no reason for painting this scene other than Mr Hoquqi’s love of servant-episodes. Christensen’s version of the tale does not have the maid at all, and the immoral princess remains a virgin because she sends her ‘slave girls’ to sleep with the young men who pay her for sex. Mr Hoquqi would not have let such an outrage happen to a maid.3 For aiding her lady’s immoral pursuits Mr Hoquqi punishes the maid but less severely than the lady. Good servants have to fulfil their master’s orders. This is their duty (vasife). Servants are not to judge their masters, although they can advise and warn them. If the master ignores the counsel, the servants are not responsible for the consequences. In F40 the adviser reprimands his king for lusting after his son’s beautiful wife, but when the master insists on getting her, the adviser tells him how to kill his son. ‘The Mare with the Forty Colts’ (F40: 175, excerpt) [The Shah, cured of blindness by his son, now sees the son’s beautiful fairy wife while he is a guest in his son’s house.] When the Shah saw the fairy his heart ached, he fell in love with her and could not eat. He said to his vizier, ‘Let’s leave, I cannot eat because I have fallen in love with this woman’. The vizier said, ‘Your son has worked hard for many years to bring you medicine for your eyes, and now you say, “I fell in love with his wife’’?!’ The Shah said, ‘Like it or not, I have to marry this woman’. The vizier said, ‘Alright. Invite everybody for lunch tomorrow. Then put poison in your son’s food. He will die and you can marry her’. The Shah agreed . . . For Mr Hoquqi the bad person was the king. That the obedient servant carried out the order was as it should be, regrettable as the order was; Mr Hoquqi did not punish the vizier.

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In Mr Hoquqi’s opinion a good servant can rise to the position of his master’s trusted adviser through wisdom, skills and loyalty, but can lose this position easily because of his lowly social background and his economic dependency. Mr Hoquqi described the servant’s vulnerable position as a subject of a rich and powerful man by dwelling on the hardships the servant has to endure through the misuse of power of his master and the envy of co-servants. In F39, which Mr Hoquqi built around the rise and fall and rise again of the servant Ayaz, the master, confused by the slander of jealous servants, dismisses him, his most trusted and useful adviser. But even in such injustice Mr Hoquqi found a way to rescue and explain the servant’s unflinching loyalty: he introduced Luck in the form of a sleepy old man, which meant that the servant was luckless in all he did until Luck woke up again. The Sultan’s injustice thus became a matter not of the Sultan’s shortcomings and disloyalty but of fate in the form of the servant’s lack of luck. (See more on luck in Chapter 6.) ‘Ayaz’ (F39: 155, excerpt) [The Sultan has become suspicious of Ayaz, his most valued servant-turned-adviser, because of the intrigues of jealous courtiers.] They went to the mountains [to hunt]. At lunchtime . . . the Sultan became sleepy. He put his head in Ayaz’s lap and slept. While Ayaz was sitting there he saw a dirty, hairy man move among the tents . . . Ayaz said, ‘What are you doing? Who are you? You make the Sultan dusty!’ He said, ‘I am your Fate, I want to sleep’ . . . At this Ayaz stretched out his arm to hit him with his sword. He swung it and the Sultan opened his eyes. He said, ‘Ayaz! Again and again the viziers told me that you want to kill me. Now I believe it . . . I want nothing more to do with you’ . . . But the Sultan liked Ayaz and continued to trust him . . . [Next the courtiers accuse Ayaz of having decapitated the treasurer and stolen the Sultan’s money.] The Sultan said, ‘. . . because you have served me well I did not seriously believe what they told me earlier. But now quickly take

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off and leave my country.’ Ayaz said, ‘Now my Fate is asleep’ . . . He left . . . He went to a store, gave the shopkeeper a gold coin and said, ‘In exchange for this gold give me yoghurt and bread and sugar and tea and a rug. In exchange for change give me money’. The man took the coin and gave him the things, added them up – the total was ten Toman. He gave him the change and Ayaz left . . . The man called him back and said, ‘You gave me a fake gold coin!’ Ayaz looked into his bag and saw that all coins were black, they were fake. . . . [Now Ayaz leaves and bides his time somewhere until, much later, the Sultan sends for him in a difficult situation and Ayaz is vindicated.] Through protagonists like Ayaz, Mr Hoquqi advised patience and humility in the face of a master’s whims and injustices. For him, the final rehabilitation of a servant cemented his moral superiority. In Ayaz’s case the final triumph was worth elaboration to Mr Hoquqi. With tears in his eyes and obviously moved by the scene he painted, he insisted on demonstrating how wrong the conspiratorial servants had been in accusing Ayaz of having decapitated the Sultan’s treasurer. Mr Hoquqi let Ayaz take the repentant Sultan and the others to the locked box containing the alleged treasurer’s head, order the Sultan to unlock it, now for all to see that the head was not a man’s but a goat’s. This demonstration was not at all necessary for the plot or for the solution of Ayaz’s problems – it was the narrator’s way of exonerating a good servant. For Mr Hoquqi the ideal relationship between master and servant was built on a hierarchy and on interdependency, but without according the master eo ipso moral superiority over the servant, or greater value. Each has rights and obligations in the fulfilment of the respective duties (vasife) that go with their status.4 In his first encounter with the Sultan (who was lost in the wilderness) the Sultan told Ayaz who he was, and Ayaz, in a voice both humble and self-assured as supplied by Mr Hoquqi, said, ‘To be a sultan is good, to be a shepherd is good, too’. In word, tone and gesture, Mr Hoquqi thus expressed the difficult balance between authority and power among men of unequal

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social status. For him, the difference was weighty but did not include moral superiority of one over the other or the suggestion that the lower one ought to suspend his own judgement. Indeed, be it a shepherd or a vizier, the dutiful servant easily slips into the position of moral guidance for the master.5 In further accordance with the narrator’s understanding of the proper dealings between servant and master, Ayaz/Hoquqi told the Sultan, who wanted to hire him, to clear his request with the owner of the herd for whom Ayaz was working at the time. Mr Hoquqi here supplied a local herder’s name, strengthening his own identity with Ayaz. He said, in effect, ‘This is how I, Shukrullah, would have behaved’. There is no disloyal servant in Mr Hoquqi’s narratives. Rather, faithful servants like himself support the social hierarchy that provides them with a place and a livelihood. This is a good world. Women The second prominent theme in Mr Hoquqi’s stories is his mistrust of and disregard for women. While misogyny (not just sexism) underlies most narrators’ tales, amounting to a general affective pattern, a consequential schema, Mr Hoquqi emphasizes it. In daily life his low opinion of women was mostly concealed in humour, bitter humour at times, but in the tales he stated his reservations and misgivings boldly. Here, a man who trusts a woman is a fool and will fare badly. Few women are good and trustworthy in his tales. A ‘good’ woman is one who is modest, kind and hard working, submits to the authority of father or husband, keeps quiet, does not protest and seemingly has no mind or will of her own. She is nearly invisible. Where one is visible, she figures only as a source of information and hospitality for the hero (in F41 he is a stranger to her and she is alone, yet she accepts him as a guest) and as the protagonist’s reward for bravery. Sadat, a protagonist in F41, collects three nameless young women in the course of his adventures; he keeps two for himself and marries one in proxy for his brother. Moreover, Mr Hoquqi made fun even of his few good girls. In F41 Sadat wants to postpone his marriage with a princess (who is the prize

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for a heroic feat) because he sees trouble and adventures ahead that do not let him settle down yet. The king, though, trying to persuade him to take his daughter with him nevertheless, counters his argument by saying, ‘And if I never should see you and her again, as long as you take her away right now I couldn’t care less!’ This clearly was Mr Hoquqi speaking, and he laughed and slapped his thigh. He understood the king on the basis of the difficulties a father had in bringing up daughters who turned into headstrong adolescents and in finding them appropriate husbands, difficulties he saw in his own family and in the many families he knew intimately. He found his outspoken king wonderfully funny. In contrast to the colourless ‘good’ women, most ‘bad’ women are consequential for the plot in Mr Hoquqi’s stories, as they are in other narrators’. Two such women (in F41), a conspiratorial Old Woman and the unreliable mother of the two protagonist-boys, cause the boys to flee for their lives after the mother had fallen into the dangerous lovetrap of a greedy, murderous merchant. Mr Hoquqi leaves no doubt that he thinks little of them. ‘Sadat and Seïd’ (F41: 182f., excerpt) [The boys’ father, a brush peddler, found a hen that lays precious eggs, and now the trader who buys the eggs is getting greedy.] An old woman with a hump on her back came to Shamud the Jew’s store and said, ‘Oh Shamud, give me some flour mush to fill my stomach’. He said, ‘I will give you an order. If you do it for me I will fill your stomach with flour mush’. She said, ‘What shall I do?’ He said, ‘Go to the house of the brush peddler and say to his wife, “Shamud the Jew desires a glimpse of you’’ . . . ’ The old woman, bent under her hump, prayer beads in her hand – click, click, click – left with ‘Oh Ali’, and ‘Oh Mowla’, and ‘Oh Ali’. She knocked on the door of Merchant Brushpeddler’s house, knock, knock, knock. The brush peddler’s wife came to the door and said, ‘Oh grandmother, where are you coming from?’ The old woman said, ‘Child, I will be your sacrifice. I am tired

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and hungry and have come to your house to eat some bread’. The woman said, ‘Welcome, rest your feet on my eyes’. She took her in, sat her down, prepared food for her – if only she had prepared poison! – and the old woman ate it; she brewed tea for her – if only she had brewed poison! – and she drank it, and then . . . the old woman said, ‘Oh dear Child!’ The woman said, ‘What is the matter?’ The old woman said, ‘Pity your beauty, pity your skills, that you have to sleep in the arms of the brush peddler’. The woman said, ‘God has made the brush peddler for me and me for the brush peddler’. The old woman said, ‘No, dear – Shamud the Jew’s heart wants to have a glimpse of you’. The woman said, ‘Grandmother, may God punish you! God made the brush peddler for himself and made Shamud for himself. Grandmother, you said he wants to see me? . . . Well, if his heart is longing for this he should come and see me’ . . . Mrs Brushpeddler, typecast as the ‘Faithless Woman’, demonstrates one of the stereotypical local attributes of a woman, namely, her postulated innate moral/rational weakness, which makes it nearly impossible for her to withstand a man’s advances. For this reason women ought to be guarded and be on guard, but this woman is neither. Mr Hoquqi turned this innate (and thus presumably God-willed) weakness into a moral shortcoming. The fact that without this fault there would not have been the story of her sons’ success in the world does not get a comment. However, Mr Hoquqi’s sense of commensurate retribution later let the successful young men look for their parents: ‘Our mother is nothing, but let us see if our father is still alive’, they say. They find them poor, sadly sitting by a dead fire, and the father blind. They take the father under their care and restore his sight and make their mother young again and provide her with money, thus giving her a chance to start a new and better life. Mr Hoquqi is a kindly man, letting the successful young men be generous towards their wayward mother. In the version of the same tale told by another villager, the sons simply abandon the mother at the dead fireplace. The second type of bad woman who is a mover in the tales is the siren. In Mr Hoquqi’s tales beautiful women entice men with their

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looks, send them on dangerous errands and bring misfortune upon them. In their presence men are helpless and hapless. Mr Hoquqi characterizes them as strong-willed women who take matters in their own hands. Indeed, this independence is part of their improper behaviour. ‘Samanbar’, the beautiful young woman who lives without proper supervision in a castle and cleverly cheats scores of enthralled young men out of their money with false promises, is finally overpowered by the protagonist in a competition of wits (F41). As punishment for her misdeeds and for the young men’s foolishness in falling for her, the protagonist turns all into donkeys and sets her loose with the herd. The donkey, ancient symbol of sexuality that it is, puts the story and the misdeeds of the woman squarely into a sexual context. Indeed, after the righteous and generous hero in the end had turned the donkeys back into people, Samanbar tries to win him back but he rejects her. ‘What would I want with you now that all these asses had you?’ he says. Mr Hoquqi was delighted with this episode. Mr Hoquqi’s scorn extends from beguiling women to the men who fall for them. This sentiment shows a general principle in his culture (and in wider Iran). People consider beautiful, sexually attractive young women (and, less so, men) potentially a danger to their community because they incite passions that may disrupt the local peace, even if the beautiful person does not intend to be seductive.6 People say that men are helpless in the face of such women, and therefore it is up to women to guard against the disruptive effects of their powers. In Iran many stories and anecdotes circulate of lovesick men who leave their families, threaten suicide and make a nuisance of themselves trying to get close to their beloved or mourning over an unattainable woman. Mr Hoquqi called such men crazy fools. At one storytelling occasion he made a point of supplying the name of his own daughter-in-law for the beautician in the tale. This young woman attended to the make-up of brides in the village and, in his view, demonstrated with every made-up bride that young men fell for ‘charcoal in the eyes and paint on the face’, as he said. This, too, made him laugh. In F40 he demonstrated this belief when he let the prince order his fairy-wife, with whom his own father had fallen in love with so badly that he tried to kill the prince three times to get her, to make

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up the king’s wife (the prince’s mother) in a way that made her more attractive than the fairy. The fairy does so, and the king, invited to choose a wife from among the fairies lined up for him, picks his own wife without recognizing her – a woman with a grown son, and all artifice. Mr Hoquqi found the line-up and the manipulation of the king clever and funny. He took the silent cooperation of the fairies for granted. The only beautiful and yet powerful women Mr Hoquqi can agree to are fairies. (Yet, even the fairy in F41 is fickle and deadly dangerous for all men except the one she had chosen.) The ‘good’ fairies are good because they are genuinely beautiful, they have useful superb skills and they obey their human husband’s commands without protest, as if they were servants. As for Mr Hoquqi, there are no such fairies among mortal women. The third type of ‘bad’ woman, the ‘Old Woman’, is ambiguous. In Mr Hoquqi’s tales old women use their increased freedom of movement and speech, gained with diminishing sexual and reproductive powers, to mediate and help those who will pay or those they like, but they also use the social freedom for intrigues motivated by their economic needs. The toothless hungry old hunchback above who lures a foolish wife into a disastrous adultery is an example of this type (F41). Mr Hoquqi does not elaborate on what happens to old women, though. He simply lets them disappear from the tales. In contrast to other narrators, who punish ‘bad’ women severely, Mr Hoquqi does not advocate capital punishment and cruelty in his tales. When I asked him about punishment of ‘bad’ old women who harm others, he mimicked their ugliness, hunched backs and aches and pains, and said that these were punishment enough for any misdeeds. Poverty Aside from servants and women Mr Hoquqi commented on poverty in the tales. Rather than stating somebody’s poverty with a phrase like ‘They were very poor’, as other narrators did, he described the faces of poverty vividly and in detail. The ultimate picture of misery and poverty is painted with the laconic sentence, ‘The (two old people) were

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sitting around a dead fire, crying’ (F41, see text above). The servanthero in F40 eats a goat-head, a traditional cheap food of poor people, often cooked in Mr Hoquqi’s own house. The poor widow in F38 begs the head of an ibex goat from the hunters who had shot it. In Mr Hoquqi’s book of propriety the hunters could not refuse this reasonable request from an obviously poor widow with children. The brush collector in F41 lives on the bare dirt floor and earns just enough to buy a little bread but has ‘no money for meat, no money for rice, no money to even buy some kerosene for the lamp’, Mr Hoquqi said. The poor man, his wife and his two sons go hungry. As the brush peddler gradually gets wealthier, Mr Hoquqi makes him buy a rug to sit and sleep on, rice and butterfat, tea and sugar, and kerosene for light. This, Mr Hoquqi tells us, is about all a body can ask for to live comfortably. Finally, as a wealthy man, the brush peddler eats scrambled eggs along with bread for lunch and rice, meat and chicken for dinner. In the narrator’s world few people enjoyed such an opulent life. By then the brush collector no longer ‘works’ but has risen to the status of a merchant, comfortably sitting in his shop. With this description the narrator again commented on the low value of hard work, emphasized by the brush peddler’s wife when the magic hen had made them rich: ‘Now she said to her husband, “Don’t go for brush anymore; your back hurts, you don’t need to work”. He sat down in his store and started to be a storekeeper, and the people called him “Merchant Brushpeddler” (F41: 182). This statement rests on the assumption that rich men do not work with their hands; or, conversely, that in order to turn wealth into higher social status one has to avoid physical labour. Mr Hoquqi never failed to mention the importance of tips and gifts as a source of income for servants, and as a sign of proper generosity of rich people. The blind prince (F40) gives his bath attendant the then unimaginably rich tip of ‘100 Toman’ (about $12 at the time, a fifth of a teacher’s monthly salary) for heating the water and washing him. In this scene, the bath attendant is Mr Hoquqi, switching to first-person narrative. The protagonist in the same tale generously rewards a poor old woman for arranging for him to meet the king. Quite generally, Mr Hoquqi keeps track of finances in his tales and

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of proprieties in handling economic obligations. Ayaz the servant hero (F39) rents a house while in exile rather than inflicting himself as a guest on somebody. For the narrator this propriety is worth mentioning as it characterizes Ayaz as an upright, proud and honourable man even when he is a pauper at a low point in his life. The rich merchant in F41 who invites himself to dinner at his intended lover’s house and orders her to cook a chicken, by this request alone identifies himself as dishonourable. Observing propriety, one does not invite oneself unless one is of very high status, and one does not dictate to a host what to serve. The merchant is presumptuous. Yet Mr Hoquqi could not let him be a miser: he made him assure the poor woman that he would pay for the food. Later in the same story Seïd gives his poor hostess money to buy the food necessary to host him. ‘Sadat and Seïd’ (F41: 193, excerpt) [Seïd, rich and hungry, has just walked into a strange town.] He saw a girl at a house and said, ‘Oh Sister, don’t you want a guest?’ She said, ‘By God, welcome. But I am ashamed because I have nothing. I only have a cow. I will milk the cow tonight and make some rice-and-milk to eat’. He said, ‘Listen: take this gold coin and buy bread and a rug and sugar and tea and shortening and rice, and put dinner into the fireplace for us to eat’. She said, ‘All right’. She went and bought bread and sugar and tea and a rug – all the things necessary for living – and cooked dinner for him, and he ate. Narrating such passages, Mr Hoquqi showed clearly in body language and facial expressions that these details were important to characterize circumstances as well as the actors’ good characters: hostess as well as narrator appreciated this generosity. For Mr Hoquqi, poverty meant not only the suffering of scarcity but also dependency on the whims and mercy of others, the generosity of the rich and mighty, and on good luck. Because of this dependency, poor people are vulnerable, he said. Always close to abuse, they must be thankful if they are able to eke out a living in peace. Mr Hoquqi,

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however, did not despair. Through his heroes he advocated skills and an honourable vocation as a source of pride, even if the income from that vocation was too small for any comfort. Like Mr Hoquqi himself, every one of his paupers has a respectable, valuable vocation, be it a thistle collector, a shepherd or farmhand or maid. The poor servants in the stories bear their lot with dignity and the self-assurance of just and indispensable men, no matter how great their particular predicament might be at the moment, and are rewarded in the end. The only paupers whose skills – meddling in other people’s affairs – lack dignity are old women. They sell their service regardless of its merits any time for a coin or a bowl of flour mush. Beyond showing Mr Hoquqi’s disregard for women in general, this detail speaks to the especially precarious situation of those old women who, for whatever reason, have to manage on their own.

Mrs Nushaferin Boir Ahmedi In most respects ‘Lady Nushi’ (Bi(bi) Nushi) was the opposite of Mr Hoquqi. He was an elderly man while she was a young woman. His social status was low while she, on her mother’s side, was a granddaughter of the tribal chief (kadkhoda¯) of the village, and on her father’s side tied into the paramount tribal khan’s family – hence the ‘Bibi’ title. Mr Hoquqi had no relatives in the area other than his children and grandchildren, while she had a large, prominent family behind her and was appropriately married to a paternal cousin. He was illiterate while she was one of the first women teachers in the tribal area. He was poor while she had a salary and was a trendsetter for local young women, with her fancy tribal clothes and jewellery. He was a servant while she employed servants. He was known – and liked – for his bawdy jokes while she projected a quiet, dignified persona in public. This public image stood in contrast to her private persona though. Quick-witted and articulate, she was nobody’s fool and spoke her mind forcefully. A teacher at the age of 17, she went on to become a legendary principal of the girls’ high school. Her private interests were intellectual. She debated history and politics with her uncle, a wellread school inspector, and discussed theology with the village mulla,

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an in-law she could talk to without raising eyebrows in the village. She read books and newspapers, listened to the radio and was tuned in to local and national politics. Like many other teachers in Boir Ahmad she was interested in folklore, as a teen already writing down local songs and tales. Although she and her husband had married by mutual consent (rather than by parental arrangement), her home life was, at times, stormy. Her husband, a teacher like herself, wanted a housekeeper and amiable servant for himself and the children rather than the dedicated professional educator that she was. She, in turn, resented his disregard for her counsel on important matters and accused him of being a spendthrift. She insisted on managing her own salary rather than handing it over to her husband, who, by law and tradition, was the official provider for the family. For help with the house and six children she had to rely on servants. The shortcomings resulting from the various housekeeping arrangements were the subject of reproaches from her husband. For a few years the couple were divorced but they eventually reunited. After her husband died in an accident, she could have left her children with their dead father’s relatives and got married again, but she decided to bring the children up herself. This, by local custom, precluded a second marriage. Her salaried job made it possible for her to withstand pressure to remarry. Her salary and her ambitions also allowed her to build a house, get a college degree, start a women’s cooperative and participate in local politics. For all her public activities and outspokenness she was deeply religious, trying to adapt to the respective social conventions of the day without compromising her identity as a devout Shi‘i Muslim. For example, while still in her teens she remarked on the lowly position of women in her society and attributed it to people’s failure to follow the teachings of true Islam, a religion that in her opinion accords women many rights and privileges. Thus, she emerged as a critic of the treatment of women in her own culture not from a feminist stance in the Western sense but from a woman-centred point of view from within Islam. This facet of her ethics is important for the appreciation of her tales. Mrs Boir Ahmedi knew dozens of tales even when she was a young woman but she was not much of a storyteller. Rather, she loved to listen to

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others tell tales as entertainment, especially tales with humorous episodes, but also as pieces of folklore that, she said, would vanish soon unless literate local people like herself would collect them. She was the initial driving force in the collection I put together, and my tireless teacher. Her own small repertoire varied from short, explanatory tales such as ‘How the Lizard was Made’ (F31) to the long, involved stories Mr Hoquqi liked. Most of her own tales, as well as those she urged other storytellers to tell me, share one quality, though: either in plot or details they elaborate on the theme of women. Even where, in one (unpublished) story where a woman sends her husband on a simple errand that, however, turns into a string of misadventures for him, Mrs Boir Ahmedi manages to give the wife the last word: ‘Why are you so late?’ she asks her exhausted husband. Women Like Mr Hoquqi and most other storytellers, Mrs Boir Ahmedi operated with the traditional stereotype of the ‘good’ versus the ‘bad’ woman. Her condemnation of a bad woman, that is, one who is unfaithful, treacherous, wasteful or disobedient, was as heartfelt as Mr Hoquqi’s. In her tales, such women are variously turned into a turtle (for vanity), divorced by the husband (for mistreating his daughter), dismembered (for killing her husband) and lynched (for abandoning and impersonating the prince’s bride). Good girls, however, do not fare any better. They are married off in barter arrangements without being asked; they are driven to despair by stepmothers and evil aunts; they are eaten by a lion, assaulted by a slave, fed to dragons; one commits suicide to escape an unbearable situation at home. Noah’s daughter is replicated (from a donkey and a dog) so that Noah can keep a false promise to three men who helped him build the ark (F29). This story also satisfactorily explained for Mrs Boir Ahmedi why there were so many dumb, lusty and ill-tempered women in the world: two-thirds of all women descend from a donkey and a dog! Like Mr Hoquqi, she treated the nameless ‘good’ girls as if they were things. In three tales (F30, F32, F34) women’s work is essential to the story. In F30, while baking bread a vain mother misuses a piece of flatbread

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to clean her soiled baby in order to spare the silk scarf God had sent her for this purpose. For this vanity and disobedience God turns her into a turtle with the characteristics of her work tools: the concave iron griddle becomes the back, the flat bread board becomes the shell, the thin dough roller becomes the tail and the flat iron spit used to turn the flatbreads on the griddle becomes the head and neck. Another tale (F32) focuses on housework. ‘The Moon and the Sun’ (F32) The Moon and the Sun – so people say – were two sisters. Their mother said to the Moon, ‘You sweep the floor,’ and to the Sun she said, ‘You make dough for bread.’ But while the Sun was kneading dough and the Moon was sweeping the floor with her straw broom they started to fight – I don’t know what about. Their hearts filled with anger, and in the end the Moon put the broom in the Sun’s face, and the Sun slapped the Moon’s face with her dough-covered hand. Now people say that the spots in the face of the moon are from the dough, and the sun is fuzzy all around from the straw broom. The sad young protagonist in another tale (F34) has to watch milk boil, a daily, time-consuming and demanding job for the women of herders, and kills herself when the stepmother unjustly accuses her of wasting it. The only good woman in Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s tales who does not end pitifully and still is regarded highly by everybody is the fairy who, however, is not spared the frustration of seeing her stubborn human husband disregard her advice and promptly get into trouble. In F26, Mrs Boir Ahmedi identified with the fairy: after the fairy saved her human husband at the last moment from being devoured by his wolfsister, she exclaims, ‘Haven’t I told you not to . . .!’ These words were the narrator’s own frequent words to her husband, and to this day express the collective exasperation of countless women whose husbands behave as the strong man who won’t listen to his wife. In the story of the braggart Hasan, Mrs Boir Ahmedi has fun with the absurdity of a woman’s situation.

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‘Hasan the Lion Killer’ (F27, condensed) Once a poor young cowherd killed two lizards with a rock and bragged that he had killed two lions. He now wore a cap that said, ‘Hasan the Lion-Killer killed two Lions’, and left home. He came to the Shah’s garden and fell asleep there. The Shah’s daughter saw him, took him for a famous hunter, fell in love with him and told her brothers that she wanted to marry him. The brothers didn’t trust him. They sent for him, brought him three trays of rice and mutton, locked the door to make sure he would eat alone, and watched him through a window. Hasan, who had never seen rice or meat, was eating with both hands. He ate a lot and then more, and the brothers thought surely he must be a lion killer-hero to be able to eat that much. They agreed to the marriage. But the vizier knew that this was not the real lion killer, and was angry. One day a tumult arose – a dragon had come to eat people. The Shah was worried but the vizier said, ‘Send your Lion Killer to fight the dragon’. The Shah told his daughter, and she told Hasan to get ready to fight the dragon. Hasan said, ‘The dragon! I am to kill the dragon?! I can’t kill a dragon!’ She said, ‘Aren’t you a lion killer? . . . Tell me how you killed them’. He said, ‘They were just the size of my hand . . .’ Now she understood everything and was very unhappy, but she did not have the courage to let anybody know . . . In the middle of the night she dressed in men’s clothes, took a sword, mounted a horse and left to fight the dragon. She walked into the dragon’s cave, said, ‘Oh Amir al-Momenin’, swung the sword and cut the dragon in half. She cut off the head and took it home. When Hasan saw the dragon’s head he screamed and ululated like a frightened woman, and the maids and servants came running . . . The Shah’s daughter said, ‘Don’t worry, my husband killed the dragon and brought the head here, and I was so afraid that I screamed’ . . . She told Hasan to take the dragon’s head to her father, and the Shah and the people were very happy. The vizier did not believe him, though.

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A few years later a foreign shah threatened the Shah and his people and challenged him to a fight. The Shah was worried but his vizier again said, ‘Send your son-in-law, the hero’. The Shah’s daughter told her husband to fight. When the servants came with his horse he was so afraid of it that he could not mount it. They thought the horse was not good enough and brought another one but he refused again. So they took him to the stable and he selected a tiny, tiny one and had the servants tie him onto it. The little horse was an unbroken colt. It threw up its legs and ran. Hasan screamed with fear, but the soldiers understood him to shout, ‘Get going!’ and came after him as fast as they could. They passed some trees and Hasan grabbed one so as to stop his horse. It was his good luck that the tree was big and dry – he pulled it up with its roots. When the enemies saw him pull up a whole tree they fled. ‘If he can do this to a tree, what will he do to us?’ they said and were gone. The colt finally threw Hasan, and his soldiers picked him up and took him home. The people made a big feast for him: he had killed two lions and a dragon and had defeated the enemy, and they sat him on the throne. Although capable of heroic deeds, the princess must perform them secretly at night because in public she has to appear weak and meek and dependent on her husband for all worldly matters. The end is glorious: she fools the whole court into believing her husband a hero, and now will run the show for him when he is the Shah. Neither the princess nor Mrs Boir Ahmedi saw any other possible happy end, but given the princess’s demonstrated capabilities and her husband’s dependency on her for keeping up his appearance, one need not fear for her, the narrator suggested. Even a fairy can be openly clever and courageous only in disguise. In men’s clothes the fairy-wife in F26 owns and drives a large caravan and frees her enslaved husband who got himself into this situation because he had not listened to her. He does not even recognize her in her trader’s outfit, but humbly accepts a tip from her when he helps her dismount her camel. (This prompted snickers in the audience: for

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one thing, because the tip went down from a trader-fairy in disguise to her husband, but also because it emphasized a role reversal between a husband and a wife, as the listeners explained when I asked what was funny.) The fairy frees him by outwitting his master, a fraudulent innkeeper who robbed his guests by putting wagers on a cat he had trained to keep a lamp in its jaws all night. The fairy opens a bag full of mice in front of the cat, and the cat drops the lamp and goes after the mice. (At this point narrator and audience were overcome by mirth every time I heard her tell the story.) Now the fairy-wife turns the table on the innkeeper by literally stripping him (more guffaws and giggles), and then takes her humiliated husband home, only to see him get into trouble again and needing her help twice more. Yet she remains most loyal to him and never loses patience. Only fairies can be that even-tempered and patient, Mrs Boir Ahmedi often said. In Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s tales the active women mostly have to conceal their emotions, abilities and accomplishments if they want to avoid disapproval. To some extent this is the story of the narrator’s own life. But, in contrast to her heroines, she could deal with such disapproval, she told me, because she had an honourable vocation suited for women and an income that made it possible for her to do things other women could not do. Financial independence and high social status did not prevent dilemmas for her or for women within the stories, but they enabled her and them to cope. Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s heroines are married. (Unmarried young women are just generic ‘girls’.) The relationships with the women’s husbands are eventful and get many comments. The narrator finds all husbands to be inferior to their wives’ abilities and stamina, and all reverse the traditional dependency-pattern by becoming dependent on their wives for counsel, success and even for their life. Thus, in her favourite stories the narrator brought the development of women’s emancipation to the very limit set by her culture at the time by showing that women could excel in wisdom and abilities and still be labelled ‘good’ like her fairies. In the process she also answered critics in her community who disapproved of independent women like herself and of young women who had aspirations that did not fit traditional gender expectations.

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Poverty Mrs Boir Ahmedi emphasized the fate of women in the tales, but how she dealt with poverty and servants is of interest too when compared to Mr Hoquqi’s treatment of these themes. She rarely mentioned poverty and never elaborated on it. Unlike Mr Hoquqi she did not describe the inside of houses, or food. Indirectly, hunger as a feature of local life and an indicator of tribal poverty appears in a humorous scene (in F27, see above) where the headstrong princess’s brothers, suspicious of the ‘Lion-Killer’, test him by serving him a huge tray of rice and meat, the food of rich people. Mrs Boir Ahmedi commented that the fake hero had never seen rich food before and fell on the tray with the insatiable appetite of a hungry tribesman. This voracity convinced the heroine’s brothers that he was indeed a lion-killer. The self-deprecatory joke played on the perpetual hunger of underfed poor tribal people at the time but was not gratuitous: the motif was so close to people’s experiences as to be integral to the plot of the story. Similarly integral was the comment on poverty implied in the sad story of the girl who kills herself over a pot of milk (F34; see Chapter 3). Mrs Boir Ahmedi did not make explicit statements about how it felt to be poor, although she had to live through hard times and knew privation. Obviously she did not let economic problems define her or compromise her high social status. Likewise, money as such was not important in her tales. She took the necessities of life and money for granted even when they were not always readily available to her or her protagonists. Servants Ethnographically speaking, servants were rare in the village when we first arrived there in the 1960s. The few people in service were outsiders like Mr Hoquqi, poor men and women who had no family to back them up and provide for them. In Sisakht nobody wanted to be a servant, and Mrs Boir Ahmedi had to make do with often quite unsatisfactory arrangements for minimal housekeeping chores to allow her to teach. However, before her marriage she had been surrounded by servants and retainers at the court of the tribal chief, had relied on

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services from others since she was a child and was comfortable with giving orders. Servants belonged to her world. Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s few servants in her tales are viewed from above, through the eyes of a master. They are minor, quiet actors, appearing only when needed. For example, a family of musicians hides the three ‘beautiful girls’ the protagonist won in a horse-jumping contest (F26). In the narrator’s aristocratic social circle a family of musicians was attached to a tribal chief’s court for generations, providing entertainment, festive background to weddings and loyalty. In this story they are simply a convenience without further elaboration. Even the husband of the loyal fairy in F26, reduced to a servant as he is, after helping with the camels and loads and receiving a tip from her, disappears for the rest of this episode. As a servant he is good only for a laugh in the story and to express the narrator’s Schadenfreude. Through her stories Mrs Boir Ahmedi conveys the opinion that a servant is useful yet may also be a nuisance, potentially even dangerous. It is difficult for a master to hide secrets from servants.7 The princess who has to fight her inept husband’s fights in secret (F27) has to do some fast thinking when the servants come running at her cowardly husband’s screams at the sight of the dragon’s head. Servants’ loyalty, or lack of it, is an issue too. Twice a male ‘black slave’ appears in Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s tales as a sexual molester of his master’s daughter (in F28 and in an unpublished story). One notable servant-detail deserves attention. In the tale of the courageous princess (F27) the narrator lets the king’s astute political adviser warn everybody that the ‘lion-killer’ is an impostor. When his master ignores him, he suggests the heroic quests that ought to show the pretender’s true mettle, but the smart princess outwits him. This episode, too, has a projective aspect, relating it to Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s late father who was a political adviser to a Boir Ahmad khan. Frequently I heard family members tell of instances where his good counsel was ignored to the detriment of the khan. Here, as also in Mr Hoquqi’s tales, the category ‘servant’ is broad and hierarchical, ranging from lowly maids to a king’s adviser. Seen from the top of the social hierarchy, everybody who serves a ‘master’ is a kind of servant. This attitude makes it easy for the master of the house to give orders

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to wife and children as if they were servants – they do, indeed, owe obedience and loyalty to their master/husband/father.

Summary The analysis of the favourite tales of two notable narrators in Sisakht rests on the assumption that in their tales storytellers make statements about important points in their existence, expose problems, ventilate feelings and articulate judgements on features in their lives and in their culture. These biographic injections transcend the basic, motif-based text and provide an authentic insider’s point of view on topics that are relevant to narrator and audience. Thus, in his stories, Mr Hoquqi, a lifelong servant, provides an unrehearsed account of what it means to be a servant in this culture, and to be poor. His low opinion of women is rooted in his own domestic experiences that support his culture’s androcentric stereotype of women as weak, incapable of great thoughts and deeds, and in danger as well as dangerous because of their innate qualities. In contrast, Mrs Boir Ahmedi, well educated, independent and of high social status, knows this stereotype and applies it where she sees fit but also works with a woman-image that accords women various positive characteristics and abilities. She uses her own experiences and her culture’s choices creatively in the tales she tells. Coming from a socially prominent family with strong women on her mother’s side, she clearly projects this strength and the ensuing power struggles with men into her tales. Through her female protagonists she provides an unselfconscious account of what it means to be a capable, educated, ambitious and outspoken woman in her culture. This account is based on assumptions that are different from Mr Hoquqi’s but likewise were available in the same culture at the same time. Similarly diverse are the two narrators’ respective narrative treatments of servants and of poverty, reflecting their own experiences within the parameters of choices in their shared culture. Small-scale and local as this culture is, with its presumably homogeneous social memory of a simple, ordered pastoral/farming lifestyle, it nevertheless provides various models for how the society and one’s position in it can be seen and lived. The tales thus become mirrors of

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existential circumstances of the narrators as well as of people’s options for handling them. Although some covert messages in the two narrators’ tales are quite dissimilar, their delivery is similar: both narrators use humour in many forms to criticize, to get their messages and opinions across and to deal with conflicts in the tales. So many narrators in Boir Ahmad share this feature that it amounts to a local wisdom: life is difficult and dangerous but it is also funny.

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CHAPTER 2 FA MILY AS DR A M A: SIBLINGS

Most tales in the five collections start within a family. This is no surprise given the family-centred society of Iran and of the tales. Surprising, though, is the amount of intra-family conflict described in the stories and their matter-of-fact presentation. Both suggest that narrators and audiences are well versed in their culture’s various conflict-schemas involving kith and kin. Such conflicts contradict the ideology of family closeness and harmony, of families being bulwarks against an always difficult and often hostile world that people in Iran muster when praising their own society in comparison with the allegedly corrupt Western one with disjointed, distant and ‘cold’ families. Despite severe intra-family conflicts described in Persian fiction and in autobiographies from Iran, these conflicts get little attention from social scientists. Of all possible intra-family relations, those among siblings customarily get the least critical attention in the social sciences, and not much in folklore-analyses either.1 For this reason I will focus on them here – elsewhere in the book relational issues surrounding mothers, fathers and children appear in other contexts. Until recently, for married couples children were a matter of course; what required explanation was their absence, not their presence. This is an obvious assumption in the tales. Furthermore, people said that they preferred sons on grounds of the patrilineal family structure (which was taken for granted). Therefore one hoped for sons – daughters were

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born in between male children anyway; one did not need to hope for them, people said. Yet, at the same time, people, especially mothers, declared (and still declare) daughters to be sweeter and nicer to have around than sons, that mothers without daughters had a hard and lonely life, and that all children needed at least one sibling of the same and one of the other sex to be socially secure.2 Yet, ‘too many’ children were considered a burden, especially so if they were daughters, and too many siblings made jealousy and strife among them likely: too many brothers were likely to quarrel over inheritance, and too many sisters cooped up in a small house were likely to bicker and be unkind to each other. These assumptions and themes provide drama in the tales.

Brothers and Sisters In the story of the Wolf-Aunt (L17)3 a man dies because he accepts an impostor, a ghoul, as his sister, who kills him. In other words he does not recognize his own sister. The theme of recognition of relatives, even close relatives – or lack of it – appears frequently in tales and occasionally also in everyday life. For example, people may joke about a bride’s face covered with such heavy make-up that not even her mother can recognize her, let alone her groom, or about a groom who cannot be sure that the bride in his bed is the one he had chosen rather than maybe her elder sister or a servant. (Such stories circulate as anecdotes as well as in tales.) Traditionally, the lack of intimacy dictated by propriety between young people of the opposite sex, between fiancé and betrothed, even between husband and wife, made misunderstandings based on recognition believable.4 In Gh19 the treacherous impostor of the prince’s beautiful wife only had to let down her hair to fool the prince; in F17 she fooled the prince by pretending that she had henna-paste on her hair to explain why she did not let down her braids (her mangy bald spots would have given her away). A contemporary joke that illustrates this state of affairs places family A and family B, strangers to each other, at an overnight picnic next to each other in a crowded public meadow in the summer. In the morning husband A and wife B tell their respective spouses to look for a bath for the obligatory post-coital ablutions. ‘Why?’ say wife

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A and husband B. In 2002 I heard this also told as a ‘real story’, which attests to the relevance of the recognition problem. In the case of an elder sister and a much younger brother, such non-recognition may have a practical basis. The elder sister likely had moved elsewhere upon marriage while the brother was a toddler or not yet born. If the family was poor or the sister living far away, brother and sister might have seen each other rarely, if at all. Under such social circumstances the motif of a ‘bad’ woman successfully posing as a man’s sister is believable, especially so when she offers assistance as an incentive for the recognition: why would a strange woman have tender feelings for a destitute stranger and his family? Only a sister would have such a kind heart. Four sisters (and one young wife) in the tales turn into cannibalistic creatures. This is another matter though, and warrants some discussion. Only in the one tale mentioned above is an ‘old’ sister a wolf – in the others she is young (L43; F16, F26; A/Th14; also L14). The motif of the voracious young sister indicates a fear of the potential power sisters may exert over brothers. In societies where these tales are popular, sisters learn early on that they are inferior to brothers by virtue of their gender, by law and custom, and that therefore they ought to obey them. This allows brothers to dominate them, to wield authority that they cannot wield as easily over brothers or peers – a male cousin or brother would fight and resist, unlike a sister, who would only scold and cry. In A/Th6 and A/Th11 this authority is proprietary when brothers give away their sisters in marriage as if they were a piece of property: in A/Th6 a brother gives his blind sister together with his dog and his donkey to three strangers who happen to walk by. A farmer tells a stranger who just asked him for a job, ‘Come with me, . . . I have a sister I will give you . . .’ (A/Th11: 58). Some local people indeed argue that such authority encourages sisters’ resistance, and that brothers perceive this resistance as a challenge. But generally brothers say they like their sisters and sisters that they like their brothers. In F26: 103 three brothers defy their dying father’s order to kill their newborn sister, saying, ‘. . . this is our only sister. We don’t have the heart to kill her’. Especially as little girls, sisters also are said to be sweet and cuddly and, later, to be devoted allies and

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helpful to brothers in many small ways. In F10/Gh16 (see text below) a sister keeps house for her brothers; in L14 she helps her murdered brother to make his story known by providing the death-rituals for him; and twice in the tales after her death a demonic sister helps the brother she had wanted to eat earlier by solving a riddle for him (A/ Th14, F16). Brothers also ought to protect and take care of sisters and deal with them gently. The contradicting demands on brothers – dominance and gentle care – foster a feeling of ambiguity. This can be observed ethnographically in many small interactions among brothers and sisters throughout the day. In contrast, among themselves competitive brothers and male cousins can deal with each other in disputes and fights without the interference of tender feelings. Whether or not these explanations are acceptable to sociologists and psychologists is not the issue – local people give them when discussing intra-family relationships. They rest on gender attributes that are taken as given. In terms of social structure, patrilineal descent lets a woman’s brothers’ children be closer to the woman than her own children because they belong to her and her brothers’ father’s group. Indeed, a¯me, father’s sister, like ‘father’, is a term of authority and respect in contrast to kha¯le, mother’s sister, which, like ‘mother’, connotes indulgence, kindness and support. In F41 the two boys fleeing their (bad) mother stop at their mother’s sister’s house for provisions. In F15 the arrogant and unkind behaviour of a rich woman toward her poor sister and the rich woman’s daughter toward her poor maternal aunt are understood by the narrator and the audience as such a humiliating rejection that the narrator can let the poor woman easily persuade the husband to move away. ‘Auntie Bug’ is called kha¯le, underlining her endearing qualities. In A/Th16 even a (donor) demon becomes an ‘Auntie’ (ha¯la), making the protagonist-‘nephew’ rich. Growing up and living in the same house with brothers, a sister easily can interfere in a brother’s affairs, especially an elder sister. This may cause friction amongst the sister, the brother and his wife, and contribute to brother/sister tensions. In one of their rare explanatory footnotes, the Lorimers put this structural position thus: ‘In Iran, women as a general rule dislike the sisters of their husbands, though

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these are usually very fond of their brother’s children.’5 In the tales a group of brothers like a newborn, only sister so much that they even disobey a father’s order to kill the infant. They deny the sister’s destructive tendencies even when she is eating them one by one (F26; also L14). In F26 the only being who can destroy her is her brother’s wife, a fairy. Here, a rivalry between a man’s wife and his sister is played out to the end, with the sister the loser. Besides the potential sexual overtones, power is an issue here. Rivalry between sisters-in-law is a theme of everyday life in households where a young man’s new wife tries to establish herself while the man’s as-yet-unmarried sisters (with their mother) try to protect their turf in their father’s house. As son, husband and brother the man is in an emotionally and politically difficult position with conflicting expectations by the women in the house. Eventually, however, the sisters will marry out, the mother will get old and then his wife will rule the roost unchallenged until one of her sons brings home a bride. There are many occasions for conflict built into the changing circumstances of a brother/sister relationship within the lifecycle of a family quite separate from personality dynamics. Local people sometimes suggest that inheritance disputes may account for the motif of the dangerous sister. With this suggestion they take the brother’s point of view, which positions sisters as competitors, but I cannot see its relevance in the tales. For one, there is only one dispute over inheritance in the tales and this is among three brothers (F41), and for another, according to various tribal legal traditions daughters do not inherit at all. Instead they get a dowry, traditionally paid for by the groom through the brideprice rather than by the girl’s father. Again it is brothers, not sisters, competing for limited resources: each brother needs to pay a brideprice in order to get married. In contrast to tribal custom, Qur’anic law accords a woman half of the inheritance share of a brother, but in tribal Lur areas this law has only recently begun to be honoured, and is not yet universally utilized by women. Thus it is unlikely that the motif of the cannibalistic sister relates to men’s potential misgivings about inheritance. It is just as far fetched to assume blaming-the-victim feelings of a brother who thinks his sister nurses a grudge for not inheriting. The tribal

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inheritance system was accepted by everybody, including women, as sensible and rooted in a husband’s full responsibility for the upkeep of his wife and children. People argued that sisters were taken care of by their husbands, who used their own father’s inheritance for this purpose, while brothers needed their father’s inheritance to take care of their own wives. More likely brothers may feel a threat from the sisters’ potential sexual powers. Little is known about incest in Iran beyond hushed anecdotes and innuendoes, but several small incidents in the tales suggest potential sexual confusions within the family. I will list them here within ethnographic parameters. • The narrators try to draw a clear line between brothers and sisters regarding the incest taboo and mutual attraction. Thus, in A/ Th10 the protagonist, who had not yet made a complete success of himself but finds himself married, at night puts the ‘brothersister knife’ between himself and the girl, firmly delineating no-sex personal space in a crowded place. But the tales do not always succeed in keeping the boundary clear. In F16 a young man stumbles onto seven blind sisters living by themselves in the woods. He gives them sight and ends up living with them and taking care of them as their ‘brother’. At this point, the narrator pulled a face I could not quite read, but clearly an unpleasant thought had crossed her mind about this unlikely arrangement. In L41 a man who got permission from his fairy-wife to live with his human wife continues to visit the fairy as her ‘brother’. The narrator of L45 introduces Mouse’s love-wife with ‘Sister Nazi’. • Confusingly, the traditional term for father-brother’s son used to be the same as the one for brother (ka¯ka¯ in northern Boir Ahmad), and this cousin-ka¯ka¯ was the preferred husband. A line in a love song from Boir Ahmad goes, ‘ka¯ka¯, when will you let me call you ya¯r (lover)?’ A ka¯ka¯ se in the tales is a black slave, always with the connotation of sexual aggression. • The strongest argument against alcohol I heard in Iran was – and still is today in popular discourses – that a man who is drunk might not recognize his own sister and have sex with her.6 ‘Recognition’

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here means both the inability to recognize the woman as one’s sister and also the loss of sexual inhibition that goes with drunkenness: a drunken man will not be able to control his sexual impulse toward his sister. When an unrelated man and woman of about the same age had to interact, they could put the event on a neutral plane by addressing each other as ‘brother’ and ‘sister’, but in circumstances other than official ones, such as in public speeches, I observed hesitation and embarrassment in such cases. ‘Brother, let me go’, says a fairy to her human abductor, but he marries her anyway (A/Th11; see Appendix 1). In Gh16 (see text below) the secretive sister is just painting her sleeping brothers’ hands and feet with henna when one brother grabs her hand and reveals her identity. Adornment with henna is part of a couple’s traditional beauty preparation for a wedding.7 Occasionally a paste made of henna and water also was used to sooth cracked or injured skin, but there is no indication for this medicinal meaning in the tale; the scene remains ambiguous. A further sexual connotation of henna emerges when a div is looking for his escaped human wife. He wants to identify her by her gold tooth and offers henna to any woman who would smile at him (A/Th13). Smiling at an unrelated member of the opposite sex is a sexual come-on by local standards of propriety. In the Lama’e story of Donkey-Head (see text in Chapter 3) the protagonist passes his wife off as his sister to his div-‘mother’.8 Similarly, the protagonist in A10 says to the king who won’t let him marry his daughter, ‘Let her come as my sister’. In Lama’e’s version of the story of the plucky girl Mahteti the div’s mother argues about Mahteti and her sisters with the div who wants to eat them. ‘They are your sisters, don’t eat them’, she says, but that night he tries to ‘eat’ Mahteti anyway.9 And finally, in A/Th1 the protagonist arrives in a town of women. He learns that the son of the fairy king would give his sister only to a man who defeated him in a fight, on the pain of death. So many men had lost their heads competing for the fairy princess

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that only women were left in town. The protagonist defeats the king’s son and the prince gives him the sister. The prince might be determined to find his sister an exceptionally strong and worthy husband, but as the fight could cost him his own life it looks more like a serious battle between two rivals over a woman. Although not one of these examples by itself is proof of incestuous tendencies, together they suggest that the tales express sexual stress in the brother/sister relationship. Another fear brothers have in the tales and express in ethnographic settings is of a sister’s potential sexual misconduct that will reflect badly on the family, especially on the father and themselves. Such misconduct can take the form of an unmarried sister talking to a strange man, of being ‘out’ and ‘visible’ too much for a brother’s sense of propriety, of smiling/laughing in public and of flirting or wearing immodest dress. In this regard the sisters in the tales behave rather well, and nothing bad happens to those who do not: they are even successful in the end. In F27 the brothers go to great lengths to test the doubtful suitor their sister wants to marry, and then persuade the father to approve of the marriage. Thus the tales give no indication that a brother’s obsessive concern or anger might turn the sister into a fearsome ogre for her brothers. Ethnographically speaking there are many opportunities for a sister to make herself burdensome to a brother and to embarrass him, and although they are unspoken they inform the sister-as-danger aspect in the tales. Thus, any sister can vex brothers by challenging brotherly authority. She may threaten to elope, to marry beneath her or marry a man the brother disapproves of, as in F27. She may be bossy and quarrelsome. She may provoke gossip. She may become divorced, widowed or poor, thus turning into a brother’s responsibility and economic burden. She may fight with her husband and his family, necessitating her brother’s interference in her husband’s house. She may fight with the brother’s wife. Although ‘honour’ suggests itself as an explanatory concept, the word does not appear in the tales. It seems that the deep intra-family dynamics that mould brother/sister relationships are too complex for a shorthand-concept like ‘honour’.10

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The story of the seven brothers shows the complexity. ‘The Seven Brothers, their Sister and the Ghoul’ (Gh16, condensed, and F10) A woman was about to give birth. Her seven older sons wanted to go hunting and told her to hang a bow and arrow on the house wall if the child was a boy, and if it was a girl to hang a sieve.11 She bore a girl but hung a bow and arrow on the wall. The boys thought they had no sister and were so disappointed that they left for good. The girl grew up not knowing she had brothers. One day a theft provoked her playmates to take oaths of innocence on the souls of male relatives. [F10: ‘By the soul of my father, I did not steal . . .’, p. 44.] Having no male relatives the girl swore on the head of her goat, and the goat died. Her mother now told her the story of her brothers, and she decided to look for them. She took her mother’s necklace and walked [F10: flew on the wings of a crow] to her brothers’ house. The brothers were out hunting. She got bread, water and tea ready for their lunch and then hid in a corner. For several days she secretly kept house for them. One night she was putting henna on their sleeping brothers’ hands and feet when one took her hand and then woke the others. She showed them their mother’s necklace, and they were very happy about the sister. Next morning they told her never to eat the cat’s raisin because the cat would spit [F10: pee] into the fire and douse it, but should it happen, never to go outside to find fire. That day the girl got angry at the fickle cat and ate the raisin. The cat doused the fire. The girl left for a smoke rising afar, and came to a house where a woman told her that it belonged to a div. The woman gave her embers and some roasted wheat but [F10: the other woman, a heathen] told her to eat one kernel and drop the next on her way home. The div followed this scent-trail to where the girl was baking bread. He told her that her brothers had given him a ring to put on her finger. She gave him her hand, he pricked it with a needle and sucked her blood. She fell unconscious. The cat mocked her with a rhyme about her skirt

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catching fire, but the girl did not wake up. When her brothers came home they gave her a blood transfusion from the blood of a sheep and a goat, and she revived. They threw a rug over a fire in a pit, invited the div, sat him and his [heathen] wife on the rug, pulled it from under them, and they burned. Both versions of the story end here, which suggests that for the narrator now the girl is back where she belongs, with her brothers, who saved her from an unwanted suitor and the danger of becoming the third wife of an insatiable demon-man. The brothers in this tale act as one. They like their sister, they are glad to have a housekeeper, they warn her of dangers inside and outside the house, and they successfully deal with the consequences of her disobedience. But the sister had also inadvertently caused them to leave home in the first place, had put them all in peril and was maybe a sister and maybe a wife. Cat and raisin are enigmatic. A woman listening to F10 guessed that the cat might be the eldest brother’s wife – two brothers’ wives [sic] in one house ‘never’ get along, she said. (Nor do a sister and her brother’s wife.) The fact that people associate cats with demons adds to the riddle, but also fits the image of a dangerous woman in a power position in the house. The girl’s bashful secret work describes the popular behavioural motif of hiding one’s light under a bushel in order to look extremely modest and subservient. It does not speak exclusively to an interactional pattern between brothers and sisters.

Sisters Where sisters appear in a group – ‘seven sisters’ as a gloss on poverty – they remain anonymous, without characteristics. Faced with starvation they might turn cannibalistic, as in the story of abandoned Mahteti/ Marateti12 and her sisters (see next chapter). These murderous sisters are not hostile, though, but pragmatic: ‘fate’ in the form of a cast lot chose Mahteti for keeping the others alive. Mahteti saves herself from being food for her sisters by taking them all on a tour through the dangerous underworld (F11; see the text of a version of this tale in

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Appendix 1). Despite its happy ending, this tale shows that sisters’ relationships are ambiguous, like all relationships. Sisters are said to be each other’s closest friends and allies but also quarrelsome. As long as the local economy included milk-processing, which was women’s work, sisters liked to pool their milk in cooperative arrangements, even if it made daily walks through camp or village with a heavy milk-pot necessary. Men said they liked such arrangements because work among sisters proceeded smoothly. Yet, the Moon got a soft halo and the Sun bristly beams when the Sun slapped bread dough into the Moon’s face and the Moon pushed her straw broom into the Sun’s face in a fight while doing housework (F32; see the text in Chapter 3). In A10, the youngest of three sisters has a legitimate claim to the tale’s hero yet has to fight for him with her elder sisters. The two older ones push her off the roof. Indeed, jealousy and competition among sisters figure prominently in several tales. ‘The Story of the Jealous Sisters’ (L10, summary)13 A father abandoned his three daughters because they had eaten food meant for him and then had concealed the theft. A prince found them wandering hand in hand in the wilderness and took them with him. He married the youngest, the most beautiful, and told the other two to serve her well. They were jealous. When the prince’s wife had twins, her sisters asked an old woman for puppies, exchanged them for the children and threw the children into the river in a box. A fuller found the ‘moon-faced’ girl and the ‘golden-haired’ boy and brought them up. When the prince learned that his wife had borne two puppies he ordered her tied to a pole, and every passer-by had to stone her. The children grew up and passed the pole on their way to their teacher. But instead of a stone they threw a rose at the woman. She recognized them, started to cry, and the prince then found out from her and the fuller what had happened. The prince took back his wife and his children, and then ordered that the two evil sisters and the old woman be torn apart by wild horses. The drama here is among sisters: unified in misery in the beginning, the prince’s preferential treatment of the youngest, the most beautiful,

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brings out the worst in the older sisters who lost out in the competition over a high-status man and now are reduced to servants in a challenge to the age-hierarchy. On the one hand, such non-sisterly behaviour and disobedience to a prince warrant punishment as a means of justice, according to narrator and audience. On the other hand, the prince’s punishment of a wife who bears him puppies is understandable even though it is lamentable and unjust. Until only a few years ago I heard women mumble by way of consolation at the birth of a girl that a daughter was still ‘better than a puppy’. Thus, all three sisters are punished while nothing bad happens to the men. Even the two minor actors, the old woman who procures the puppies and the felt-maker who raises the children, fall into the good/bad scheme along gender lines. Of all tales, this one rests the heaviest on the misogynist bias found in other stories too. Khanzadeh (F15) is the victim of her rich sister’s enmity (motivated by arrogance of the rich toward the poor, the elder toward the younger) and jealousy that spill into the next generation of girls, the cousins. Such enmity is exacerbated in step- and half-sisters, who learn to dislike each other via their mothers. F13 describes the mechanism of such transference of hostility by a stepmother to half-sisters. This woman uses her daughters to spy on her stepdaughter, whom she tries to work and starve to death but who nevertheless is thriving thanks to a secret magical calf that feeds her. One by one the girls, bribed by the good food their halfsister shares with them, keep her secret, but the youngest spills it to her mother – out of childishness, not spite. Indeed, stepsisters will get along well as playmates as long as their elders do not interfere. In the several Cinderella-stories, too (such as L39), the stepmother’s enmity drives the happenings; her own daughters just follow her orders. Only in the Mahteti/Marateti-stories do sisters care for each other, and there it is one sister, the youngest, helping the others, although on the ethnographic plane cooperation among all sisters is considered the norm. In A/Th15 they come close to this ideal, but with a twist: two sisters wish to marry their children to each other, but the son of one sister takes another wife, and now the two sisters conspire to kill this wife. The narrator leaves no doubt that, united, these two sisters are ‘bad’. (They are demons.)

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Brothers For brothers, the main issues are the tension between how they ought to relate – guided by cooperation and mutual assistance (Gh34) – and what keeps them from attaining this postulate – the age hierarchy – with conflicts between older and younger brothers; competition over access to resources, including inheritance; and wielding of authority.14 These tensions make bad things happen in the tales. In the few instances where brothers behave brotherly, their amiable behaviour is either of no consequence to the plot or else the brothers are united against somebody else and the focus is on other actors. In Lama’e (see text in Chapter 3) two brothers unite to trap the wife of one of them into committing a severe indiscretion.15 In L34 four brothers hunt together, but when the story picks up with the eldest brother as protagonist, the others are not mentioned again. Seven brothers in Gh16 live and work together without father, inheritance, competition over women or other issues of conflict, with the relationship to their only sister as the main theme in their existence. In A/Th5 brothers form the pastoralist cooperative camp where the protagonist, a stranger to them, starts his adventures. In A/Th1 three elder brothers leave home when their father treats the youngest unjustly. They do not go away in protest or because of empathy with the youngest but in fear of what their father might eventually do to them, they say. Their youngest brother turns out to be a hero who keeps them safe and provides princess-wives for them once they have left their father’s authority. There is no reason for them to antagonize him. The tale provides a strong criticism of fatherly authority, and a negative comment on the age-hierarchy of brothers. Although unlike the villagers and herders who tell the tales and who routinely have to settle disputes about inheritance, land and water, brothers in the tales do not fight over inheritance (except once) and not over land or water, either. Yet enmity runs through many brother-stories, connected to competition among them and to recognition of their respective worth by elders. The motif of the youngest, or more or less disabled, brother’s ill treatment at home is so common as to have a predictable structure.

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‘The King with Seven Wives’ (Gh50, condensed; a variant is in L38; see also Lama’e, 105, below, and Gh24, where mean brothers are ‘jealous’ of the little one, in Chapter 5) A king with seven wives was sad because he had no children. In addition, once a month a black div collected tribute from him. One day Imam Ali appeared and gave him seven apples for his wives to eat. His wives said, ‘Are you crazy?’ But six ate an apple, and the seventh ate half and gave the other half to the rooster. After nine months they all bore sons, but the youngest wife’s son was half the size of the others. The boys grew up. One day the king told them about the black div. He promised to make the one son who would kill the div his successor. The six brothers tried but the div caught and jailed them in order to fatten and eat them. Now the tiny son asked his father’s permission to go after his brothers. He mounted the rooster and flew to the div’s house, where the div’s daughter met him. He told her to bring some pebbles in a [iron convex] griddle, made a fire, heated the pebbles, put the girl on them and burned her butt. He freed his brothers, and they took the div’s jewels, burned the div’s house and turned to go home. On the way they got thirsty. The six elder brothers sent the tiny one to fetch water, threw him into the water hole and left. A caravan came by, got him out of the hole, and all went to the king’s place. There was a feast for the six brothers who pretended that they had killed the div. But the tiny son told the story to his father, who then scolded his other sons and made the tiny one his successor. The story omits the fate of the div and lets the listeners guess how the six murderous brothers will deal with their little brother as king. Apparently the div’s daughter did not resist when the tiny young man put her on the hot pebbles, which is in line with the trope of the ‘quiet girl’ common in the tales (see also Chapter 3). But the major contradiction lies in the relationship of the youngest, hampered, brother to his elder brothers.

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Ethnographically, older brothers act on the youngest brother’s assumed inferiority, stress their own authority and frequently cheat little brothers out of their fair share of the inheritance or block their access to resources. In A/Th11 the youngest is the older brothers’ servant. The fact that in the tales it is the youngest who is half of what his older brothers are or else is an ‘idiot’ (L12) reflects the traditionally precarious position of the youngest son in the family, especially so if his mother is not also the older brothers’ mother. A story from Kerman captures this familiar relationship and the accompanying sentiments and consequences in an absurdly funny-gruesome context. I abbreviate it here, concentrating on the brothers’ interaction. ‘The Idiot Boy who became King’ (L12, summary) There were three brothers. The youngest was an idiot who killed his sick mother by smashing the fly on her face with a rock when his brothers ordered him to swat flies off her. When he asked for his inheritance, the older brothers said, ‘The house for us, the door for you; the furnishings for us, mother’s spindle for you; the tools for us, the spade and pick for you; the herds for us, a cow and calf for you’. Then they promised him a few coins for his calf to feed the mourners with, but did not pay him. While unsuccessfully trying to get the money, the idiot brother found several treasures, only to lose them to his brothers. At last he also lost his cow (to wild animals) and left. He happened upon a disgruntled man who was eating little figures of holy personages he had made of dough. Unintentionally the idiot brother frightened him away and thereby saved the figure of God from being eaten. With the man’s belongings he went back home, where his brothers took everything from him. Wealthy now, they wanted to kill the king to take his place. The idiot brother offered to kill him. He brought back the king’s head, which the brothers hid. They killed a goat, and the idiot brother threw the goat-head into their well and then told the soldiers that it was the king’s head. But everybody saw that it was a goat’s head and that he was an idiot, and left him alone.

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For the brothers he had become dangerous though, and they decided to kill him. He overheard the plan and killed them instead. The royal bird selected the idiot brother as the next king. There is no love lost between ‘the brothers’ and the youngest/impaired one. Quite reasonably, as the logic of intra-family dynamics goes, the narrator eliminated parents who could curb the elder brothers’ ill treatment of their young brother. The story is seen from the youngest brother’s point of view: the elder brothers, as one, have authority over him, have the power to cheat him at every turn and to kill him unless he either kills them first or else runs away, penniless. That in the end the youngest becomes king is the wishful thinking of the underdog. In a farce one can expect morality to be of little importance, but nevertheless the complete absence of justice or of a judgement of the brothers is indicative of the perception of the elder brothers’ powers. The youngest brother cannot expect justice unless he creates it himself – even if it be by fratricide. The bird’s choice proves him right. In L37 a cowherd tells within the tale a funny story/riddle that rests on fraternal suspicion: There were two brothers, a (younger) pious one and an (elder) bully, who had a wife. At night the elder went to drink water, the younger stayed behind. This made the elder think that the younger was after his property or his wife. He threatened him with a sword, they fought and beheaded each other. The riddle appears after the wife put the heads back on the wrong bodies, and the resurrected brothers start to fight over her – whose wife was she now? ‘The body’s’, she said. ‘The head is a trifling thing.’ Brothers appear as habitually wary of each other. In A/Th4 two men establish a fictive brotherhood, and right away one steals from the other, who simultaneously mistrusts him and intercepts him. Gh23 is a joke-story about two such brothers. ‘The Wily Brother and the Crazy Brother’ (Gh23) There were two brothers, one wily and the other crazy. One day they took two cows, a yoke and a plough out to sow wheat on their field. The wily brother put the yoke and the plough on the cow and said to the crazy brother, ‘You plough while I find

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a good threshing place so that we won’t have a difficulty later with the harvest’. He left and slept in the shade of a tree. At dusk he returned but his brother had done nothing. He said, ‘Why didn’t you work?’ Crazy brother said, ‘Because I thought you might not find a good place and then the wheat would go to waste’. And then they went home. ‘Brother’ often appears in curses such as ‘brother of a dog’ about a scoundrel.16 In a world of limited goods, where men have to carry the burden of providing for their wives and children, brothers and their paternal cousins are in competition over their fathers’/grandfathers’ resources. They also are in competition over the brideprice that traditionally the groom’s family had to pay to the father of a bride; and where there is a shortage of women for potential wives they are also in competition over women. Such specific dynamics easily become generalized and colour other aspects of brothers’ relationships. L33 makes fun of brotherly animosity as well as brotherly cooperation. ‘The Story of Ahmad Girdu and His Two Brothers’ (L33, condensed) Once there were three brothers, Nasir, Khonkar and Ahmad Girdu, who fought so much that Ahmad, the youngest, left home. He came to a place where a hawk was choosing a new khan, and it chose Ahmad Girdu. The people gave him a wife and a house and some time to prove that he was a good ruler. After a while his two elder brothers went looking for him, found his house, stayed there, and at night stole a basket with dates and fled, Khonkar in front, Nasir with the basket behind. Ahmad caught up with them, pretended to be Khonkar, offered to relieve Nasir of the heavy basket, took it, and went back home. He put the basket into a pit, and he and his wife slept on top of it. When the two brothers realized that Ahmad had taken the dates they returned to Ahmad’s house. They shifted Ahmad to one side and his wife to the other, took the basket and fled again. They stopped somewhere to divide the dates. Nasir left

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to fetch scales from the next camp. Ahmad came, pretended to be Nasir, and said that Khonkar should go after a vessel for the dates. Khonkar left, Ahmad took the basket and went back to his camp. At that Nasir and Khonkar let the dates go and went home. [After another funny adventure, incomplete in the story] Nasir told his wife to pull down the tent on top of him and to wail and pretend that he was dead. She did so. Khonkar washed him in icy water and the body began to shiver. ‘You rascal’, said Khonkar, ‘don’t die’. He sat with Nasir wrapped in a shroud at the grave until morning. Thieves came in the dark and began to divide a lot of stolen money. Nasir sprang up and said, ‘Dead men seize the living!’ The thieves fled in terror. The brothers took the thieves’ money ‘and enjoyed it together, and rested themselves’. The least troubled brother-pair is in F41 (and in Lama’e: 134): two brothers separate while fleeing their hostile mother. The elder chooses the road of troubles and magnanimously sends the younger brother on the easy road to success. When after the elder brother’s many adventures they reunite, it is with joy – but by then both are rich and of high status, they have enough brides, father is blind and of no consequence and jealousy is no issue. Separated throughout the adventure-years, they never had to compete with each other. In F38, the wily younger brother saves his honest, naive elder half-brother (of one mother). The narrator of F36 strings similar motifs not into a story about brothers but into a tale of an honest mother-brother and his wily sister’s son – these tales are more about being smart and what it takes to get the better of other people than about brotherly issues. In several stories the youngest brother unsuccessfully tries to stand up to his older brothers on issues such as fulfilling a dead father’s orders. He leaves them (and with it their protection, it is understood) but in the end is successful on his own and is proved right. He even may turn the authority-hierarchy upside down by providing wives for his older brothers or being elevated to a status far above theirs. For example, in F26 a youngest brother, fulfilling his father’s wish that the older brothers ignored, defends the father’s grave against a would-be

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defiler, and in consequence gets a good horse. With it he wins competitions with ‘beautiful girls’ as prizes, and thus is able to get a wife for himself and wives for his older brothers. The youngest brother in this story was dutiful and wise; Lama’e’s schoolboy-narrators turned him into a superman. ‘The Man with Seven Wives’ (Lama’e: 105, condensed in the second half, when the dialogue is repeated. Compare to Gh50 above and to Gh24) There was a man with seven wives and no children. He gave each wife a tangerine. The youngest wife ate half, and the rooster got the other half. The six wives each bore a son, and the youngest wife bore a boy who had only one leg. His name was Taylengaki.17 [The boys grew up.] One day the father sent his six hale sons to the div Alazangi to collect a debt. They met a shepherd and asked, ‘Whose herd is this?’ He said, ‘Alazangi’s’. They said, ‘Shit on brother Alazangi’. The shepherd said, ‘[Only] if you can separate the two [fighting] rams can you defeat Alazangi’. They tried but could not do it. Next they came to the miller and asked, ‘Whose mill is this?’ The miller said, ‘Alazangi’s’. Again they said, ‘Shit on brother Alazangi’. The miller said, ‘[Only] if you can eat all the wheat and salt can you defeat Alazangi’. They tried but could not do it. They came close to Alazangi’s house. His daughter was at the door and said, ‘A wind is coming, six winged horsemen are on the way’. Alazangi said, ‘Where from?’ She said, ‘From the garden’. He said, ‘What do they do?’ She said, ‘They eat cucumbers’. He said, ‘How do they eat?’ She said, ‘They eat them one bite at a time’. They came closer, and the daughter said, ‘[Now] they are in the pomegranate orchard’. Alazangi asked, ‘What do they do?’ She said, ‘They eat pomegranates’. He asked, ‘How do they eat?’ She said, ‘A seed at a time’. Again they came closer, and when Alazangi asked, ‘Wherefrom do they come?’ she said, ‘They are at the door’. The six brothers said, ‘Brother of a dog, come out’. Alazangi went outside and killed all six.

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Now the father sent Taylengaki. He came to the shepherd, and when the shepherd told him to separate the rams, Taylengaki did it. At the mill he ate the flour and the salt. Alazangi’s daughter saw him coming and told Alazangi that Taylengaki was in the garden, eating whole cucumbers in one bite. In the pomegranate orchard he ate whole pomegranates, with the tough skin. By the time he was at the door, Alazangi was so afraid that he hid in the big clay grain vessel. The girl asked Taylengaki what he wanted. He said, ‘It is noon, roast some wheat for me on the iron griddle’. [She did so.] He put her on the hot griddle, it made ‘tsh tsh tsh’, and Alazangi was so frightened that he moved inside the vessel – it broke and he fell out. [The narrator of Gh24 made it even funnier: the div peed with fright, and the unbaked clay-vessel disintegrated around him.] Taylengaki ripped open his stomach and got his six brothers out. This version of a popular idiot-story is both a comment on father, brothers and youngest son/brother, and a description of the signs of a pahleva¯n, a strongman-‘hero’: he is physically strong and eats a lot of food in contrast to the lean and hungry ordinary tribal people. For crippled Tayleng, an unlikely hero, the narrator used compensatory exaggeration in strength and eating habits to overcome his diminished status as a youngest son. He ends the story with the youngest son’s victory over both divs, and the brothers’ rescue. Although the immediate success does not guarantee that the brothers will treat Tayleng well in the future, the young narrator’s main satisfaction lay in the demonstration of outstanding prowess of an underdog. He was not yet ready to face the fact that the rescue of older brothers might even backfire into their misgivings about little weak brother’s challenge to the age-hierarchy. In Gh38 the rivalry is between ‘six brothers’ on the one side and their stepbrother, ‘Filthy Cripple’, on the other. On a quest for their father, the united brothers deliberately send Filthy on a road of no return in order to be rid of him. Eventually he turns the tables, though, saves

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and gets the girls, kills dragons and a div, and makes his brothers his ‘servants’. Mr Hoquqi, the old narrator who had ‘seen everything’, as he used to say (see Chapter 1), wisely let a successful youngest brother disperse his defeated hostile brothers to other villages so as to create a comfortable distance between them (F40). Less pointedly, the narrator of A/Th1 achieved this when he let the youngest brother leave one after the other of his older brothers behind in towns, provided with wives and livelihoods.

Summary In the Lur-canon of proper intra-family relationships siblings ought to support each other: sisters ought to share work and confidence; brothers ought to guide and protect their sisters and support them should their husbands fail them, and sisters ought to heed their brothers’ counsel, wishes and orders. Amongst themselves, brothers ought to be allies, supporting each other and presenting a protective front to the world. Siblings are a person’s foremost safety net. Without such a net people are dependent on the good- or ill-will of strangers, and thus vulnerable. But few sibling groups reach this ideal, and the tales describe what is rather than what ought to be: patrilineal descent, a hierarchy of authority based on gender, relative age and position, and a culture of competition over power and resources structure relationships. Thus, sisters fight over chores and over status. Brothers fail their sisters by neglecting or dismissing them. And brothers’ attitudes to each other often express resentment of injustices they claim to suffer at each other’s hands. Older brothers may find their responsibility for younger brothers burdensome, and younger brothers resent the olders’ privileged position and authority. Difficulties are more expected among half-siblings, children of one father and different mothers. These conditions frame siblings’ attitudes in the tales. They point to the fault lines in siblings’ relationships.18

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CHAPTER 3 WOR LD OF WOMEN

When I first looked at how people in Boir Ahmad conceive of women and of gender relationships, around 1970, the so-called ‘status of women’ was a difficult topic because it aroused suspicions of an ethnocentric feminist agenda and of Western hegemonic judgement.1 Wary of imposing foreign structures and agendas on interactions with local people, I decided to use the people’s own texts for gender analysis to produce data that were as impartial as a field researcher reasonably could hope for.2 Folktales constitute such impartial texts. They reflect thought patterns on gender that are so deep seated as to be commonsensical assumptions governing everyday life in the community. In Iran like elsewhere, theology supports most of the assumptions regarding gender but does not necessarily cause them. Indeed, local gender practices are so firm that not even theological arguments against them effect change quickly. Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s tales (see Chapter 1) and her opinions are a case in point: she says that Shari’a law is less restrictive for women than are tribal traditions, but that local people are slow to make use of the religious laws and of opportunities granted by religion. Although women’s lifestyles, aspirations and identity have changed substantially in Iran over the past three decades, the many problems women face in public, in the family and in law, and the gender conflicts men and women have to solve in the workplace, with authorities and with spouses and children, have their roots in the same ingrained

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gender identities and gender expectations we see in the tales.3 On the level of assumptions and attitudes the tales are ‘modern’ still, expressing what otherwise goes unsaid because people are not even aware of the shape and tenacity of their views. On this basis I am reading the tales from all five collections. Even a cursory look at the tales shows a scarcity of women actors. Men outnumber women at a rate of more than 3:2. Several tales have no women at all, while only one tale has no male actor. (This is the 77-word story about Sun and Moon, F32, told by Mrs Boir Ahmedi, who stars women in all her tales; see Chapter 1.) An even more striking gender difference appears in a comparison of the activities and occupations of male and female actors. Women act in some 21 capacities, men in 58.4 Of the 21 female capacities, ten (nearly 50 per cent) are based on kinship (mother, father’s sister, etc.) in contrast to only eight (less than 14 per cent) of the male categories. The other 50 per cent for women are broad-based categories such as Old Woman, Fairy, Maid, Bride, with conventional, stereotyped attributes, while most of those for men are varied and specific, based on the work men do: king, vizier, blacksmith, money lender, judge, shepherd, schoolmaster, cobbler, shopkeeper, etc. Men appear in more varied circumstances than women; they are more visible. Visibility and vitality of women seem to vary with the gender of the narrator, with women narrators talking more about women than male narrators, but I do not have enough information on the storytellers in the collections to be able to support a generalization. In the following I will look first at the work women do, and then at what people say in the tales about women in the different phases of the lifecycle.

Women at Work The highest-ranking working woman in the tales rules as ‘king’ in male disguise and causes the decline of the kingdom because of her femaleness. The protagonist identifies the principle behind this development as ‘. . . a woman’s rule is never glorious’ (L19: 116).5 Old Lur women remember that when they were young even just learning to

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read and write was considered ‘wrong’ and dangerous for the community. The terms used for rulers, such as shah, sultan, khan, imply a male. The law in the Islamic Republic supports male regency: a woman cannot be president. Another princess-ruler, disguised as a man and chosen by a falcon, rules long enough to punish her tormentors and then steps down (A/Th2). A third princess, whose king-father, impressed by her accomplishments, urges her to take his crown, declines it, to the apparent satisfaction of the male narrator (A/Th16). A fairy disguised as a male trader gets away with the transgression of a gender boundary for the particular purpose of rescuing her husband (F26). Sparrow gives the most telling comment when he shoos a queen from her king-husband’s side and takes her place without protest from her or the king (Gh36). ‘Maid’ is the only popular work-based category for women in the tales, well integrated but ambiguous. As a servant, a maid, even if she is a fairy, is beholden to her mistress and necessary to her but may easily misuse the power created by intimacy and dependency. Thus, several ‘slave girls’ usurp their mistress’s place and marry the prince – one even kills the mistress (for example, Gh19; also L5, L22 from Kerman). Seen from the men’s point of view, there is only a thin line between a maid and a wife. This is explicit in Lama’e, where the protagonist smuggles his wife into his ghoul-mother’s house as a ‘cradle rocker’, that is, a nursery-maid (F15 is similar).6 Both maid and wife make their living through the master/husband’s generosity or sense of obligation, and both have to obey their master, the head of the household. Together they care for the master/husband’s physical needs. In F40 the protagonist orders his wife, a fairy no less, to cook dinner for his guests, and although it is understood that her (fairy)-companions will do most of the work, the order holds for her as well. In several tales the husband fails to realize that his wife is not the woman he married but a former servant. Young women today may disqualify a suitor by claiming that he is only looking for a ‘cheap servant’, and many worry about how heavy-handed a ‘master’, arba¯b, or, more derogatorily yet, how autocratic a sha¯h, ‘ruler’, a future husband might turn out to be.

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Another profession, teacher, has two examples in the tales. One woman teacher manipulates a girl student to kill her mother in order to marry the girl’s father. This woman does not teach in the story – her status only explains how she could get close to the girl (L13, from Kerman, a variant of F13 and popular throughout the Lur area). Another woman teacher (L14) disappears from the tale after she has told a girl how to survive her stepmother’s hostility and to give her murdered brother’s bones the honours of the dead, much to the girl’s later advantage. At the Lorimers’ time, some girls had private instructors, wise women who taught Qur’anic verses, standard prayers (nama¯z), amulets and prayers for specific purposes (da’a¯), and semi-magical formulas and practices that made them ambiguous in their neighbours’ eyes. The aforementioned ‘mulla’-teacher in L14 is a good example for this range of skills.7 In contrast, modern government teachers transmit the unambiguous progressive national culture with a standard curriculum, leaving little room for drama. They do not figure in the tales. (Traditional Qur’an-school teachers for boys did not have a dubious reputation either; their knowledge and activities did not cross genderboundaries.) In a similar tale (L39) the bad woman is not a teacher but a ‘tattoomaker’, and in another version (F13) she is ‘Auntie Doll-maker’. Dolls and tattoos fell into the category of ‘play’ and ‘beauty’ with a tone of frivolity, just as the female instructor category earlier had an undertone of impropriety and secrecy. Women’s knowledge other than that immediately concerned with housekeeping comes across as ambiguous, suspicious and potentially dangerous. All other jobs women have in the tales make daily life possible in a gender-divided world. Women process milk and wool, cook, bake bread, sew, manage chickens, care for children and display a husband’s wealth. It is understood that these are their God-ordained duties (vasife), necessary to keep life flowing. They anchor women locally and do not convey distinction or praise. On the contrary, the duties frequently cause friction and injustice. For example, a woman abuses her husband’s daughter unjustly over a pot of milk (F34); an adulterous woman starves her husband and misuses food to weaken the eyes of

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a young man in her care (F23); stepmothers mistreat and starve their stepchildren (F9, F13; Gh27; Lama’e: 91); they waste food (F30); a ‘bad’ woman pretends not to be able to use her cooking utensils properly in order to trick and abduct a girl for a man who fancies her (F17, Gh19, A/Th17, Lama’e: 117). Twice in F41 food figures prominently in scenes of seduction and sexual impropriety. Once, though, good housekeeping skills save a woman and her future husband with the food she had taken with her into the grave when both were buried alive with their dead spouses (A/Th11; see Appendix 1). This detail illustrates a fundamental point of gender complementarity in this society: men depend on women for daily sustenance. An indirect comment on housework is in a demon-story where the narrator emphasizes that the div’s abducted human wife did not do any housework but sat in a swing all day – she was not a drudge but at leisure (A/Th13). As an ancient fertility-ritual, swinging suggests that the div did not want a housekeeper but a lover. A traditional fun activity of girls and women, swinging in a looped rope stands for leisure, play and fun. These terms also are local euphemisms for sexual ‘play’ and flirtation. A further meaning regards the rope. The rope was local women’s means of suicide by hanging before poisons such as pesticides became available. Nobody in the tales praises the virtues of good housekeeping; competence in wifely skills is appreciated only quietly, while incompetence gets special attention. In L21 a mother persuades a shawl-maker to marry one after the other of her daughters by praising their (non-existent) skills in spinning, making syrup, cooking rice, making sweetpaste, etc. The girls’ incompetence makes the man divorce them. The youngest, however, gets rich and rescues her husband precisely because of her incompetence and foolishness. ‘The Story of the Shawl-Weaver’ (L21; excerpt)8 [Testing the skills of his seventh wife, the Shawl-Weaver gives her cotton and a spindle to spin. The woman takes her work to the water.] A frog began to croak. She said, ‘What do you say, Auntie Frog? You want to spin for me?’ The frog croaked again, and she

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thought it was saying, ‘Yes’, and so she threw the cotton and the spindle into the water. When her husband came to see how she was getting along, she said, ‘Auntie Frog is spinning cotton for me. I’ll get the spun cotton from her or at least the weight from the spindle’. She put her hand into the water and found a rock. She took it out and it was pure gold . . . Thus a tale that criticizes women who do not know their jobs also mocks women’s work by letting the lazy youngest wife simply get lucky. Work, the tales suggest, is needed to survive, but if one can make a living without it, so much the better. (The foolish-lucky wife also makes doll-servants out of sweetpaste – ineffective, but underscoring the point.) A rich man’s wife may not be spared all physical labour but she will have servants to help her. Her main job is to use the husband’s wealth appropriately to validate his status. In F14 the protagonist, after attaining the use of his lame limbs through the efforts of the king’s daughter, leaves to make it in the world. An underworld being (Khezr, see Chapter 6) gives him pomegranates filled with jewels. (In Persian, the red pomegranate seeds are known as ‘rubies’.) The protagonist sends the jewels to the princess, who builds a castle and appoints it royally. Upon his return he is a made man because the princess already was demonstrating his wealth. Outside the house women could contribute little to the family economy, even under the poorest circumstances. This is assumed in the tales. Women could not herd or work in the fields without eliciting gossip.9 The only popular outside economic activity was gathering wild edible plants. F9, F11 and L51 speak to such activity in the mountains in episodes of danger from divs. Even cash-items produced by women, such as rugs or yoghurt, depended on livestock men herded and managed and on men’s trading skills. The small income went to men. Yet women were responsible for feeding children and husband, even if the husband’s provisions were insufficient or if, as widows, they had no access to resources. In F38 the widowed mother of two boys is begging. In the near-starvation past women felt this duty as a great burden, the more so as they did not want to show that their husbands

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failed to provide for them adequately. This burden is the background to a tale from Bakhtiari, where a woman blames herself for being unable to feed her children. ‘Shah Abbas and the poor Mother’ (L52, summary) Once when Shah Abbas was walking around dressed as a dervish he came upon hungry children and their mother. Talking to her children, the woman was berating herself, ‘May God slay your mother, she has no food for you, what is she to do?’ Shah Abbas gave her his food-bowl, and they ate. Then he gave her his ring to buy bread with. She went to the baker, but when she wanted to pay with the ring he took her to the police and denounced her as a thief who had stolen his own ring. The judge pronounced her guilty and had her ears cut off. She cursed the dervish for having brought this misery into her life. Somebody heard this, took her to the palace and told the king the story. The king said, ‘O God, what am I to do about the wrong I have done to this woman?’ He crucified the baker for the false accusation and the theft, and crucified the judge for having passed judgement hastily, and then gave their property to the poor woman. Women at the fringe of the economy need protection from high up to make it, the tale suggests. Not even the children’s father’s family or the woman’s own brothers can be relied upon for the assistance they ought to provide. Indeed, there is no tale that lets women in need find support from relatives. Women at all stages of life are vulnerable to privation if the men who are responsible for them cannot or will not fulfil their duties. Besides the poor-mother motif, the king’s way of meting out justice and helping the woman in this tale is noteworthy: he does both without any expense to himself. By local standards he is good and clever. Traditionally, the higher a person’s social status was, the less likely was he or she to do heavy physical work. Nobody worked ‘for fun’. Within the family, children, the lowest in status, were little servants from an early age. In several tales the child-protagonists’ work is integral to the story: for example, one little girl must herd a cow and this

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magical cow feeds her (F13); one harvests crab apples with her sisters while their father abandons them (F11; Lama’e: 96); several girls collect wild vegetables (F9); one uses a goat’s intestines she is washing to bribe a bird to take her to her brothers (F10); a mother sends a tiny son with food to his father in the field, where he disappears under a heap of dung while ploughing (F12; similarly L8, from Kerman). Carefree childhood for boys was short and shorter still for girls.

Women in the Lifecycle Girl/Bride In the tales girl-infants are in peril.10 Adults obviously think of them as burdens. The tales graphically illustrate a man’s poverty by giving him ‘seven daughters’ (L51, A/Th13, Lama’e: 91, F11, Gh3). It is understood that without a son to help him a man cannot feed a house full of females. Indeed, such a man is forgiven even his lies to the king because he made them to be able to care for his daughters (F21). There is selfless virtue in bringing up girls; it is meritorious. In F15 a poor fisherman adds an abandoned girl to his own seven daughters and reaps great rewards for this good deed. In the patrilineal communities of the tales descent is counted through men; daughters belong to the father’s group but their children do not. This means that daughters are less significant to their father’s group than are sons. Under these circumstances female infanticide is likely.11 Until recently the prejudice against girl infants in Iran generally and the Lur-areas in particular took the form of neglect and led to a demographic imbalance in favour of males in all age groups, a shortage of women and a low marriage age for girls. People looked at every girl from infancy on as a potential bride. The tales’ prejudices fit this statistical picture.12 The tales suggest that an abandoned girl needs a miracle to stay alive (in F17, A/Th17, A/Th18 and Gh19 a bird raises her) or extraordinary stamina to escape the voracity of demons (F11, L51). But even girls who live at home face dangers, especially so when they disobey their elders’ rules and/or engage with the world outside (F8, F10;

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Lama’e: 72, Lama’e: 91; A/Th6, A/Th15; Gh1, Gh27; also in L5, L6 from Kerman). The story of Donkey-Head as told by a fifth-grader in Boir Ahmad illustrates the dangers. ‘Donkey-Head’ (Lama’e: 87, condensed) A childless woman appealed to God for a child and got a son with the head of a donkey, Sozalqaba.13 He grew up and wanted a wife. His father said, ‘Who will give you a wife, you donkeyhead?’ ‘I want the king’s daughter’, said Sozalqaba. The father went to the king and asked for his daughter. The king wanted a load of gold and silver. Sozalqaba got it for him, and the king gave him his daughter, Bi Delhava. In the bridal chamber DonkeyHead turned into a beautiful young man and said to his wife, ‘Do not burn the donkey-skin or else something bad will happen to me’. But the skin got burned. Sozalqaba told his wife that he had to leave her and that she would have to wear out seven iron shoes to find him. Sozalqaba went to the div Alazangi and became his shepherd. His wife wore out seven pairs of iron shoes before she found him. Sozalqaba put her into his pocket so that Alazangi would not see her. But Alazangi said, ‘I smell a human, and if you don’t show me, I’ll eat you’. Sozalqaba said, ‘I have a sister, may I bring her?’ ‘Bring her’, said Alazangi. Sozalqaba brought his sister and for a few days they were together. Then Alazangi said to the sister, ‘I mixed three loads of wheat with three loads of sesame seeds. Separate the two or I’ll eat you’. The girl started to cry, and Sozalqaba did it for her. Next Alazangi told her to go to his mother and bring back her comb, mirror and scissors. Sozalqaba told her that on the way she should undo what was done, and do what was undone: give the donkey’s bone to the dog and the dog’s chaff to the donkey; spread the rolled-up rug and roll up the flat one [and so on]. Bi Delhava did so and came to Alazangi’s mother, who sharpened her teeth in order to eat her. The baby in the cradle said, ‘Girl, the things you want are in the cradle, take them and go away, she wants to eat you’.

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Bi Delhava took the things out of the cradle and ran away. The old woman came out but the girl was gone. She said, ‘First rug, get her’. The rug said, ‘No, she rolled me up’. She said, ‘Second rug, get her’. It said, ‘No, she spread me’. The same happened with the dog and the donkey – none of Old Woman’s things caught Bi Delhava, and she escaped. The boy ended the story here but the girl’s trials hardly are over yet, given her history. Her first problem appeared when her father sold her to a most unpromising half-human who managed, magically, to come up with the outrageous brideprice the king had demanded in order to discourage the unwelcome suitor without having to say ‘no’ explicitly. From the point of family dynamics, every marriage is a gamble just like this one because, people say, nobody really knows what a future husband and his family will be like. This husband, although improving greatly after the post-nuptial disenchantment, gets his bride into mortal danger in his own family of ogres.14 Only by ingratiating herself with others in her husband’s family (in this case with things a new daughter-in-law likely has to take care of) can she overcome or, here, escape the in-laws’ hostility. People say that in a bride’s new home the children often are her first friends, as this baby is. All the girl’s problems arise while she is in the care of her father and of her husband. Aside from a few female heroines girls are not supposed to act or say much, not even when they are abducted (only one ‘screams and kicks’, A/Th13: 65), abused and neglected, locked up, ordered to dance or cook or close doors, become the wife of a ghoul, are fed to a dragon, eaten by wild animals, left after only three days after the wedding (by Saint Abbas, no less, A/Th3), contracted as wife for somebody, given away at contests, offered as payment of a debt by their father, getting pregnant from eating poison. Whatever happens to them is their ‘fate’. A righteous protagonist gives the villain who stole his wife a lecture about fate and women before he beheads him: ‘. . . God allots a woman to every man . . . One woman is as good as another . . . Good or bad, you would have got whatever was appointed for you by destiny’ (L40: 283).

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Nowhere is the fate-aspect illustrated better than in A/Th5, where a young woman on a horse at night picks up young Hasan, who is on the run. They ride away but soon find out that the woman had mistaken this Hasan for her cousin Hasan who wanted to elope with her. She is in a pickle because eloping, even with a proper suitor such as a cousin, compromises her severely, but eloping with a stranger means irreparable social disgrace.15 Yet she faces the Hasan mix-up calmly. ‘Maybe this Hasan will be better than the other one. What do I have to lose?’ she says (to herself: 30). And Hasan declares, ‘It was fate’, and marries her. Girls, especially as brides, in the tales mostly are nameless, beautiful and quiet to the point of being mute. L37 and Gh49 turn this silence into the high point of a short story about the male protagonist’s clever scheme of using riddles to coax a ‘sleeping’ girl (‘mute’ in Ghaffari) into speaking. In L43 the quiet bride, a cousin of the groom, in the bridal chamber turns into a wolf and eats her groom. The most outgoing and popular of all girl-heroines is Mahteti (F11; Marateti in Lama’e: 96, see Appendix 1; also Gh3; Tamti in L51), whose resourcefulness, wit and pluck save her and her seven sisters from a cannibalistic demon after the father had abandoned them in the woods. The tale has many Freudian moments which make it meaningful beyond the simple plot, and circulates widely in several variants. L51 puts the decision for the abandonment on the father, but the girls forgive him in the end. In Lama’e’s version, father and mother/stepmother end up in poverty. Mahteti is the exception to the quiet-girl rule. In another popular tale the heroine also has a name, Namaki, implying charm and appeal, (‘salt-spice’ in contrast to ‘blandness’) and is the focus of the story but hardly acts at all. She only forgets to lock the door twice and announces the advance of a ghoul. He enters and steals her without a sound from her, and her people have quite a time to get her back (F8, Gh1). In Lama’e’s version the ghoul does not get Namaki but the point of her passivity is the same. ‘The Story of the Ghoul [and Namaki]’ (Lama’e: 72) There was a time when ghouls ate people and the people slept in underground rooms with locked doors. There was a woman with

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seven daughters who took turns locking the door at night. One night the youngest, Namaki, forgot to lock it. A ghoul came in, greeted and was greeted in turn, but then the people saw that it was a div. He said, ‘You all, don’t you give hospitality to a guest?’ The mother said, ‘Grief, Namaki! You didn’t lock the door, he came in, now give him dinner, Namaki’. She did. The ghoul ate and then said, ‘You all, don’t you give a guest a bed?’ The mother said, ‘Grief, Namaki! You didn’t lock the door, he came in, now give him a bed, Namaki’. She did. The ghoul lay down and said, ‘You all, isn’t it your custom to give a guest a girl to sleep with?’ The mother said, ‘Grief, Namaki! You didn’t lock the door, he came in, now sleep with him, Namaki’. Namaki took refuge in imploring God, and God granted her wish. A neighbour woman saw that Namaki’s mother and her daughters were in the hands of a ghoul. She filled a shovel with live coals and suddenly poured them into the ghoul’s pants. The ghoul was on fire, ran outside and shouted, ‘Instead of getting Namaki I got my head burned! May God kill Namaki!’ The pious editorial sentence about Namaki putting her trust in God puts Arabic words and an alien tone into the story. With it, the actors become God-loving Muslims who nevertheless are quite ready to feed Namaki to the stranger. It also suggests some agency for the girl, but she does not save herself, her people do not aid her – it is an outsider, a neighbour, who saves Namaki by burning the ghoul’s ‘head’ in his pants with the only weapon at her disposal, embers from her fireplace. In general, the girl/brides’ passivity and their active behaviour correlate with their relationship to men who are responsible for them. While at home with father or brother girls in the tales are quiet, but without male protection they are assertive and active. Mahteti, abandoned by her father, without brother or fiancé, keeps herself and her sisters alive and deceives the cannibalistic/sexual predator. The adventures stop when she is back with her father. In a similar setting, ‘Tamti’ (L51; the name is a version of Mahteti/Marateti) outwits the div but then the story continues: she and her sisters put on men’s clothes while

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travelling without male protection, meet seven princes, lose a wager about a game to them and become their ‘property’. The tale ends in marriage for all. The tale has the clear structure of a transition story from girlhood to womanhood, that is, from one kind of dependency on men to another. In F10, as long as the sister of seven lost brothers is looking for them on her own she is a capable girl; as soon as she is safely in her brothers’ house she is shy and bumbling, almost losing her life to a div who is after her. Auntie Bug (F5) is plucky and wise enough to be out in the world finding a good husband, but as a wife is so clumsy that her husband has to forbid her to go out again in order to prevent calamity. And a beautiful fairy (A/Th2, see below) bravely escapes six lusty men, defeats robbers and becomes king before ending the tale and her life of adventure and assertiveness with the reunion with her husband. Apart from the beginning and the end, the husband does not appear at all. A variant of this theme provides the plot for two tales (F14 and A/Th16). In both, a princess dares to contradict her king-father’s assertion that women cannot make men great. The enraged father casts her out with the challenge to turn a ‘lazy’ cripple into a ‘man’. On her own, she accomplishes this with agility and cleverness, giving herself a worthy husband and her father something to think about, at least in Mrs Boir Ahmedi’s women-friendly version (see Chapter 1). The narrator of A/Th16 twisted this success into a proof of God’s might: the king is willing to grant his headstrong daughter the glory of her victory but she contradicts him (again!) by deflecting the honour of her success onto God. Thus the narrator (a woman) out of a pious impulse tries to undo the whole argument of a daughter’s potential agency, yet, by letting the princess successfully contradict her king-father twice, she shows great faith in girls’ self-assurance and wits. The narrators in the collections do not belittle or berate girls who are on their own but make them out to be bright and successful. In fact, the tales suggest that girls are in more danger from ‘ghouls’ and from male relatives and evil women on their home ground, than from strangers abroad, where they have to rely on themselves. To what degree this corresponds to social reality is of less importance than is the hint that the people who tell and listen to these stories feel a domestic danger.

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They look at home life and young women’s relationships inside their family warily, even if the ideology of domestic bliss and safety prevents most from expressing their experiences and their fears directly.16 The tales make it quite clear that to be a bride is the only acceptable path to adulthood, status, sex and children for a woman, that is, to her God-ordained station in life, and that a young woman does not have much choice in the matter. Ethnographically, this has changed considerably in Iran over the past decade, but at the price of consternation, friction and upheaval in intra-family relationships.17 Obviously, old expectations such as are expressed in the tales are tenacious. Wife Nameless, generic girl/brides turn into colourful wives in the tales. Wives leave an impact on plots and people not so much for what is done to them (as is the case with most girls) but for what they do. Their sphere of action in the stories ranges from providing unsung services at home to going to great lengths to rescue a husband; from obedience to advising, even berating, a husband; from quiet acceptance of their lot to scheming, cuckolding, even killing a husband. Their good deeds are noted quietly, if at all, and their bad deeds are punished dramatically. About a faithless wife who had tried to ruin her husband and her sons the narrator said, ‘They tied her to the tail of a wild mule [and had her dragged] until evening, and her neck was broken. Then they threw her into the fire and sent her to hell’ (A/Th12: 63). Sending a dangerous being ‘to hell’ is a way of assuring everybody that it is gone for good. The most succinct recognition of a ‘good’ wife appears in a story from Kerman (L11) and its Lur variant (L41) where the male protagonist marries his three cousins in succession but inexplicably and grievously neglects them right away. The older two ask for – and get – a divorce. (It is understood that neglect, including sexual neglect, is a valid ground for wife-initiated divorce.) But the youngest pretends to be satisfied and loyally covers for him when she realizes that he has a fairy-wife in a secret garden. She even does maid-work for the fairy. In L41 the fairy is so charmed by this wifely devotion, patience and steadfastness that she allows her husband to live with his human wife.

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In L11, it is the husband who is so touched by his wife’s loyalty that he leaves the fairy. This, women told me, is good advice for a wife whose husband is taking a love-wife: as long as she keeps up with her duties cheerfully and suffers only quietly, she will be all right. If she makes a row or neglects him, the rival will win or both will lose. The wife in L35 (see Chapter 5) forces her husband to tell her about his secret fairy-wife, whereupon the fairy leaves him and he, heartbroken, leaves his human wife and children as well. These stories have yet another modern touch. Although the arranged marriages taken for granted in the tales have become rare, traditional families still put pressure on their young people to select spouses from within their own social circle. Parents might even insist that a son who is about to go away for work or study contract such a marriage before he leaves. But in the city he might fall in love with a young woman and marry her without telling his people at home, which creates problems all round when, eventually, he has to come back home to marry his betrothed cousin. Fairy-centred tales often speak to this dilemma between ‘human’ wife (usually a relative) and ‘love wife’ (the beautiful fairy). A young man’s love life while away for education was an issue already at the Lorimers’ time. In L41 a prince ‘was sent (away) to school’ (284). When he returned he did not talk at all and disappeared for months on end even after he married his cousin. It turned out that he had a wife already, a fairy. While most girls lack character and agency in the tales, quietly trusting in ‘fate’, their father’s social status and their beauty to obtain a good husband, wives are judged by their actions. Several ‘good wives’ in the tales notwithstanding, men distrust their wives, and the tales give reasons for the distrust. In A/Th1: 5 the male protagonist dismisses his wife’s warning of a danger with a familiar argument: ‘It is no concern of yours. You are just a woman. What do you know of such things?’ In A/Th11 (see text in Appendix 1) a terrifying drama plays on the potential dilemma for a wife: the protagonist cleverly forces a div-woman to marry him in order to subordinate her. As a husband he can demand that she reveal a secret that implies that he will kill her in order to obtain what he needs – her own magical body fat.

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The most succinct don’t-trust-a-woman tale comes from one of Lama’e’s schoolboys. It needs two introductory explanations: first, in the traditional Lur economy women took care of chickens and eggs, the only status-food in their control. Both were scarce. While women disposed of eggs mostly as they saw fit, many asked the husband’s agreement before killing a valuable chicken. Secondly, according to local folk medicine pregnant women crave certain foods. People took food cravings to be part of women’s nature, but the hunger was rarely satisfied. According to local healthcare workers, women’s self-assessment and my observations, the health of most women and especially pregnant and nursing ones was very poor before the local food supply increased and food supplements became more available, around 1972. The ‘cravings’ described hunger and malnutrition. ‘The Story of a Man, a Woman, and a Hen’ (Lama’e: 128, condensed) A pregnant woman was craving meat and suggested that her husband kill the chicken. He told her to wait until the chicken was fatter. The woman fed it more grain, smeared fat around its beak, and thus convinced the husband that it was ready for the pot. She killed it and cooked chicken soup, but the husband wanted to use the windfall meat to entertain guests. He brought some men, they sat down, he left to get more guests, and the disappointed woman knew full well that the guests would eat all. She was outside splitting wooden pegs for her loom. When the guests inside asked about the chopping noise, she said she was making pegs her husband wanted to stick up their butts. The men fled. When the husband returned she told him that the guests had left with the soup. He ran after them with bread, shouting to wait for him to add bread to the pot [to make a favourite dish, soup with soaked bread], but they misunderstood him and ran faster, shouting that he should stick the pegs up his own butt . . . And the wife at home ate the chicken. The boy-narrator presents the woman who deceived the men as clever, putting the joke on the husband, including the funny scatological

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threats. The story plays on the conflict between the duty of hospitality, men’s status and women’s deprivation: the woman in the story resents her lot, says the tale. The Shawl Weaver (L21, see above) gets a wife who, allegedly, can spin very fast, only to find out that she is incompetent. He divorces her and then her sisters for the same reason – but he could not prevent getting duped into believing the women were good housekeepers in the first place. The most serious wifely faults concern adultery. It seems that no woman can be fully trusted to stay faithful unless the husband keeps close tabs on her. When the protagonist of A/Th6 says, ‘Women are weakminded’ [sic, 36] he speaks for nearly everybody. This purported lack of resolve and stamina makes women vulnerable to men’s advances at all times, but especially so when the husband is away. The lack of moral fibre does not furnish an excuse for a woman’s misbehaviour, though, despite the otherwise obvious compatibilist attitude toward matters of fate and personal responsibility (see Chapter 7). In the schemas of fate the scope of women’s moral responsibility thus exhibits a misogynist attitude. Worse yet are women who go after men: sexual aggression is a male prerogative. The stories with this motif have a tone of outright hostility toward women. Wives who are merely foolish or else cleverly outmanoeuvre a husband do not meet with the vengeful vehemence that narrators express toward such women. A/Th12 is a good example of this genre. ‘The Mangy Kid’ (A/Th12, summary) The young, poor wood-collector called Mangy found a hen that laid golden eggs, whereupon the king’s greedy wife propositioned him, ready to kill her husband if Mangy would marry her. He agreed, she poisoned the king and married him. They had two sons. While he was away on business he left them in the care of their mother and the schoolmaster. During his absence his wife took a lover who persuaded her to kill the magic hen and to cook the liver and the gizzards for him. By chance the boys ate them, whereupon the enraged mother cursed them. They left in search of their father, found him with his caravan and told

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him everything. He hid them in a saddlebag, went home, exposed his wife with the help of the teacher and the boys, and promptly punished her by death. The fact that Mangy had agreed to marry a murderess does not elicit comment. Rather, the sons remind their mother that she had killed her first husband in order to marry Mangy. ‘Did you think you could get away with it?’ they ask her before running away (61). Of several variants of this tale, the best outcome for the wayward wife is in F41, told by Mr Hoquqi, who does not approve of killing women (see Chapter 1). He lets the wealthy grown sons restore the old mother’s youth for a second chance at life in a powerful gesture of human will, agency and mercy. A/Th6 relegates the punishment of the unfaithful wife to her father, the king. The protagonist’s princess-wife gave in to a ‘slave’ who then advised her to deny her husband sex until he would hand over King Salomon’s ring. The lovers use the ring to spirit themselves away. The husband goes in quest of his wife and his valuables, finds her in the arms of the servant, shows the scene to her father, the king, who kills both with his sword and gives the protagonist another daughter as wife. In most tales of adultery the husband is naively trusting, which makes the wife’s infidelity worse because she also abuses his trust. F23 lets an adulterous wife send her husband on a fool’s errand far away in order to entertain her lover undisturbed. The husband’s wise nephew unmasks the wife and engineers her death penalty. Another cuckolded husband, a man who understands the language of animals, learns from the dog and the rooster not only that his wife had a lover but also that he should not kill himself out of grief and shame but instead divorce her and find a better wife (F28.) F23 makes a joke of foiling the wife’s trysts with her lover. The young protagonist calls his uncle back from the field to eat the good lunch the uncle’s wife had prepared for her lover. But in the centre of a frame story a wife’s infidelity leads to a catastrophe for all. ‘The Merchant of Isfahan and his Faithless Wife’ (L36, summary) A rich merchant’s beautiful wife, his cousin, pretended shyness in front of all males, even a fish, but at night drugged her husband

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and rode to a cave to play with Zingi the div. One night the husband followed her, challenged the div and was about to lose his life when his dog saved him. The man killed the div, pampered his dog, put his wife in chains and beat her senseless every day because ‘I see clearly that woman is faithless and a creature of the Devil’ (242). Furthermore, in order to prevent the embarrassing truth from becoming public he killed everybody who learned of the story. When a visitor escaped him, the man killed his wife, the dog and himself. Even an ostensibly loving wife cannot be fully trusted. In a Lama’e story this is the only theme. ‘Two Brothers’ (Lama’e: 132, condensed) Two brothers worked hard and saved. Eventually one bought a store, the other a wife. When she suggested that the first brother marry, too, he said, ‘No, women are unfaithful, inconstant and unreliable’. The husband disagreed. ‘Women are the delight of the world’, he said. ‘My wife is the best wife. Whenever I leave the house she gets anxious and restless.’ The unmarried brother suggested testing her. The husband should pretend to be very sick and then should ask her to fetch his brother. Now the husband should play dead but listen carefully. This they did. When she came back with the husband’s brother he scolded her for not having brought him early enough to see his brother alive. She threw herself to the ground wailing and pulling her hair out in grief. He said, ‘Don’t fret, I’m younger and richer than my brother, I’ll marry you’. She stopped wailing and said, ‘I’d like to do this but I have already given my assent to another man’. At this her ‘dead’ husband got up, beat her thoroughly, divorced her and went to live with his brother. This is the only tale where men’s disappointment and disgust with women sours marriage for them categorically. An offended husband is more likely to punish the wayward wife and to take another one who is younger, better and more beautiful. (In A/Th11: 57 he simply ‘grabs

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a pretty plump woman’.) The most resourceful of the wives who disappoint their husband (L34) tries to get her husband to tell her his secret. But when he overhears the dog and the rooster tell each other that she was ‘a mischievous woman’ who wanted to get ‘everything’ from him until he died and then would marry again, he divorces her. Next she steals 100 Toman from her brothers and with this money bribes her husband to take her back. Men’s infidelity is not an issue at all in the tales. A married man who fancies an unmarried woman can take her as a co-wife. Legally easy, it poses the practical problem of the wives’ jealousy or else their conspiracy to make life uncomfortable for him. This is the stuff of tales as well as of daily life. (Economic constraints that limit such marriages for men of ordinary means do not figure in the tales.) Pretty bug Nazi kills herself when her husband marries an ant (L45). Three tales start with a childless man with many wives. It needs magic to get them pregnant and this hints at the drama that surrounds impotence. Twice in the tales a man lusts after a married woman but without any bad consequences. In F40 a father is after the son’s wife, and in L57 a man falls in love with his best friend’s wife. Both women are fairies and are instrumental in the resolution of the conflict: the wives stay with their husbands and nobody gets hurt, not even the love-crazed father who tried to kill his son to get his wife. Indeed, the assumption that men are helpless when they fall for a woman is so pervasive as to be commonsensical. According to Islamic jurisprudence it is largely up to women to prevent a man’s love-craze. This means that women are to blame for such happenings. But the tales do not make this into a moralistic motif. On the contrary, women who are pursued by infatuated men are seen as victims, as in this long story. ‘Fortylocks’ (A/Th2, summary) A man married a fairy. A mendicant dervish saw her, was smitten by her beauty, told the prince about her and for a fortune abducted her for him. She fled, met a shepherd who fell madly in love with her, but she escaped him, too, by sending him for food, only to have the man in whose house she had sought refuge fall in love with her. While he was praying she ran to the seashore.

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A man in a boat took her out to sea and there ‘wanted’ her. She tricked him into looking elsewhere and jumped overboard. On land three black slaves18 started to fight over her, but she sent them away to get food and ran away. She came to a plane tree and said, ‘I’ll climb this tree so that no one can see me and fall in love with me. Maybe then I can get some rest’ (12). But it was Friday and the king came by with his 40 wives, rested under the tree, saw her, fell for her, gave her food and took her to the castle to marry her. She told him to wait 40 days and sent him on a trip. While he was gone she and the king’s wives toured the country in men’s clothes. Forty-one thieves waylaid them. The women defeated them, but when one woman spoke the thieves realized that these were women and captured them. The fairy rendered the thieves unconscious with poisoned bread and fled with the women. In a town people let a hawk determine a new king. The hawk rested on the fairy’s head. As king, she had a portrait of herself hung on the city gate, with orders to bring to her any stranger who wanted to see the person in the picture. All her former suitors came. She sat in judgement over them, punished some and let others go, and then returned to her husband. The men who had misused the fairy’s dependency on them (the man in the boat, the host and the dervish) face death in the tale. The others go free; that they had lusted after her was not their fault but a natural response to her beauty. The fairy is not blamed for making men crazy – she tried to avoid them, even hid in a tree; rather, her beauty has this effect by itself, without intention and morality. Men’s sexual appetites and capacity for infatuation appear insatiable – the king’s 40 wives can’t keep him from wanting yet another wife, and, conversely, a young beautiful woman has to be on the run to escape unwanted attention from men. The story is an essay on Lur sexuality. It also is an essay on beauty – beauty and sexuality link easily. In the tales beauty is an attribute of youth. No old person is beautiful. (People told me, only half jokingly, that old men and especially old women ought to conceal their ugliness so as not to annoy or sadden others.) For young women, sun and moon serve as simile for

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outstanding beauty, that is, a round, radiant face framed by long, dark hair, light skin, and large dark eyes. (The narrator of A/Th5: 132 says about a beautiful girl, ‘she was not simply a girl, she challenged the sun and the moon’.) In L39 a div gives a girl ‘a moon on her chin and a sun on the forehead’ (262). The implication here is the Aphroditetheme: beauty is good – even God will ‘praise her beauty’ (F15);19 but beauty is also dangerous. Narrators do not describe women’s beauty in detail. Rather, a woman is known to be beautiful by her impact: men ‘want’ her (the ghoul above wants ‘Namaki’, a beauty as suggested by the name: namak, salt, indicates a spicy, interesting face or person); men fall in love instantly, they faint and become lovesick; they want to possess her (Lama’e: 22, A/Th5, F40); other women become jealous, and it is ‘sinful’ to look at her (L5, L11, expressing Lur sentiments). Indeed, the word ‘sin’, rare as it is in the tales (see Chapter 5), most often appears in connection with beauty. The passion-reaction in men is so strong that even just a glimpse, a hair, a slipper can set it off. The protagonist in A/Th1 falls in love with the absent owner of a single long hair in the water. The prince in a Cinderella story (L39) falls in love with a bejewelled slipper a girl had lost – he had never seen the owner, let alone danced with her. The tales suggest that beauty may be as dangerous as it is gratifying. For one, women can misuse the power inherent in beauty. In L31 and variant F41 a woman uses her beauty to trick men. This is ‘bad’ and she is punished for it. The other danger is that men harass a beautiful girl, abduct her (even a fairy), fight over her, or else that they get depressed, ill and crazy if they cannot get her. Because of this effect any young woman in her right mind, but especially so a beautiful one, will conceal herself. The religious proscription of modest dress has a basis in what people say they observe and what they describe in the tales: men cannot control themselves in the face of a woman’s beauty, and because lack of control has bad consequences men have to avoid looking at beautiful women, which they can do only if beauties hide. Nudity in public, therefore, is either scandalous/ unlawful or a sign that the person is not in his or her right mind. In L3, a fraudulent fortune teller trying to avoid being asked for a prediction he could not make, decides to run naked through the castle and

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grab the king – this would convince everybody that he had gone mad, and would spare him further service. The protagonist in F41 magically cures the ‘crazy’ princess. Her craziness consists of living in her garden, naked and beautiful ‘like the sun’ (194). As her condition improves, she gradually awakens to the danger and impropriety of her nakedness. Cured, she can cover and guard herself (and leave paradise, as it were). Until then her father had to guard her by isolating her, by killing any physician who unsuccessfully tried to cure her (because he had seen her naked) and by forcing the successful healer to marry her. The king represents fatherly concern, common sense and religious morality. Girls may fall in love with beautiful young men, too, but in tales they rarely do. Women’s infatuation is taken to be less intense than men’s and is controlled by strong social and psychological barriers against showing it. Princesses in the tales may challenge these borders of decorum; fairies, higher in status yet, can breach them – they may give a beautiful young man a feather as a sign of their infatuation. This happens to the protagonist in F40. Unfortunately, a prince hears of the feather. He falls in love with its owner sight unseen and sends the protagonist to find the fairy and to fulfil the conditions she sets before consenting to marry the prince. At the last moment, however, she kills the prince and his king-father and marries the protagonist, the man she had fallen in love with in the first place. Just like beautiful women, fairies are fickle. Where women ‘want’ men they create danger. The lusty stepmother, for example, who wants to seduce her stepson and after his refusal becomes his enemy, propels the young man out of his father’s house and into adventures (ATh1, A/Th10; Gh26). Such attractions fall into the hushed-up dangerous kinds of intra-family relationships.20 The ease with which it is accepted as a motif though suggests that it is familiar to the narrators and their audiences. Princes and heroes look for – and get – beautiful wives. For poor girls beauty is the only means for social and economic elevation. ‘The Brush Peddler’ (Gh31) Every day an industrious man went out to collect firewood. He sold it and lived on what he got for it. One day one of his daughters said,

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‘Father, dear, I will go with you to help you’. He said, ‘Daughter, dear, it is better for you to stay home and help your mother’. But the daughter pressed him and went with him. He said, ‘If you see a tall bush call me, I’ll come and get it’. Under a thorn-bush the girl saw two bird’s eggs. She told her father. He took the eggs home, sold them and with the money built a house. [The eggs were jewels.] One day the king’s son was playing [ball] with his mates near this house. His ball fell into the courtyard. The girl gave the ball to the king’s son. He looked at the beautiful girl and fell in love with her.21 He came again and threw the ball into the courtyard in the hope the girl would hand it to him. The girl’s mother said, ‘Dear boy, my daughter went to the spring for water, and when she returns I’ll tell her to bring you the ball’. The girl returned and gave the ball to the king’s son. He fell in love not with one heart but with a hundred hearts.22 In the evening he said to his father, ‘I am in love with the beautiful daughter of the brush peddler, go get her for me’. This troubled the father and he disagreed with his son. But the son implored him more every day until the father agreed. The two got married and lived together. This overly simple tale (it does not even explain the nature of the precious eggs) has but one message: beauty makes a young woman. It is the only tale that gives success to a mother’s efforts for arranging a good match for her daughter. The mother could have handed the prince the ball herself but seized the opportunity to give her beautiful daughter a little more exposure with an eminently desirable (rich and high-status) potential suitor. Her interests are the opposite of the king’s, who does not want his son to marry a pauper’s daughter. For a woman, hypogamy is more problematic yet. A bad situation emerges when a high-ranking woman, the king’s daughter, falls in love with a low-status man. ‘Salomon and the Daughter of the Shah’ (Gh43, condensed) A king had a most beautiful and charming daughter. The son of the brother of the king, a poor man, lived as a shepherd.

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Every day he took the sheep out to graze and there played his flute. The king’s daughter, out walking, heard it, and every day fell more in love with him and wanted to marry him. The girl did not know that Salomon was her father-brother’s son. She did not want anybody to know of her infatuation because she knew a king’s daughter could not marry a shepherd’s son. Every day suitors came for her but she refused all. One day the king who was getting impatient with her ordered all young men to the castle, gave each 100 Toman to trade with, and told them that whoever would make the most profit could marry his daughter. Salomon was among them. [He left, and eventually a fairy gave him gifts he used to get rich.] He bought a horse, camels, mules, cows, and donkeys, hired shepherds, took his caravan to the king and camped outside the town. Incognito he went to the castle, where he met the lovesick vizier’s son. Salomon gave him enough money to be able to marry the princess, in exchange for putting his seal on the young man’s back. But with this sign Salomon declared him his lost slave before the king and thus stopped the impending marriage. Salomon showed the king his wealth. The king was happy and ordered the wedding of his daughter to Salomon. He demoted the vizier and gave the office to Salomon. Wealth and status bring success for men who aspire to a high-ranking wife, no matter how they became rich. Conversely, a high-status woman has a hard time convincing her father to let her marry a pauper, even if it is her paternal parallel cousin, the most eligible spouse among relatives. Several protagonists collect beautiful and/or ‘good’ girl-brides as they move from one adventure to another, and in the end have an overabundance of riches. They pass the girls on to brothers or men in their retinue. In A/Th5: 33 the narrator lets the wives of the sad protagonist taunt him: ‘There are three of us and you are still unhappy?’ Lama’e’s schoolboys are familiar with one of the most popular joke-stories about polygyny in Iran.

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‘The Man with Two Wives’ (Lama’e: 130, summary) A man was praising the joys of having two wives to another man so insistently that he, too, took a second wife. But after a few days the second wife sent him back to the first wife. His first wife said that as he only came for rest and sleep now that he had another wife, he should not bother her any more. Rejected at both places he went to the mosque to sleep and there found the man who had been gushing about two wives. His wives had turned him out, too. Both men now sat in the dark and couldn’t sleep for ‘loneliness and fear’. This tale not only provides a negative comment on polygyny but also on wifely duties. The husband ‘troubles’ his wives with his demands for sex and services. Indeed, there are anecdotes about tired elderly wives who encourage their husbands to take another wife to help with chores, including sex, may even find a co-wife who is a good worker (a good maid, as it were) and who will not challenge the first wife’s power position. In F41 one of the two wives of the protagonist is a proper, kind and competent housewife, the other a fairy. The narrator commented that the man needed both because the fairy would not want to do housework. Most tales are built on the insight that men need wives just as women need husbands but that finding a good spouse is difficult. Although some men in the tales get lucky with a princess or a fairy, that is, a flawless spouse of much higher standing, others of lowly status have a hard time finding a wife at all. This is more realistic. To this day an unaccomplished young man dreaming of a wife may hear from his parents or siblings: ‘Who will give you donkey-head a wife?’ (see Lama’e: 87 above; Gh14 elaborates this theme too: see text in Chapter 4). Fairy-wives are the best wives in the tales, and also show the most assertiveness vis-à-vis their husbands, although their high status does not prevent the husbands from neglecting their counsel and wishes. When the human husband of Samanbar, the most beloved, beautiful and perfect of all fairy wives, gives her to his lovesick friend, she cries and moans until her new husband realizes her sorrow and

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magnanimously gives her back to her first husband (L57).23 As good wives not even fairies can manage their lives without tears. Mother Mothers get a more nuanced treatment than other women in the tales. They care for and worry about their children, they scheme and plead to get them good spouses, but the children may also overwhelm them. In F12 (and L8 from Kerman) a panicky mother whose foolish wish for many children gets her a house full of pea-children, kills all but one, who hides. In one remarkable story (A/Th16) a ‘woman in black’ furtively buries her child whom she had killed, apparently to spite her husband. He executes her. The household drama that prompted this behaviour can be guessed: the woman might have suffered under an abusive husband or in-laws, or had co-wife conflicts to the point where she wanted to punish and harm her husband and his people. The deft, matter-of fact way in which the narrator tells this episode points to familiarity with the sentiments and dynamics behind it. Another mother who endangers her children threatens to harm them unless her husband reveals a secret to her (L35; he gives in to her). It is understood that she does not threaten her children but her husband’s children – the strictly patrilineal understanding of where children belong legally turns a mother into the caretaker of her husband’s children.24 Likewise, the mother of the baby wolf-girl in F26 has no part in the decision whether to kill her or not – the girl’s brothers make this decision. Neither do we know the reaction of the mother of an abandoned girl-infant to her husband’s infanticide – it is his child, to do with as he wishes. In traditional communities in Iran this holds true to this day, although interpretations of custody laws slowly seem to be changing in Iran in favour of mothers. Dramas arising from these issues provide popular plots in teledramas. The most positive image of a mother is in F13 (L39; see also L13 from Kerman) where the mother, killed by her little daughter who then is plagued by her stepmother, from the grave helps the girl to stay alive and to marry well. In other words, she discharges her two foremost motherly duties, feeding and arranging a marriage, even after her

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death. The one ‘bad’ mother in the tales (F41, also L31) who receives a lot of exposure allows a man to seduce her and persuade her to try to kill her sons. Later, the sons wash their hands of her but give her the means to live her life over again. No narrator is forgiving and generous toward a bad stepmother in the tales. At best, stepmothers disappear from the story after their evil deeds, but more likely they meet a dramatic and cruel death. The totally negative image of the stepmother reflects the mirror image of the same dedication that is positive in a mother: every good woman cares much more for her own children than for another woman’s. In the give and take of daily struggles in a scarce and exhausting environment that is the traditional ethnographic backdrop to the tales, it is easy to see how a woman would be tempted to neglect her husband’s children by an earlier wife. This is not excused in the tales, though, on the understanding that a wife has to honour all her husband’s domestic obligations, be this stepchildren or in-laws, and ought to be kind and just. In this regard, too, wives appear as servants, caretakers of a man’s property. Not once in the tales (and rarely on the ethnographic plane) does a father actively step in to rectify a situation of abuse of his children by another wife, nor is one punished for his neglect. The most endearing of all mothers, the fearless Goat who fights the wolf to get her kid back, is heroic without a husband in sight (see Gh18, text in Chapter 4, and F2). When I brought up this point with several women in Sisakht, three opinions emerged. One was that the Goat knew how to feed her child, so what did she need a man for? (‘She has tits, he doesn’t’, the woman said, to general amusement.) The second opinion was that in a herd, many goats shared one buck who never so much as looked at his children (this caused more hilarity). The third was that because the Goat had no man around the house she had to do all the work, including men’s work, just like the women in the village whose husbands were away as migrant workers for months on end. In any case, not beholden to male authority, the Goat is an assertive and successful mother in a dangerous world and one that made sense to all narrators and listeners: when left to their own devices, women are capable and responsible. This is the practice-based everyday gender

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philosophy most women and men agree on, although laws, customs and power issues provide different models. Old Woman ‘Old Woman’ appears in over 40 tales, much more often than ‘Old Man’. While Old Man either defines the background (he is a poor firewood peddler, out all day working, hen-pecked, etc.) without much further significance, Old Woman provides drama. With few exceptions, ‘old’ does not so much refer to age as to status and economic standing. A woman may be a ‘mother’ in one episode and ‘old woman’ next in the same tale when her poverty is the issue. But Old Woman the hustler, as a type, is who she is because she is on her own, trying to get by at the economic fringe of her world. She meddles in everything and peddles all; she knows things; she is hungry and can be bought for a bite to eat in order to gather intelligence, to lie, but also to help, to plead with a king, to be a go-between. There are some good old women in the tales; they look like a dear grandmother – caring, kind, helpful. Otherwise, Old Woman appears as master of deceit and dissimulation. Described as ugly, bent, racked with aches and pains, stingy, nosey and resourceful, her looks and behaviour invite expansive performances – Old Woman is a favourite character of storytellers. People consider da¯lu, the Luri term for old women and loaded with negative meanings, an insult now and in polite speech replace it with the more neutral-descriptive Persian pirezan, ‘old woman’. Three aspects inform the ambivalent attitudes toward them. Past beauty, sexual power and fertility, old women have spatial freedom. They can move around in the neighbourhood, no longer hampered by the modesty that keeps younger women close to home. They are visible and in and out of relatives’ houses. This makes them suspect: in the tales they are messengers and masters of intrigue. The ambivalent status of Old Woman in the tales fits the consequences of the structural position of old women in a patrilineal/virilocal community. Her reliable helpers, the daughters, left the house upon marriage just when she probably had to care for an ailing husband too old to work or is a widow, altogether lacking the provider. Her survival

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and comfort now depend on the sons and their wives, especially the youngest son in the prevalent ultimogeniture tradition that leaves him and his family in his parents’ house after all other siblings moved out. At the end of her lifecycle a wife and mother is thus dependent on the services of a daughter-in-law, that is, an outsider, overworked and indifferent, who may even carry a grudge against her for injustices, petty power struggles or unwarranted interferences over the years when she had to accept the mother-in-law’s leadership. Despite the ideology of the social benefits of three-generational cohabitation with a place of honour for the elders, these arrangements brought many difficulties for all concerned. Many old women preferred to live alone even in extremely reduced circumstances, or would have preferred this had social conventions allowed it.25 In A/Th16: 77f, the narrator describes such a situation: the princess-protagonist, condemned to death by her father but saved by the executioner, meets an old woman and asks for shelter (‘for the love of God’). The old woman says, ‘My dear, I have no house. Let me set you straight. I’m an old woman. I live in these ruins. If today you wish for bread, cake, lamps, sugar, tea, clothes and carpets, I have none of these. If you’ll come to stretch out on the stone-cold ground, you’re welcome’. Later, when another Old Woman begs the princess for a pomegranate to sooth her ‘burning stomach’, the princess, knowing that the fruit contains jewels, refuses the plea with a curse: ‘May you be shot’, she says, putting the beggar in her place, and then gives her money as an alms. Fittingly, the active Old Women in the tales seem to be on their own. For the daughter-in-law the wrinkled, nagging crone, her husband’s mother, likely is an unwelcome housemate, a burden. Yet the young woman’s own old mother living across town in the young woman’s eyes remains beautiful and beloved, her goodness and kindness fondly remembered. This is the other side of the Old Woman stereotype: depending on who is looking at her, she is either good or a pain. The third aspect has to do with knowledge. Experiences gained over a lifetime of observing and learning about animals and people made many older women ‘wise’ women counsellors. The main narrator in my own collection was such a woman. She not only knew tales

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and riddles but also the local pharmacopoeia and treatments for many health conditions. If sons or other close relatives did not cramp such a wise old woman’s activities for fear of gossip, she could build up quite a reputation – a good one in most cases I know of, but potentially one eliciting suspicion and fear too. These three aspects seep into the concept of the ‘Old Woman’ in the tales. Several string-stories revolve around the Old Woman’s proverbial parsimony (Lama’e: 69, F7; see also F6, text in Chapter 4). In A/Th1, the narrator on three occasions emphasizes that an old woman denies shelter to the protagonist until he pays well. Old Woman’s willingness to sell her services, dark as they may be, is instrumental in getting a prince what he desires in F17 (and A/Th17, A/Th18), when the Old Woman abducts the beautiful girl-in-the-tree in exchange for a bellyful of food. She wins the girl’s trust by posing as a blind woman who needs help with her cooking utensils. Later, she shows another Old Woman-trait when she substitutes her own ugly daughter for the tree-girl, deceiving the prince as she had deceived the girl. In the end the prince punishes both her and the impostor by letting a mule drag them to death. A good example of the Old Woman’s grandmother-kindness is in the same tale, F17. The girl-in-the-tree, after having suffered abandonment as an infant by her father, being brought up in the nest of a bird, deception by the bad Old Woman, abduction by a prince and death by a lion, finally ends up in a good old woman’s house. There she hides in peace until the old woman puts everything right. In F4 the protagonist, a very young man, is on a quest in a strange town. An old woman – he addresses her as ‘Grandmother’ – kindly hosts him. When he asks her to arrange an audience with the king for him so he could cure the king’s blind son, she pleads with him not to try anything he could not possibly pull off, considering how many famous physicians had tried and failed. But then she complies with his request. Indeed, concern, cautioning, doubting and warning belong to grandmotherly/ motherly goodness in the tales. An example of the Old Woman’s dangerous knowledge is in A/Th1 where she advises a woman to withhold sex to force her husband to spill

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a secret. The prince in L40 warns his wife that the old woman who had insinuated herself into his house is ‘a great magician and a great mischief maker . . .’ (275). Indeed, after the princess had disregarded her husband’s warning the old woman takes ‘all the happiness out’ of the princess’s life (279). In A/Th1 it is a wife who, also in vain, warns her husband, ‘These old women have magic about them . . . Don’t let them near you’ (6). The ‘wily’ Old Woman in Gh21 put a spell on a husband so that he could not have sex with his bride because the Old Woman wanted the girl for her own protégé. If a girl was married very young, as happened frequently and predictably because of the shortage of women, her mother could put a ‘binding’ spell on the husband’s penis so that he could not get an erection. She would lift the spell when the girl was mature. In cases of a man’s sexual malfunctioning or lack of sexual interest in his wife, rumours of such a spell could cause friction between the two families. Ghaffari (or his narrator) and Amanolahi’s narrator (A/Th1, above) use the term ja¯du, witchcraft, for these old women’s spells. Nowhere in the tales is such a crafty old woman called a witch, though. Old women’s magical abilities were due to knowledge and its application, not to innate evil qualities. In L17 Old Woman makes the full transition from dangerous woman to demon. ‘The Wolf-Aunt – A Moral for Husbands’ (L17, summary)26 Pretending to be his sister, an ‘old woman’ waylaid a poor firewood peddler. She commiserated with his lot and invited him, his wife and seven daughters to live with her. She fed and fattened them until they were ‘fit and well’. One day the youngest daughter saw her in the shape of a wolf eating a man and told her mother, who tried to tell her husband that they were in great danger from his ‘sister’, but he did not listen. She fled with the daughters. The man stayed, and that night the old woman turned into a wolf again and ate him. For the narrator, the moral was that husbands disregard their wives’ counsel at their peril. Taken together with the other Old-Woman tales it, too, describes the wide range of occasions where women exert power

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and the sentiments this power creates. The lack of physical strength entitles old women to assistance from others, and the lack of sexual power liberates them from various confinements of young women. But both conditions also open the door to uses and misuses of other female sources of power such as manipulation and authority over younger women and men in their care. With the Old Woman the lifecycle of womanhood in the tales is complete.

Summary There are fewer female actors in the tales than male ones and their activities are less differentiated. Women’s most fitting and frequent job is housework, hard and unpleasant like all manual labour, taken for granted and similar to servant-work. (Indeed, in several tales a husband cannot tell his wife from a maid who usurped her place.) Responsibilities toward her family define the women’s place in the grand scheme of things and create opportunities for ethical misconduct, which the stories then elaborate. Patrilineality and gender expectations put girls at a disadvantage, even in peril. But when their male superiors fail them and they are left to their own wits girls appear in the stories as plucky, resourceful and successful. The narrators cheer them, as it were. Thus, women’s passivity and activity correlate with their relationships to authorities: the closer supervised/protected, the more passive they are. Their beauty makes fools of men, endangers everybody and is their single most consequential asset in marriage-stories. As wives, women are to be distrusted, many tales and narrators suggest. Unless husbands watch wives carefully, the wives may come to harm and do harm. The best wives (beautiful, competent, loyal) are fairies – this in itself is a commentary on ‘wives’ seen from the side of men. As mothers, women are much less ambiguous: they care, even from the grave, but, with exceptions, are rather ineffective when it comes to guiding or saving their children. ‘Father’s wife’ is unexceptionally bad for her husband’s children, in competition as she is with her husband’s children from different wives in a zero-sum game over

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the man’s resources. As old women, finally, women have more freedom of movement, but their resources and recourses are extremely limited. Lacking beauty and access to most economic resources, they use the knowledge gained over a lifetime to stay alive, shrewdly manipulating and bartering all that is of value to anybody. The ‘Old Woman’ often is a dangerous meddler but can also show grandmotherly agility in the tales. Throughout the lifecycle, the tales show the ‘wiggle room’ women have within the parameters set by a rather misogynist attitude and the authority of men who are responsible for women by tradition, religion and law. If women in the tales reach beyond this frame they do so as unprotected girls, in men’s clothes, as fairies, princesses, wayward wives and the Old Woman, that is, in a liminal, dangerous zone. Yet narrators and audiences see in their activities and successes an option for women, one that relies on the skills and self-assurance women acquired while growing up. This is exemplified in the narrators’ approval of abandoned girls’ agency, in ‘Mother Goat’, and in the many consequential old women. Although men might see mute girls and subservient fairy-wives as an ideal, women do not have to feel bad if they cannot fulfil this wish: a quick wit and self-reliance go a long way toward success. This is quite an upbeat insight, and a rumbling comment on the male view of how the world ought to be run. The choices are also relevant in Iran today, where more than half of university students are young women who by their very success challenge confining authoritarian and sexist customs.

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CHAPTER 4 ANIM ALS, PL ANTS AND PEOPLE’S WISDOM

Several tales in the collections feature animals and plants. They involve few people and make hardly any reference to the transcendental realm. Some are derived from fables that intend ‘to enforce a useful truth’1 but countless retellings modified them into just-so stories about and with animals. Yet for all their simplicity they deliver concise, clear messages about life in statements that show how the people who tell and understand these stories think and behave and what are their values, morality and philosophy. In these little tales the rules for the struggles of daily existence are laid out openly. Interpretation largely becomes a statement of the obvious. As there are no hidden ideologies or coded messages, little cultural decoding is necessary to understand them. Furthermore, the narrators do not need to give moral reassurances. They state problems and solutions clearly and paint right and wrong not in the black and white of dualistic righteousness but in the shaded outlines of the experiences of everyday life. Such tales are popular in the Zagros area (and almost everywhere in Iran) to this day – their simplicity and brevity take them out of competition with the soap operas on television and make them suitable for telling to children. Most of these tales have a funny side, potentials for jokes and bawdy details, and in my experience most narrators use and create opportunities for humour. In the following I present 16 such tales: 14 from the three main collections (Friedl, Ghaffari and

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Lorimer), one from Amanolahi/Thackston and one from Lama’e, all edited slightly for brevity and with a brief discussion of their respective ethnographic and philosophical background. (The summary of yet another such tale is in Chapter 5, F4.) 1. ‘Goat and Sheep’ (Gh18) Once there was a goat and a sheep, and each had a child. Goat said, ‘Let’s build a house for winter’. Sheep said, ‘I have wool, let rain come, what do I care?’ Goat built the house. Slowly the air got cold, rain and snow fell, and the sheep and the lamb were wet and cold. They came to Goat’s house and begged to be let in. At first Goat did not listen to them, but then it pitied the lamb and let them in. They lived together. During the day Goat and Sheep were out grazing, and in the evening they came home with grass for the kid and the lamb. One day they came home from the mountain and the kid and the lamb were gone. Goat said, ‘Sheep, you stay right here while I go out to look for them and bring them back’. She left and climbed on top of the house of the boar and knocked loudly on the roof with its hoofs. The boar said, ‘Who is tap-tapping on my roof and filling my child’s mush with dust?’ Goat said, ‘Me, me, the little goat with the little horns. Whoever ate my kid, whoever ate my lamb, tomorrow come fight me’. The boar said, ‘Go away, I didn’t eat them’. Goat went onto the roofs of the bear and of all other animals and said the same, and at last came to the wolf. The wolf said, ‘I’ve eaten your kid, I’ve eaten your lamb, and I’ll fight you tomorrow’. The next morning Goat and Sheep took a bowl of yoghurt to the smith. The wolf took a skin bag with air. The smith said, ‘What is in the bag?’ The wolf said, ‘Walnuts’. The smith was happy. Right away he filed the wolf’s teeth sharp and the goat’s horns blunt. As soon as they had left his house, the smith’s boy started to whine

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for a walnut. The smith opened the bag to give him one, but only air came out of the bag. Now the smith knew that the wolf had deceived him, and sent his son after the wolf and the goat. They returned, and the smith took the file and blunted the wolf’s teeth and sharpened Goat’s horns. Wolf and Goat fought, and Goat slit the wolf’s stomach open with the sharp horns. The kid and the lamb came out hale and well, the wolf fell down and died, and the wolf’s child died of hunger. The versions in Lorimer, Ghaffari and Friedl of this most popular of all tales in Iran are nearly identical until the end. The Lorimers’ narrator (L1) let the goat fill a bag for the smith with butter, but the wolf was ‘too stingy to put in butter’ and this angered the smith. Ghaffari’s narrator elaborated the end by mimicking the little boy’s endless whining that destroys adults’ resistance and locally is taken as typical of children’s behaviour. This made it funny for the listeners. In another story-telling session with my narrator, she let the wolf fill the bag with a fart, which startled the smith’s wife when she opened the bag. This, with appropriate noises, turned the tale into a howlingly funny one and demonstrates how easily one and the same motif can take on very different emotional qualities. It is understood that the goat’s payment to the smith, a bowl of yoghurt from her own milk, is inferior to wolf’s bag of walnuts. In the local version of the Galenic system of cold/warm qualities of food stuff, walnuts are very warm and thus a preferred remedy for many ailments, while goat-milk yoghurt is considered cold and for this reason alone much less valuable. It also is cheap while walnuts are expensive. The narrator of the F2 version always called the goat ‘ta¯ta¯ (FatherBrother) Goat’, a term connoting authority. Apparently, for the narrator the goat’s competence and savvy – stereotypical male attributes – override mother goat’s femaleness. All adult animals in the tale are mothers, and all are on their own. This does not jibe with the ideology of male authority and responsibility within the family but it does reflect how mothers/wives often have to manage house and children while husbands are at work. In the traditional transhumant economy of the recent past, many women lived with their children in the outposts

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during spring and summer, making butterfat and yoghurt, while their men were frequently absent for days on end. As told, the tale reflects this facet of women’s lives. The narrator’s sympathy is entirely with the goat. The heroine is active, brave, self-reliant and forthright from the beginning. She also accepts Sheep as her responsibility because Sheep is obviously an incompetent mother in need, insistent on Goat’s help and thus implicitly entitled to Goat’s care and generosity. By her insistence Sheep becomes Goat’s fate. (The same logic also lets parents accept an unshakably insistent suitor of a daughter: his tenacity shows that he is the daughter’s ‘fate’. See Chapter 7.) Sheep is lazy, and more stupid and weaker than Goat, and the wolf is a predator. This is a given in the tale, conforming to the opinion people have of the three animals. Satisfactorily, kid and lamb survive and the wolf’s cub dies. The narrator found it important to emphasize this point without a trace of tender feelings for the cub – by their nature wolves are herd animals’ nemesis. Bear and boar disappear from the story with their denial of guilt. Wolf, however, who in an open fight easily could have killed the goat, gambles and loses her chances because she is stingy and unsuccessfully tries to deceive the smith. This brings a seemingly ethical consideration to the tale. Yet, in all versions I know of, the smith simply gets annoyed with the wolf because the wolf deceived and insulted him. He is not a judge who punishes the wolf for the deception in a moral sense or for having eaten the kid and the lamb. He is a craftsman who counts on being paid for his services. That in this case the smith’s services have the consequence of death for one or the other party is not a moral issue for him but a practical one: whoever pays better gets his support – he is looking out for himself and those in his care. The tale shows how closely bribe, gift and payment for goods and services are connected in this culture. Bribe and remuneration for services have merged here, as they do in any society where ‘corruption’ is part of everyday economics. Thus the tale is a lesson in survival. 2. ‘Auntie Bug’ (F5, condensed) Auntie Bug said that without strong hands and feet she could not work and therefore needed a lion-husband to work for her.

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She wanted to find one on the other side of the river but the water carried her away. She managed to grab a branch and get on land. Walking on she met a shepherd and asked him, ‘Will you marry me?’ He said, ‘Yes’, and she asked, ‘What will you hit me with when you are angry?’ He said, ‘With this stick’. She quickly ran away, shouting, ‘This hurts!’ Next she met a cowherd and asked him to marry her. He, too, said, ‘Yes’, and he, too, said he would beat her with his stick. So she ran away and met a mouse. The mouse said, ‘Hello, Auntie Bug wrapped in a veil, where are you going?’ Auntie Bug told him she was looking for a husband. Mouse said, ‘Marry me!’ Auntie Bug asked what he would hit her with, and Mouse said, ‘With this soft tail’. So Auntie Bug became his wife. They lived in a mouse hole. One day Mouse said, ‘I will go to the mill to steal some wheat. You go for a walk’. She did so and fell into the water again. The water carried her to a pit. A horseman came by, and she, from the pit, said that the horseman should tell the mouse in the mill that Auntie Bug was in the pit. The horseman came to the mill and told the miller the strange story about the voice in the pit. Mouse was there and heard it, and ran to the pit and got Auntie Bug out by using his tail as a rope. He took her home and said, ‘Don’t go out again. I will bring you everything you need’. In this popular tale even the commentaries on marriage are humorous. A weak woman needs a strong husband, but the funny impropriety of a woman proposing to a man brings disappointment and, potentially, pain. When Auntie Bug meets Mr Mouse, the proper proposal of marriage by Mr Mouse brings her a good husband and a good life: he saves her, puts his tail to good use, and promises to take care of her completely. These are a husband’s duties. The tale gives a graphic reason for why a wife should not leave the house at all: women are vulnerable – the world is too dangerous for them. Although marriage customs have changed everywhere in Iran towards giving women and potential brides much more control over decisions and proceedings, and although wives are now likely

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to dismiss the customary purported reasons for seclusion (danger, women’s clumsiness and lack of knowledge), the traditional stereotypes and ideologies of gender are still vivid.2 Bug’s expectations of her husband’s beatings go without comment in the tale and were greeted by giggles from the audience. That she should be circumspect enough to ask about beatings in order to avoid them was a familiar schema for the audience. Bug’s seclusion is a satisfactory end and did not produce laughs, nor did the Freudian symbols – I saw no sign that narrator or audience picked up on them. The next story starts with a similar trope. 3. ‘The Sad Story of the Beetle, Mouse and Ant’ (L45, summary) ‘Sister Nazi’ (‘Pretty Darling’) asked men she met how they would treat her if she went with them. One said, ‘I will mount you on my yellow cow’, and she refused him because the cow might kick and buck. Another said he would put her on the mule, and she refused because the mule too would kick and buck. Then Nazi fell into a pit, and Mr Mouse rescued her and took her home. But when Mouse married an ant, Nazi was so angry that she drowned herself. Ant threw herself after her and drowned too. Grieving Mouse went to a tree and said, ‘The water killed Mistress Ant’, whereupon the tree shed its leaves. The crow asked why the tree had no leaves, and the tree said, ‘The Mouse is sad, the water killed Mistress Ant’, whereupon the crow moulted its feathers; then the spring got bloody, then the ibex dropped his horn, hare cut off its tail, Old Man ran a spade through his body, his wife put the iron griddle around her neck, and the neighbour destroyed her house. In the end they buried the ant and then wandered the earth in grief. Many versions of this string-tale circulate in Iran. Using self-mutilation as an expression of grief, the story can be lengthened by letting the last mourner recite all earlier mourners to the next one, who then grieves and recites the growing list to the next one. This goes on until the string is too long to remember and the narrator makes a mistake,

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or else until narrator and audience get tired of it. In this version, the beginning is not well connected to the string-part; it ‘belongs’ to another marriage narration (for example, F5). The string-component of F5 is similar to the tale of Nazi but without the co-wife and suicide motifs – a clumsy ant-woman simply drowns in a pot of soup. The acts of excessive mourning with self-mutilation are the same in both, indirectly demonstrating the local people’s strong need to mourn their dead appropriately, but without giving even a hint of a reason for this need. The joke in this tale lies in the outlandish exhibitions of grief over a bug. The two female actors’ suicides receive no special attention or comment. The matter-of-fact presentation of the suicides in itself amounts to a negative commentary on polygyny as well as on the narrow limits women have in dealing with problems within the family. At the time when the tales were recorded, and until recently, suicide of women in the area was so frequent as to cause governmental inquiries. Recently the suicide rate for women has declined – women now have more options to deal with domestic issues, people say, but these options come from outside their own culture, such as, for example, from state laws and courts. Nazi’s name is an indication of her qualities: she is Mouse’s pretty love-interest, so delicate as to be afraid of riding (literally so, without recognition of its Freudian overtones), which is different from a man’s interest in his ‘main’ wife. Usually in cases of polygyny, the first wife is the main, proper wife, vetted if not arranged for by the man’s family, and later a man, if rich enough and so inclined, may marry a woman he fancies. However, with the changes in residence and work patterns over the past two or three generations, young men now may take a wife more or less secretly in the city where they study or work, and later may have to fulfil an earlier marriage obligation in their own town. This is the stuff of high drama and of much unhappiness for both wives, and an enduring theme in popular literature. 4. ‘Fendfenduq and Eagle’ (Gh14) One day Fendfenduq, the smallest bird in the woods, went to Eagle and asked permission to marry his daughter. Eagle

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laughed at Fendfenduq because he was so small. To mock and trouble him he said, ‘I’ll give her to you if you bring me a piece of wood that is neither straight nor bent’. Fendfenduq, who did not see that Eagle was making fun of him, was happy and said to himself, ‘This is quick and easy’. Fendfenduq flew to the woods, but wherever he hopped around and searched, he couldn’t find a piece of wood that was neither bent nor straight. To this day the little bird remains small and restless, hopping from tree to tree, from branch to branch, always turning his head left and right and forward and backward, looking for just such a piece of wood. This tale is one of several explaining the reasons for habits or shapes of animals (see also No. 9 below). In doing so, it also makes a harsh comment on marriage chances and options of poor ‘little’ men. In contrast to the grand tales where the pauper gets the princess, here the situation is realistic: a powerful father can – and will – get rid of an unwanted suitor easily, even may humiliate one of greatly inferior status. The tale is told from the inferior’s perspective. It does not explicate a moral but implies a wisdom: respect social distance and don’t set your sights too high when you are looking for a wife. 5. ‘The Fox without a Tail’ (Gh46) One day a fox went to an abandoned campsite to find something to eat. He found a little boy’s dress, put it on and walked around. A lion saw him and liked the dress. He asked the fox, ‘Uncle Fox,3 where did you find this beautiful boy’s dress? I want one too’. Uncle Fox said, ‘Bring me the skin of a calf, then I’ll make you one’. The lion said, ‘Since when are you a tailor?’ Uncle Fox said, ‘Don’t you know I am one?’ The lion went away, brought a skin, and said, ‘Now make me a dress’. Uncle Fox said, ‘Go away and come back in a few days for the dress’. The lion left. The fox ate the skin. The lion came back, asked for the dress, and the fox said, ‘All is done except the sleeves. Bring me more skin’. The lion met a flock of sheep, got a sheep and took the skin to Uncle Fox. Uncle Fox said, ‘Come back in a few days’. The lion returned

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and asked for his dress. Uncle Fox said, ‘Bring me more skin’. The lion left, but on the way thought that he didn’t know how much more skin was needed and turned back to ask. He found Uncle Fox eating the skin. He got angry, attacked the fox and got his tail, but the fox escaped. A few days later the lion met the fox again and said, ‘I looked for you up in the sky and find you here on earth – now what am I to do to you?’ Uncle Fox asked, ‘Why – what have I done to you?’ The lion said, ‘Don’t you remember how you fooled me and I got your tail?’ The fox said, ‘Uncle Lion, you are mistaken – I am not the fox you are looking for. I am from a family that has no tails. We are called ‘The Tailless’. The lion said, ‘Bring me some of these foxes-without-a-tail, then I’ll believe you’. The fox got some foxes together and said, ‘Let’s go to a vineyard that has no guard and eat grapes’. They followed him there, and the fox said, ‘Let’s bind our tails together’. The foxes were so happy about the grapes that they did so. But the guard came and attacked them, and they fled hither and yon and tore their tails off. Uncle Fox took them all to the lion and now the lion believed him. After a while Uncle Fox saw a flock of sheep and wanted to eat a sheep. But he was afraid of the trap. He went to the lion, greeted him politely, and said, ‘Uncle Lion, my son is to be circumcised. I’ll take you there – I have a good sheep-tail for you’. The lion was happy and said, ‘Have you invited the other sheep too?’ The fox said, ‘Yes, I sent the crow to invite them’. [The lion went with the fox.] The fox showed the lion the fat tail in the trap and said, ‘If you are hungry, eat it’. The lion put his head into the trap and was stuck. The fox took the sheep’s tail and started to eat. However much the lion pleaded, the fox did not listen but left him there and walked away. A hunter came by and killed the lion. For a short time after they had learned to walk, little boys used to wear a colourful coat-like garment with a bodice and a skirt. Later, after circumcision, for a few days they wore a wraparound

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skirt instead of pants. People explained that this was to fool malevolent non-human beings such as jinn into believing that the boys at these vulnerable times were girls and so not worthy of stealing. To let Fox manipulate the lion, the narrator first used the pretty babyboy garment and later used the other occasion involving a non-manly garment, i.e. the circumcision party, thereby, implicitly, making fun of mothers’ anxieties and emphasizing its potentially dangerous meaning. Then and now local people raise fat-tail sheep, a breed where fat accumulates in the tail which is both a sign of a sheep’s wellbeing and a delicacy for people and carnivores. Losing his tail (and the tails of other foxes) saves the life of the fox; hunger for a sheep’s tail loses the lion his life. Hunger, the need to eat, is a propelling theme in tales. Wild animals are always hungry. In this case emphasis on the Freudian symbolic meanings in the tail-penis-food string would constitute an over-interpretation. Here, a tail is a tail in the literal meaning the people give it. In other words, the tail is integrated into the tale in a way that makes perfect sense on the ethnographic level. Grapes as food for a fox, though, did not make sense to a male listener in a similar tale I heard: the ‘first narrator’ must have made a mistake, he said. In this string of interactions Fox is a scoundrel and a hero. He is clever and successful, demonstrating many skills of manipulation and dissimulation to acquire good food and to outwit a lion. This is the story’s main value for entertainment and carries a strong philosophical message: it is not wisdom, strength and status, the tale suggests, but cleverness that brings success. This is an insight narrator and audiences agree with on the basis of their own experiences. 6. ‘Tortoise Bowl-on-the-back and the Fox’ (L46, condensed) Tortoise with a bowl-on-its-back was sowing its field. Fox came by, said, in passing, ‘May God give you strength’. When Tortoise was reaping the wheat he came by again and said, ‘May God give you strength’, and when Tortoise was threshing, he came with sacks and wanted a share of the wheat on the strength of the earlier polite greeting. Tortoise refused on the grounds that

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Fox had not worked in the field. They argued and then agreed on a race to the threshing floor, winner to take all. Tortoise got its brother to hide at the threshing floor, and thus together they outwitted the fox. The popular story ends with an explicit ‘moral’ but it is not clear if it is the narrator’s or the Lorimers’ (305): ‘… one who is greedy is put to shame’, it says. I never heard it with this ending. Rather, the message about greed was implied, while the best part of the story was the rare defeat of the fox, usually the wiliest of creatures, by an animal not known for speed or wit. The reliance on brotherly assistance is a rare feature in tales. Its presence here contains a comment on the advantages of fraternal cooperation in a dangerous world. This implied ‘moral’ is important in a society that privileges elder sons over younger ones, and where competition for scarce resources counters and subverts the inheritance rule that accords each son an equal share. Brothers ‘ought to’ help each other and when they do they win, the tale suggests, but everybody understands that in the challenges of daily life there are many obstacles to fulfilling this obligation. A further insight lies in the fox’s use of a pious salutatory formula: local people told me often that one ought not to trust those who make a show of their piety. 7. ‘The Wolf who Lost his Eyes’ (Gh35) One day Lion, Wolf and Fox went hunting. They got a dove, a partridge, and a gazelle. Lion said, ‘Let’s divide’. The wolf had become increasingly hungry and said, ‘The dove for the fox, the gazelle for the lion, the partridge for me’. The lion was angry with this and clapped his paw so hard on the wolf’s head that the eyes popped out and the wolf died. The shrewd fox said to the lion, ‘Don’t be angry, I know how to divide the game’. Lion said, ‘All right, do it’. The fox said, ‘The dove for your breakfast, the gazelle for your lunch, and the partridge for your dinner’. The lion was pleased and said, ‘How did you think of this?’ The fox said, ‘I’m your humble servant – when I saw the wolf’s eyes I quickly made up my mind’.

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The lion ate the meat, all of it, and then he and the fox went up a high mountain. The fox sighed and said, ‘I am thinking of your strong father who used to walk here with me and who could jump from the mountain and come back hale and well’. The lion said, ‘I am stronger than my father and I can jump better’. The fox said, ‘I am your servant, of course you are right’. The lion said, ‘Now watch!’ He jumped and broke his bones. The fox went down to the half-dead lion and started to eat him from behind. The shattered lion said, ‘Come around and eat me from the front’. The fox said, ‘I am no fool – you want to get me by the leg. But I don’t need your advice. Front or back makes no difference – all of you belongs to me’. Despite the title that the unidentified narrator or the editor gave the tale, the main character is the wily fox again. Usually, Wolf gets killed in the tales but Fox can save himself. Here, the joke lies in the fox’s show of fake politeness and submission to the obviously more powerful and ruthless companion, after he had seen how easily Lion had killed the wolf. Fox has the wits to flatter the lion with fake humbleness until the lion is the loser and the butt of the joke. Quickly adapting to a new situation, using even unlikely allies for one’s own benefit and manipulating a powerful superior into self-destruction bring success. Good and bad in a moral sense are no issue at all. 8. ‘The Sparrow’ (Gh36, condensed) A sparrow flew around an abandoned campsite and found a tuft of fleece. He took it to a woman and said, ‘Card, card, if you won’t, I will’. The woman carded the fleece. The sparrow flew to a woman with a spindle and said, ‘Spin, spin, if you won’t, I will’. The woman spun it. Then he flew to a woman twilling yarn and said his verse again with success, and next to a woman sitting at a loom who wove his yarn. Then he asked a woman who was sewing to sew a bag for him, and a thresher to fill the bag with wheat, and a man to load his bag on a donkey. Now he went on top of a hill and looked around. He saw a shah on a throne with his wife next to him. The sparrow flew there and said to the

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shah, ‘Shah, don’t sit with your wife; tell her to sit over there’. The woman got up and sat over there, and the sparrow sat next to the shah and was his vizier. There is a break between the two parts of the story of the sparrow organizing food for himself and then becoming the shah’s vizier. Indeed, my version of the same tale (F2) ends with the proud sparrow sitting on his bag of wheat, fluffing his feathers and proudly announcing that even the shah’s daughter was not served any better. However, this mix of two motifs does not change the overall message, that one who boldly demands services is likely to get them. As an aside, the lowly status of a woman, even a queen, is pointed out explicitly – any sparrow with an attitude can replace her. The tale brings tribal women’s traditional work with wool into the plot and contrasts this work (and the farmer’s) with the easy life of the shah and his wife: they ‘sit’, obviously doing nothing, at least no strenuous work. In the local vernacular language, ‘sit’ is an opposite of ‘work’. From now on the sparrow will ‘sit’, too. Ghaffari transcribed this tale into Persian from Luri. In a footnote he adds that the use of Luri added to the humour of the story. Thereby he points to Persian speakers’ assessment of Luri as a boorish, laughable dialect. Here is a double message: the tale’s anonymous narrator commented on a bold mode of getting ahead and on a wife’s position, and the editor then gives a self-deprecatory meta-comment on the likely dismissive reception of this tale by listeners/readers, based on the lowly reputation of his and the narrator’s language among outsiders. 9. ‘The Bear and the Boar’ (F33) Once there were two wealthy herdsmen who owned large herds of sheep, but they were stingy. One day the Prophet said, ‘I will visit the two to see what they will do for me as their guest’. When the two herdsmen learned that the Prophet planned to visit them, they did not want to kill a [valuable] kid or a lamb for him. Instead, they killed a young dog and cooked it and put the platter with the dog-meat in front of the Prophet. But the

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Prophet knew what they had done and said, ‘Get up’, and the meat became the dog again, and the dog ran away. There was a pile of fleece in a corner of the room, and in another corner was a pile of goat hair. The two men were so ashamed that one crawled under the goat hair, the other under the fleece. The one under the coarse black goat hair turned into a boar, and the one under the brown fleece became a bear. The narrator of this legend likes stories that combine religious themes or religious personages with laughable happenings. The first funny moment is the Prophet’s use of a term that orders dogs away (cekh) – for Muslims the dog is an impure animal one cannot touch without making oneself ritually unlawful. To combine an exalted personage such as the Prophet Mohamad with such a word made the Prophet into a Lur and made narrator and audience laugh. The second joke is the stingy herders’ shame or embarrassment and their subsequent turning into animals that also are impure. By the audience’s reactions to it, the jokes were a lot more important than was the well-known moral of the dangers of stinginess and of disregarding the duty of hospitality. Regarding this issue the tale reflects the widespread belief that in order to get wealthy and stay wealthy one had better be thrifty, if not stingy. In everyday life, people consider wealth and generosity as somewhat incompatible. This message is implied in the narrator’s emphasis upfront that the two herders were so rich that they owned their animals rather than herding somebody else’s flock. Their stinginess then comes as no surprise, but it goes against the moral obligation of generosity that does justice to visitors of high rank – the higher the guest’s rank the better must be the service. 10. ‘Snow and Wild Artichoke’ (Gh6) One winter day Artichoke went to Snow and said, ‘Let’s be friends’. Snow said, ‘Don’t you see that I have covered mountain and hill and plain from head to toe? What are you to me to be my friend?’ Days came and went, and winter was about to end. Little by little Snow was turning to water and Artichoke was turning

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green. Snow went to Artichoke, friendly-like, and said, ‘Let’s be friends’. Artichoke said, ‘Remember, when I came to you and asked you to be my friend, you talked a lot about yourself and made me sad. Now, at the end of your life, you think I will be your friend? Go play with yourself!’ Now Snow lost all hope and cried so hard that the tears came down like a flood, and what was left of Snow turned to water and flowed away. Wild artichoke, kangar, is one of the first and most important wild vegetables women collect in the mountains in early spring. In the past this was the first green food after a long, cold, lean winter, a herald of spring and a better diet. The gathering of wild vegetables continues to be popular although winter is no longer a time of hunger.4 The relationship between snow and artichokes is the backdrop to statements about status differences and alliance building, both important themes in traditional Lur society. Ghaffari used a term that suggests kinship, that is, a close relationship with social obligations.5 The mighty and powerful may hesitate to be friendly with low-ranking people, even relatives, because friendliness implies expectations of support for the followers in a patron-like relationship, and this is a burden. Yet, the tale suggests, time can turn the tables quickly on rank in this world, making beggars of princes. Even the great and mighty may be in need of allies one day, no matter how lowly. In this case, however, no friend could have saved Snow. It is a feeble ‘moral’. If not a good moral, the story expresses an appreciation of the circle of time, of nature in early spring, and builds on the natural order of things that makes snow melt and artichokes grow without any reference to cause and effect in ethical terms. For all the bantering, Snow does not melt because it was arrogant – it melts because spring is coming. 11. ‘Old Woman and the Cat’ (F6, condensed) Old Woman milked her goat and put the milk into a bowl. Cat came by and drank the milk. Old Woman trapped the cat and the cat lost its tail. The cat said, ‘Old Woman, give me my tail’. Old Woman said, ‘Cat, give me my milk’. The cat went to the

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goat and said, ‘Goat, give me a little milk’. The goat said, ‘Bring me leaves from the plane tree’. The cat went to the plane tree and said, ‘Give me some leaves for the goat’. The tree said, ‘Water my roots, then I will give you leaves’. The cat went to the spring for water; the spring wanted some girls to dance around it; the girls wanted iron bracelets; the smith wanted an egg; the hen wanted some grain; the granary wanted cow dung to close its opening; the cow wanted grass. The cat went to the field, plucked some grass, gave it to the cow, cow gave dung, granary gave grain, hen gave an egg, smith made bracelets, girls danced, spring gave water, tree gave leaves, goat gave milk, and Old Woman gave the cat back its tail. Another popular string-tale, it uses the image of stingy, poor Old Woman defending her meagre resources, this time against the equally stereotyped hungry cat. In the process, the needs and wants of eight more things, people and animals are spelled out. The needs of all except those of the spring and the ‘girls’ are plain, basic and vital to their existence. The spring and the girls, the tale implies, are different because both are taken care of: the spring does not need anybody or anything in order to have water, and the girls can ask for bracelets because their other needs are met at home. Traditionally, women valued iron bracelets as apotropaic devices against jinn, but here they function mainly as signs of carefree frivolity. Everybody else, the tale suggests, must watch out for him- or herself to meet basic needs of survival. 12. ‘The Rock and the Walnut’ (F1, condensed) Once the rock cracked walnut’s head. Walnut told its mother. Mother asked the rock why it had cracked walnut’s head. The rock said, ‘Why does grass grow all over me?’ Mother asked the grass, ‘Why do you choke the rock?’ The grass said, ‘Why does sheep eat me?’ Mother asked the sheep, and it complained about the wolf; the wolf complained about dog barking; the dog complained about Old Woman feeding it only crumbs; Old Woman complained about mouse tearing her bread towel and stealing

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bread. The mouse said, ‘I did tear her bread towel and I will tear it, and if I could I would tear her stomach too’. This minimalist string-tale rests on the philosophical insight that things are the way they are, without a cause and without the possibility of being different. In order to exist or live, things, animals and people discomfit others – not because they want to harm others but because they are who they are, with habits and needs specific to their being. The version told by a boy in Boir Ahmad (Lama’e, 77f.) ends with the mouse saying, ‘I am a mouse, a mouse, yes, yes, I tear and I tear …’. At another telling of the tale, the narrator of F1 added that in the end the mother told little walnut to beware of rocks. This is all one can do to avoid grief in this world: be on guard. 13. ‘The Old Man and the Snake’ (Friedl, unpublished field notes)6 One day an old man was walking by a river and saw a snake in the water. ‘For the love of God, save me’, cried the snake. The man had pity, emptied his tobacco bag and threw it to the snake on a rope, and the snake came ashore. When the man let the snake out, it shook itself and cried, ‘Did you have to put me into the smelly, tight tobacco bag? I’ll bite you!’ The man said, ‘But I had pity and served you well’. The snake said, ‘Don’t you know that service and pity have no rewards in this world?’ ‘This is not true’, said the man. The snake said, ‘Let’s ask a goat if this isn’t true’. They saw a little goat, and the snake said, ‘Goat, tell us the rewards for service’. The goat said, ‘As long as I had milk the master gave me straw, but now that I am old he wants to slaughter me. There is no reward for service’. ‘Now I’ll bite you’, said the snake to the old man, but he still did not believe it. ‘Let’s ask the tree’, he said. They went to a tree and he said, ‘Tree, tell us the rewards for service and pity’. ‘There are none’, said the tree. ‘I give shade and fruits to all, but the goats climb up and eat me alive, and the people cut off my branches for firewood’. ‘Now I’ll bite you’,

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said the snake to the man. But he said, ‘We will ask one more animal’. Just then a fox was walking by. ‘Fox, fox’, cried the snake, ‘Tell this crazy old man how pity is rewarded in this world’. The fox said, ‘I don’t know what you mean. First tell me your story’. So the old man told the fox how he had saved the snake and that the snake now wanted to bite him. ‘I cannot believe you’, said the fox. ‘A big black snake cannot get into a little tobacco-bag’. The snake said, ‘It is true and I will show you’, and crawled into the bag. The fox quickly tied the bag shut, took a stick and beat the snake inside to death. Then the fox said to the old man, ‘You fool, don’t you know that snakes bite?’ In this sombre commentary on empathy and service, the naive Old Man is saved not by his wisdom or strength but by the fox’s knowledge of snakes, his quick mind, manipulative deception, and dispassionate attitude toward killing in order not to be killed. Old Man is a fool for disregarding the facts of life. The tale also delivers a strong commentary on human beings’ impact on their surroundings through the stories of the goat and the tree: whoever comes in contact with people will suffer because (smart) people know better than any other thing or creature how to use others for their own gain. This message is even stronger in the next tale. 14. ‘The Unlucky Bear’ (A/Th8, condensed) Once a very hungry bear said, ‘O God, I am dying of hunger. Do something for me’. His prayer was answered with a lame goat trailing behind a herd. Bear went near it, and the goat thought of a trick. They greeted each other and then the goat said, ‘Uncle Bear, eat me to the last drop of my blood’. Bear said, ‘Why are you tired of life?’ Goat said, ‘My owner, this son of a dog, beats me so much that I want to die. My last wish is to bleat once more’. It bleated, and the shepherd came running with his dogs and beat the unlucky bear half to death. Again the bear said, ‘God, send me some prey, and I will not dawdle’. He saw a camel standing by itself. The camel greeted

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the bear, wished him well, and said, ‘Eat me to the last drop of my blood’. The bear asked why the camel was tired of life, and camel said, ‘My owner, this son of a dog, takes me on long trips without food or water, and then beats me. There is no happiness left for me. My last wish is that you lift my foot and read what is written under it, if you can read’. Bear did so, and the camel crushed him. The bear wept, he was faint with hunger and again asked God for prey. He saw a donkey standing by itself. The bear drew close, the donkey pricked its ears, greeted the bear, and told him to eat him because his godless owner prodded him with a stick to go faster all the time. The bear said, ‘Thank goodness I have never been subject to human beings’. The donkey’s last wish was that the bear should ride him. The bear climbed onto the donkey, and the donkey ran to the camp. An old woman saw them and said, ‘Look, people, a bear is riding a donkey!’ The people came and beat the bear until he was half dead. Now the bear hid in a cave and wailed, ‘When has my father told me to meet a lame goat? Or sent me to school to learn how to read? Or taught me how to ride a donkey?’ A wood-collector heard him. When the bear said, ‘I hope nobody is around to grab me by my balls and fling me down the slope’, the man did just that, and the unlucky bear died. People see such bawdy, violent tales as humorous.7 The old woman provides an especially funny moment by pointing to the absurd picture of a bear riding a donkey into camp, and the firewood collector provides hilarity by flinging the bear downhill by his testicles, but all three of the bear’s miserable situations are quite funny. In Luri, the adjectives for the bear in the tale, badbakht and bicare, mean, respectively, ‘unlucky-miserable’ and ‘without recourse-miserable’ and are often said together to describe somebody’s bad situation. Thus people acknowledge the bear’s pain. Nevertheless, in the end the bear is satisfactorily dead (at the hand of a man) and the farm animals are safe. God provides food but if one is not quick enough to grab it (literally here) and instead starts to talk and argue, one will have pain in

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addition to hunger. In the end Bear laments his condition, blaming himself for it by acknowledging that his father never advised him to argue with a lame goat, to pretend to be able to read or to ride a donkey. Rather, Bear allowed himself to be stalled by tricky pious greetings and by idle conversation, forfeiting his God-given chances. This is one of the rare instances in the tales where God answers a prayer for a specific favour, yet the recipient is unable to benefit from it because he is not quick and determined enough. It shows the ambivalent opinion people have of the problem of people’s agency in the scheme of God’s Will. One could argue that God willed the bear’s incompetence along with the appearance of game, but the tale does not encourage this sophism. Rather, the message is simple: God provided but Bear did not use the gift. People use this argument frequently when criticizing their children’s performance in school, for example. A much-quoted prayer for success goes, ‘From me hard work, blessing from God’. The three animals’ complaints about mistreatment by their masters to the point of being tired of life make good sense to the bear (and to the narrator): domestic animals are, indeed, abused often, just as bears (and other wild animals) are always on the prowl. People call the mistreatment or killing of animals a ‘sin’, but a sin they cannot avoid, given humans’ longing for meat and need to guard against wild animals. As a concept, ‘sin’ never comes up in the tales, but in this tale animals call the abusive master ‘godless’. A true Muslim, this suggests, will treat everybody who is in his care well, including his animals. The animals Bear wants to eat all outsmart him with fake piety and fake politeness. The tales are redolent with the theme of manipulation as a successful strategy to deal with others. 15. ‘The Story of the Sparrow’ (Lama’e: 69, summary; full text see pp. vii–viii) Sparrow asked Old Woman for some bread. Old Woman promises bread in return for one chore after the other, until in the end she said, ‘Why should I give you bread?’ At this the angry sparrow took the bread and flew away to a cowherd,8 then to a farmer in the field, and to a wedding party, but was deceived everywhere and in turn stole something from them. In the end

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he had a girl, flew to a musician sitting on a rock, said, ‘A bride from me, a song from you’, and the musician took the girl and gave Sparrow a song. Like similar stories that rely on stringing together situations with the same outcomes, this one too encourages obsessive repetitions of narrative phrases. The boy who told the story (a 6th-grade student) used the same phrase four times for the sparrow’s plan to create a distraction (‘I’ll flutter hither and yon’), and then told of the disappearance of the sparrow’s food in exactly the same words in each repetition. People said that children loved such storytelling patterns. The chain of events that leads to Sparrow’s ability to sing is based on deception as long as food is involved. Food is scarce. Everybody is hungry. When, at the time of Lama’e’s residence in Boir Ahmad, teachers admonished children to wash hands before eating, children countered that meanwhile their siblings would eat everything. The first, longest episode – Old Woman’s clever use of Sparrow to get firewood and her use of false promises to gain time – was thoroughly familiar to children at the time. Lying to children in order to make them obey or to avoid satisfying their demands was a popular childrearing device. Children learned early to distrust elders’ promises as well as threats, and to anticipate or circumvent their elders’ strategies. (Over the past generation childrearing practices have changed somewhat.9) In the end, the abused Sparrow becomes a thief in order to get what he wants and to get even with Old Woman. Just as nobody had reprimanded Old Woman or the men who had cheated Sparrow earlier, nobody reprimands Sparrow for his thefts, either. As the most colourful female character in the whole body of tales, Old Woman here shows how she can guard her valuable bread (scarcity is implied) from little hungry beggars. At the time when the tale was recorded, women constantly were shooing away birds, cats, chickens and children when handling food. Of all animals around the house, sparrows were the most bold, quick and successful. The tale plays on this familiar observation. The ending has a twist: the issue no longer is food but a girl of marriageable age, i.e. a valuable object. (The text does not emphasize the

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Freudian food-sex link nor did the listeners make this connection.) The brideprice a man had to pay for a wife was steep, especially for a ‘good’ bride, that is, a beautiful one from a good family. Musicians belonged to an endogamous, low-status class of people. Therefore, getting this bride for a song was an exceedingly good deal for a musician. The young narrator described neither Old Woman nor any other cheater as ‘bad’ in a moral sense. Rather, he took for granted that hungry people would take advantage of any windfall of food and that adults would try to get youngsters to do chores for them. But the tale also asserts that one’s own resources, minimal as a pair of wings as they might be, if used wisely can procure what one needs – theft is not a moral issue in such a context. 16. ‘The Wild Almond Tree’ (Tenges) (Gh25) A young man was in love with a girl. It was winter. She was in the cold highlands, he was in the warm lowlands. He had told her that he would visit her when the trees had their first blossoms. The boy had his eyes on the trees for the first sign of spring, and when he saw the first bud on the wild almond tree he set out for his beloved filled with hope and longing. But when he came to the mountains, instead of petals of blossoms snow fell and covered him. He got stuck in the snow and ice and died. Filled with grief his beloved sang, ‘Bloom, tenges; bloom, almond with bloody thorns – until ban and oak have buds, nobody should say, “spring”.’ Ghaffari explains that tenges is a kind of wild almond tree that sets buds earlier than any other local tree. Ban is a hardy wild pistachio tree. This little story touches on several local themes: the importance of knowing the ways of nature and of heeding them in order to stay alive in this harsh land; the proverbial impatience of lovers separated by their respective work (it is understood that the young people belong to transhumant farming families); the conviction that love and longing make fools of men – the young man forgot that one early bud does not mean ice and snow have left the highlands. Finally, it comments on

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the serious dangers of winter in the high mountains. The girl’s mourning song warns of the deadly consequences of disregarding the rules of nature.

Animals around People According to the tales all animals belong to the natural world, including div and peri in animal form. The better one knows their habits the safer one is and the more use one can get out of them. The most wonderful animal in the tales is a ‘merhorse’ (A/Th10; in Gh26 and F40 it even has a name) that saves the protagonist many times.10 It can talk and fly, live in the sea and materialize at its master’s command. It is also pampered with food, the only animal in the tales that is well cared for. As convenient transportation in battle, on a hunt or for flight, the horse is invaluable even if it is not a fairy, such as when an unbroken colt saves its coward rider (F27). Domesticated animals exist for the wellbeing, if not the survival, of people as, for example, when a magic calf keeps a motherless girl alive (F13). This is their vasife, their purpose in the scheme of things. In L34 an argument between two dogs is an occasion for the narrator’s moralizing on this theme. ‘The Hunter and the White Snake’ (L34: 228, excerpt, summarized) A flock of sheep broke the pen at night and grazed, watched over by the dog until the sheep fell asleep. Now the dog ran back to camp and told another dog, ‘I took the flock out and grazed them until they had their fill, then I came back to see whether the master was asleep or not, for a black ewe has borne a pair of ewe lambs’. [This is good news.] The other dog challenged him, saying: ‘You silly fool, why are you contented to suffer discomfort and take all this trouble merely for a little bit of bread?’ But the first dog scolded him: ‘You shameless beast! Mustn’t even this little bit of bread be earned?’11 And again, while a woman was milking, the ewe’s lamb came and said, ‘Give me a little milk, Mamma’. The ewe replied, ‘You are shameless,

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don’t you see that my master is holding my head and my master’s wife is milking me? Leave me alone till I’m free’. (L34: 229.) The implication that it is up to the master how much milk the lamb will get is ethnographically relevant. Traditional husbandry kept lambs, kids and calves separate from their mothers so as to prevent suckling; only after milking could they drink for a few minutes. Since the mid-1980s herders have increasingly let lambs and kids stay with their mothers, explaining that well-fed young animals were healthier and grew faster. Earlier, the milk was of more value for the herders than were the young animals: milk products were a cash crop needed to pay usurermoneylenders. Milk was available right after lambing and calving, and it was more reliable than the lambs and kids that, undernourished as they were, died easily. This was the economic logic of the vicious circle of local poverty. An idiom advising quick action to avoid a disaster uses this image: ‘The calf is suckling and the horse of calamity is near’ (A/Th18).12 Dogs were hardly fed, either, and survived by scavenging. (The last line in a Luri battle-poem sums up defeat with: ‘Dogs and maggots have started in on the corpses’ A/Th22: 98.) Islamic theology declares them ritually unclean, and this is given as reason for their ill treatment. Shepherds befriended them a little, but mostly they viciously guarded camp, house and flocks. People controlled them with yelling, beating and stoning. Unwanted puppies were left to die in the mountains or penned under rocks. Several times the ambivalence between usefulness and dismissive, uncaring attitude is a theme in the tales: in A/Th14: 68 the protagonist hears ‘moaning’ at a rock and takes out two puppies from underneath. Later they save his life, and even have names. Dogs have to test food to determine if it is poisoned (it is and they die ‘on the spot’ in A/Th10: 47; F40). Cat, who keeps mice in check but also sneaks milk, loses its tail over this food issue (no. 11 above). Goat (no. 13 above) and several animals (no. 14 above) complain about mistreatment by their masters whom they served faithfully. Animals are slave-servants. Once more, subservience is identified with hard work without rewards, anathema to a good life. Wild animals are dangerous in the tales in their own nature (lions, for example, or wolves and snakes) as well as in their demonic form.

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The one protagonist who expresses empathy with a white snake he had unintentionally wounded receives the gift of understanding animals’ languages as a reward for his remorse (L34, above). In a similar story (F28) the protagonist gets this gift because he had killed the molester of the white snake, saving her virginity. In both cases the snakes were peri. All other tales emphasize the danger aspects of wild animals. In A/Th14: 68 the narrator, summarizing part of the protagonist’s dangerous journey, addresses the audience with a popular proverb: ‘… you wouldn’t want your worst enemy to experience what [the protagonist] did. He heard the cawing of crows and the baying [sic] of wolves’.13 Crow and wolf are shape shifters, and the crow obviously retained its ancient symbolic significance as a herald of calamity and danger. Likewise, the eagle/falcon retained its ancient function as a herald of kingship in the tales. But several wild animals also serve people as game food – the healthiest food there is, according to local health lore – and some body parts find use in the local pharmacopeia: fat from a treacherous dervish kills a scheming, fornicating woman (F36); fat from the buttocks of an old woman/demon brings dead people back to life (A/Th11); bear-fat is used for a love spell (Gh26); liver and gizzards of a (magical) wild fowl makes the eater wealthy (A/Th12, F41); gazelle meat restores sight (A/Th10). In these cases, the body parts carry powers of the transcendent beings that took the animals’ form. Anyone who knows how to harness the power will benefit. The impatient, quick-witted female narrator of three tales in my collection lets a cruel demon-like master want to kill his honest servant ‘to get his fat or something’ and editorializes, ‘who knows what for, he knew for sure’ (F36: 129).14 Knowledge is power.

Summary The absence of transcendental features other than div (ghouls) and peri (fairies) and the matter-of-fact way the protagonists argue and behave in the animal-centred tales suggest an entirely this-worldly orientation. The expectations expressed in the tales, that is, those of the narrators and audiences, are firmly rooted in conditions of life in everyday circumstances of their world. Animals and people co-exist, with their

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separate language(s) and organization.15 This world is rough, the needs of people and animals greater than the resources, and the resources are distributed unequally. The tales demonstrate how God’s creatures have to manoeuvre with wit and daring to survive. Actors such as Wolf, Old Woman, Mouse and Fox behave predictably, true to their stereotyped characters, and wise people will adapt to their expected behaviour. Indeed, one must manoeuvre around the propensities and inclinations of all creatures and earthly features in order to be successful or at least not to get hurt. Knowledge about other beings’ needs, wants, intentions and capabilities helps one to survive, be it about those of people, domestic animals or wild animals and their demonic and fairy-masters. Only a fool expects beings and things to be different from what they are. There is little, if any, uninterested kindness and generosity in this world, the tales suggest, but this is no reason for self pity, whining or resignation, and not for sentimentality either. Only animals complain, not people. A quick wit, knowledge and boldness will get people through difficulties. Strategies of manipulation such as flattery, dissimulation and false promises bring success and ought to make the recipient of flattery and promises suspicious. Those who do not succeed are fools because they do not use their God-given abilities and opportunities well. As a rule of thumb, success justifies behaviour in these tales. Hardly anybody worries about morality, about good or bad, or about eschatology. Judgements of actions and motivations depend on the context. Those who come to grief in the stories are not so much punished for evil deeds as simply eliminated because they are dangerous. Social status is an issue, though, as are status obligations: a ‘good’ horse is one that saves its master; a ‘good’ husband, even a mouse, is one who takes good care of his wife; a ‘good’ mother, even a goat, is one who cares for and defends her children against all comers in this harsh world.

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CHAPTER 5 GOD’S WAYS

Shi‘i Muslims by creed and definition are embedded in a web of relationships between God and God’s creations, especially people. Following hints and asides in the tales, we can assume that narrators and audiences of the tales take this largely for granted. Even the doubters (and there are doubters and critics in every religion and every ideology) are bound to assumptions and expectations shared by all within their specific religious frame. As an introduction to this delicate subject I will briefly discuss its position in the broad ethnographic context and in recent folklore literature. In matters of religion the content of the Lur tales did not match actual local practices as much as I expected. The people present themselves as pious, committed Shi‘i Muslims, though their earlier extremely hard work as farmers and pastoralists and their economic privation made them less observant in daily rituals than they said they ought to be.1 Old-timers in Sisakht (and elsewhere) reported that there had ‘always’ been people who taught the fundamental tenets of Shi‘i theology and rituals. Resident and itinerant traders from outside the tribal area brought features of Shi‘i bazaar-religiosity to the area. Since the 1950s Sisakht had a resident cleric (akhond) who gave occasional sermons and performed rituals such as those at funerals and at important religious holidays. Apparently people easily syncretized preIslamic beliefs and practices. They said the scriptures validated their belief in fairies and jinn.

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Considering this religious background the scarcity of religious themes and references to God and theology in the people’s tales is noteworthy. This scarcity corresponds to the one found in European folktales.2 Although generally known, folklore scholars ignore this curious absence, as their main aim is to refine methodologies for documenting folktales and to analyse them within a theory such as feminism or Jungian psychology. Thus, von Franz, combining both theories, does not even have the entry ‘God’ in the index, only ‘gods’ and ‘mother goddesses’.3 In this view, the various gods and goddesses appearing in tales directly or as fairies and other non-human actors are much more informative about gender dynamics than is a monotheistic God who is not even personified. The authors in Janning et al. explain God’s absence in tales: ‘Theologically speaking, fairy tales are antieschatological because their world is, in essence, hale, in order, saved, except for a few evils . . .’.4 One may see God’s work behind the scenes, as it were.5 Similarly, Betz sees a code (a chiffre) for the unnamed God in the Grimms’ tales’ pervasive self-trust (Selbstvertrauen) of the actors and in the protagonists’ trust in deliverance from difficulties.6 However, he cautiously also invokes reader response theory: It is ‘up to the listener whether or not he wants to recognize the presence of divine power and grace in the otherworldly gifts’.7 Thyen goes even further: he sees the fact that God is not personified in the tales as a sign that the people who tell the tales take a divine transcendental presence as given.8 These authors assert that certain attributes of God and of religiosity can, indeed, be implied in texts that do not deal with it explicitly. To the extent that this inference is permissible for a Christian ethnographic background, it is for a Muslim one, too. This has to be kept in mind when the analysis of the tales point to a world where people obviously act on the assumption that their livelihood and daily sustenance depends on their hard work and social skills. ‘From me the work, from God the blessing’, goes a proverb known throughout Iran: work is tangible and imminent, God’s blessing is tacitly assumed. I suggest that in Iran and in Europe, God-narratives (religious stories, legends) and other folktales run parallel, touching rarely, and that each genre draws on human experiences and on ethical/moral principles familiar to the people for whom they are meaningful. Each

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provides valid schemas for people to think and act with. This last point is of relevance to me, working as an anthropologist who wants to understand what people mean when they bring – or do not bring – God and God’s entourage into their tales. A further notion is helpful in the understanding of God in the tales. The late theologian and folktale-scholar Thyen remarked on his German parishioners’ tendency to blame an angry God for their misery, and on this tendency in German fairy tales. People’s piety was motivated by fear, he said.9 The psychotherapist/folklorist Rieken similarly concluded in an analysis of stories from Hungary that the world appeared as dangerous for the brittle human order, with people’s fears of a punishing God thinly covered by the daily routines of life.10 Obviously, people related with fear and anger to the supernatural out of a traditional Abrahamic understanding of God. A recent shift from the ‘jealous’ God, the almighty judge and disciplinarian, to the loving God (‘dear God’ and ‘friend Jesus’) in recent Bible stories and in many Christian Churches has not found much expression in folktales.11 As to Islam, I do not know of a study of the image(s) of God in popular texts at all, but the few ethnographic examples we have point to a similarly complex and changing understanding.12 Considering these heuristic complexities I found it prudent to use a basic approach from literary analysis to trace tribal people’s images of the Abrahamic God in their folktales in a Shi‘i context. Methodologically, I identified and examined all incidents where God and extra-human powers appear in the tales and how people relate to them.13 The attributes and functions of these transcendental beings and their relationships with humans follow patterns and these, in turn, express theological and philosophical principles. In addition I paid attention to comments and judgements the narrators in my own collection made directly or through their protagonists in the tales about matters of God, ethics and morality. However, we have to keep in mind that the religiosity expressed in the tales is only one model people have for dealing with the transcendental and with eschatological questions; traditional rural Shi‘i Islam provided another, and since the Islamic revolution of 1979 the so-called fundamentalist Shi‘i rituals of devotion ethnographically are becoming dominant everywhere in Iran.

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The tribal people in south-west Iran, although not sophisticated in terms of formal theological knowledge and exegesis, identify with Shi‘i Islam. The tales show this bias: the figures in the tales are, implicitly, Muslims, who behave in ways that the narrators and their audiences think Muslims do or else ought – or ought not – to behave, in contrast with ‘heathens’. The tales mirror the mores of rural/tribal Iran that were alive until the mid-1970s and beyond. Ghaffari’s collection, assembled in the 1990s, in the times of the Islamic Republic with its emphasis on theology purged of traditional cultural vestiges and ‘superstitions’, shows a deterioration in structure and plots with extra-human beings such as fairies and div, and in the traditionally rich and unified, ‘uni-dimensional’ world of the tales where people exist alongside these other beings. Ghaffari’s pious (or politically careful) narrators have lost the matter-of-fact dealing with transcendental beings evident in the earlier collections. The present politicization of religion in Iran has also made narrators careful with statements that could reflect negatively on their loyalty to the government or on their educational sophistication. In A/Th11 the word ‘God’ makes a fairy disappear. This illustrates the contradiction, if not animosity, between the Islamic and pre-Islamic/folkloric religious spheres. However, I suggest that the devaluation of some aspects of the transcendental in the tales does not have much influence on the emotional tone of the tales nor on the existential assumptions on which people base them.

God Iranian languages do not mark grammatical gender and thus do not have to assign a gender to God out of grammatical necessity. God is not a person either. However, God’s position at the very top of an all-encompassing hierarchy, and God’s attributes as ‘ruler’, ‘lord’, ‘allpowerful’ and ‘maker of the universe’, are only thinkable as male in the world of these tales. The argument goes like this: God is beyond male and female, but God acts in ways that in the human world are men’s ways. This makes my occasional use of male gender in reference to God less ethnocentric in English, a language bound to gender markers.

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In the tales and in everyday speech people refer to God with the Persian/Indo-European word, khoda¯. The Arabic/Qur’anic allah appears fewer than a dozen times in the tales, in the context of formulaic prayer/invocations, such as, for example, a ghoul uses in addressing six human brothers who are eating fruits from his trees. ‘Inshallah [God willing] it will be to their benefit’, he says but later wants to eat them anyway (Gh24). Less than a third of the tales contain the word ‘God’ at all, be it in Arabic or Persian. Although there might be some selfcensorship involved by pious narrators who do not want to use God’s name in trivial tales, this absence is still significant: 70 per cent of the tales get by, philosophically and ethically, without reference to God. Invocations God appears in occasional exclamations in the tales, such as ‘By God . . .’ and ‘Thanks be to God . . .’. In everyday speech, as well as in the tales, people invoke God quite routinely to give emphasis to a request, a claim or an assertion, to express astonishment or gratitude, or as a largely rhetorical expression of vexation, frustration or confusion such as ‘O God, where am I to go, what am I to do?’, or else to swear by: ‘By God, I don’t lie!’ (so swears a div, lying, in Gh14, A/Th15). In a Ghaffari tale (Gh13) a childless woman longingly says, ‘O, if God would give me a child . . .’ and thus starts a Thumbelinestory. The narrator ends it by reporting that the parents were happy with their tiny boy and ‘thanked God for him’. Thirty years earlier the narrator of F12, talking about a woman who likewise had asked God for a child and finds all her peas turned into tiny children, does not thank God but kills the pea-children in a panic – all but one, who later is quite valuable for her. In the end she does not thank God for him but is sorry that she had killed the others who also might have turned out to be useful. People occasionally thank God after a danger has passed: in L22 the protagonist, pursued by several div, first implores God, ‘O God, in the name of the Prophet Salomon’, to let reeds turn into a thicket, etc. to slow the div down. After the div drowned he ‘thanks and praises God’. In this as in some other such tales, it is left to the listener/reader

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whether to see God as the saviour or the saint in whose name God is invoked.14 In Gh30 the lovesick protagonist who sees his beloved marry somebody else cries out in despair in a verse that puts God and two saints on the same level: ‘O God, O Qasom, O Saint of Sardasht, don’t turn to look after her – God willing she will return on her own’.15 With this powerful ‘sigh’ the rival expires as if by black magic, and the lovers unite. In Gh17 a husband and wife are so relentlessly tormented by a young trickster-rogue, Ka Kusa, that finally they plot to throw him into the river at night. However, he poses as the husband and with the clueless wife’s help throws the husband into the water. ‘Give thanks to God that we are rid of Ka Kusa’, she says about this murder before realizing her mistake, turning the thanks into a joke. In an earlier version of this tale (F36) the narrator does not need God at all – the wife only is ‘glad’ to be rid of the tormentor, as she thinks. The many tales where an innocent person comes to grief beg the question of on whose side God’s justice really weighs in. When, occasionally, I brought up this point in discussing a tale, the answer was a shrug or a noncommittal, ‘It is God’s will’. Rarely does God answer an invocation directly. God likes and demands thanks and praise, even in trying circumstances. In L5, from Kerman, a princess seeing her prince marry her conniving slave girl, only says patiently and humbly, ‘Praise be to thee, God! Thanks be to Allah!’ and bears her hardship quietly. In a similar situation the excellent servant Ayaz (in F39, see Chapter 1) does not mention God. Eventually both victims are rehabilitated, but whether or not one sees God as the helping agent is up to the listener to decide. God may reward those who ‘remember’ and ‘honour’ Him, such as in prayers. Yet even in prayers the help-motif is prominent: the prayer most often named in the tales is the Prayer of Necessity (heja¯t), which is a request for help. For example, in F41 this prayer activates the flying power of Salomon’s rug as if it were a magic formula, even when the protagonist’s unfaithful and malevolent wife says it – the prayer’s power is in the words, not in a divine intervention. In the tales prayer may even become a tool for manipulation. In F16 the protagonist, beleaguered by his wolf-sister, begs her permission to pray (‘By God allow me . . . to say the Prayer of Necessity’) before eating

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him, but with his mumbling he actually calls animal helpers. Piety here is a ruse, a decoy – the helpers are the man’s dogs, summoned by their master, not sent by God. In L36 the powerful phoenix the young protagonist had ingratiated himself with by saving its brood advises the young man: to escape death he should say that he wanted to pray on the roof and then run away. This fraudulent request to pray is the only, and indirect, reference to God in this story. In L46 a fox tries to turn his pious greeting to the industrious turtle, ‘May God give you strength’, into a reason for demanding a share of turtle’s harvest later, which is treated as a joke. In the funny story of Fox the pilgrim fake piety is the main theme. ‘The Fox’ (F4, condensed) A fox was walking around in an abandoned campsite. It saw a donkey, mounted it and rode away. They met a rooster who said, ‘Fox, where do you want to go?’ Fox said, ‘We want to go to Kerbela’. They took the rooster along, and then a duck, and then a partridge. At night they stayed in a cave in the wilderness. Early in the morning the rooster said, ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo’. The fox said, ‘Your noise won’t let us sleep’. Rooster said, ‘Crowing was also my father’s vocation’. Fox said, ‘To heck with your vocation’, and broke the rooster’s neck and ate it. Then Fox said to the duck, ‘Why do you have to muddy people’s water?’ and broke its neck, too. When he came to the partridge and said, ‘Why do you make this bad “qa-qa”-noise?’ it said, ‘Fox, say, “Thanks be to God” before you eat me’. And while Fox said it, the partridge flew away and the donkey ran off. Then Fox ate the rest of the rooster and the duck and started to walk around people’s campsites again. The fox uses the ruse of a pilgrimage to one of the holiest shrines for Shi‘ites to get close to its prey and then, in order to eat the victims, uses the ruse of accusing the animals of annoying people – disturbing people, especially spoiling water, is regarded as a sin. The duck beats the fox with the fox’s own weapon, fake piety. A show of piety thus may be just a strategy for success. Public piety, the tales suggest, is not

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to be trusted. In F9 a cannibalistic div tries to put his victim at ease with a fake blessing. ‘God be with you, child’, he says, but the clever girl does not heed him. God as Lord The tales describe God as the creator and Lord of the universe indirectly in the famous introductory phrase to tales: ‘At the time when there was nobody but God . . .’.16 But in the Ghaffari collection God is left out of this formula several times, as in ‘At the time when there was nobody there was a hero (pahleva¯n) under the dome of a mausoleum who one day mounted a horse and went hunting’ (Gh21). It seems that Ghaffari’s narrator hesitated to use the word ‘God’ in an idle phrase in a non-religious context. More explicitly (mostly in Lorimer: L37, L40, L57; also L9) God is the ruler whose will is absolute and all encompassing, and who demands of people to live His way. In (L37) a pious Mulla starts a competition of skills with two craftsmen who had carved and clothed the wooden figure of a person. The Mulla makes his ablutions and says his prayers and then adds (in the voice of the Lorimers), ‘O Lord, thou thyself knowest how these companions of mine have made a parade of their skill to me. Do not let me be put to shame but bestow life on this lifeless figure’. Then ‘from the Lord of the Universe life went out into the figure’ (L37: 246).17 Aside of submission to God’s will, the path God wants people to take is not so much laid out as implied – and here I meet the authors in Janning.18 Tracing the logic of happenings, punishments and rewards, it emerges that living God’s way means that one must accept one’s obligations (vasife), the duties inherent in one’s position, be this as a king, a trader, a servant or a wife. One must care for one’s dependents – a mother for her children, a ruler for his subjects, a master for his servants – in the presumably God-willed hierarchy of authoritarian relationships where those in higher positions are responsible for those in lower ones, and the dependents have to be loyal and obedient to their superiors. Young girls are on the lowest rung of this ladder; everybody expects them to be quiet and to obey. They have

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no authority. Fathers, on the other hand, emerge as rulers of their families but they are not as strictly held to their status obligations as are others. In several tales (L51 and variants, F11 and Lama’e: 91) a father who abandons his daughters simply disappears from the story. In the tales fathers rarely come to grief if they abuse their powers, and neither does God if He lets bad things happen to people. This image conforms to a basic Islamic principle: ‘God is God precisely because he is not answerable to external critiques.’19At the apex, God demands obedience and respect from everybody but does not owe an explanation to anybody. Although people cannot challenge this autocratic power, some come close to expressing dissatisfaction. ‘The Shepherd with One Goat’ (Gh9; condensed) A poor shepherd impressed the king with his wisdom. The jealous vizier got permission to ask him three questions at the pain of death. He rode to the shepherd’s house on his good horse, well dressed and with a fine sword at his side, and asked the shepherd, ‘What does God eat?’ The shepherd said, ‘The misery of his subjects’. Next the vizier asked, ‘What does God wear?’ The shepherd said, ‘The sorrows of his subjects’. The vizier’s third question was, ‘How does the wheel of time turn?’ At this the shepherd told the vizier to dismount, exchange clothes with him and give him his sword. The curious vizier did so, and when the shepherd was on the horse he hit the vizier with the sword, said, ‘This is how the wheel of time turns’, and rode away. For this cleverness the king rewarded the shepherd with his daughter and made him his vizier. This story may be read in two ways: that God empathizes with people’s hardships and helps them, but also that people blame God for their hardships. As the context is a demonstration of the shepherd’s cleverness without reference to extra-human help, the second interpretation is the more likely. In A/Th13 a princess laments, ‘This unhappiness God has brought on my head’ and in Gh37, a poor man, discouraged by endless toil and a corrupt judge, even turns to the devil for help. This can be read as a

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funny anti-clerical story (the judge is a cleric) but its humour is truly subversive. ‘The Mule Went into the Toilet-Can’ (Gh37) In the old times there was a poor man who got poorer the more he worked. Finally a thief stole his last sheep. The man knew the thief and told the judge, but the thief had bribed the judge and the poor man got nowhere with his complaint. The poor man said to his wife, ‘I regret the work I’ve done – from now on I’ll go the way of the devil’. He left for the wilderness. There he met a man who asked him where he was going and what for. The poor man said, ‘I want to find the devil, I have urgent business with the devil, I want to find him’. The stranger said, ‘I am the devil, tell me what you need, I’ll do it for you’. The poor man told him, and the devil said, ‘Tomorrow morning I will turn myself into a mule. You ride me to the judge’s door and sell me to him’. This the poor man did. The judge bought the mule. With this money the poor man bought the necessities of life, and he and his wife were happy. The judge went to the barn with his toilet-can, sat it down and put his hands on the neck of the mule [to steady himself.] Suddenly the mule went into the can, all but its tail. The judge tried to pull the mule out by its tail but ripped it off. Upset, the judge went to the poor man’s house and said, ‘What kind of mule did you sell me?’ The poor man said, ‘Why?’ The judge said, ‘It went into the toilet-can – here is the tail!’ The poor man said, ‘Judge, why do you lie? How can a big mule get into a small toilet can?’ At this, the judge thought, ‘Nobody will believe that the mule went into the can. I better be quiet about it and from now on be a just judge’. The barn scene refers to the traditional rural custom of using barns as outhouses. The long-spouted copper can held water for the proscribed ablution. The anti-clerical joke rests in part on the linking of this embarrassing and polluting location and activity with a religious-legal authority. But the poor man’s inability to find justice in a corrupt

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bureaucracy and a decent life in the God-ordered scheme of things constitutes a much more profound criticism. Most critical, though, is the fact that the poor man gets justice for himself and reforms the errant judge with help not from God but from the devil. Most likely, this ‘devil’ in earlier versions was a div (see next chapter about the transformation of div to jinn to ‘devil’) but this history is irrelevant here. Local people understand that God and devil are adversaries and yet the narrator used the devil as man’s helper, and the audience understood quite well what the poor man felt and the narrator meant. In 2002 I heard a man in Boir Ahmad who had just had yet another misfortune to cope with say, ‘If God sent this, how much worse can the devil be?’ This is the sentiment in the tale. To satisfy God’s wishes, the tales suggest, one must be chaste, especially women; one must honour the rules of hospitality; one must be generous and loyal; one must keep one’s head in all situations, even when eaten by a lion, swindled by thieves or cheated by brothers; and one must accept one’s lot patiently and humbly without, however, suspending one’s own efforts. This is an important point. There is remarkably little ‘fatalism’ in the sense of resignation in the tales, although at times the virtue of patience may seem quite close to it, such as when an unjustly accused faithful servant has to wait for years in obscurity before he is rehabilitated (F39), or when an abandoned wife has to wait a long time for her reinstatement (for example, F15 and variant L5 from Kerman). Contrary to a fatalistic acceptance of circumstances, in the tales the application of one’s God-given abilities to manage situations emerges as a way of honouring God. In F41 the young protagonist offers to cure a princess of her craziness on the pain of death should he fail. A kind woman tries in vain to keep him from endangering himself, saying, ‘. . . don’t do this. Give honour to God! Don’t you see what the Shah has done to the people . . .’ (192), meaning, ‘God gave you brains to understand that the Shah likely will kill you – leave!’ (Or, negatively, meaning that one who behaves foolishly dishonours God.) Indeed, the successful protagonists in the tales simply never give up. In all circumstances, no matter how miserable they may be, the proper attitude towards God is faith, thanks and trust in God’s justice.

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‘With trust in God I’ll make him well’, says the young healer about his own skills to cure blindness (in the above-mentioned F41). And another young man says, ‘I trust in God’ when embarking on a dangerous quest with no more support than some bread in his pocket (F40). In all cases where such a formula is employed, the protagonist is victorious. ‘Bad’ people in the stories do not proclaim their trust in God. Most come to a bad end and this implicitly expresses the deepseated sentiment (or, better, hope) that people who do not accept the path of God will eventually fail. God’s Wish/Will In Luri, the words used for God’s agency have no direct equivalent in English: meil-e khoda¯ means God’s wish, God’s want, as in a host’s question to a guest, ‘What do you want/wish to eat?’ And in the expression khoda¯ mikha¯d, the verb kha¯stan also translates as ‘to want’. In English, however, God rather ‘wills’ than ‘wishes’, and thus I will use ‘God’s Will’ here. God’s Wish and Will stand behind everything that happens. Although the narrators do not dwell on this assumption, they imply it often enough to suggest that for them it is self-evident that ultimately God and nothing else makes a dove turn into a woman and makes an ill person well; that it is God who wills a piece of bark to let one walk on water and lets a woman be dragged to death as punishment for her misdeeds. A few times God’s Will appears in an expression of goodwill or piety: ‘May God wish that she get well’, says a long-lost prince, tongue in cheek, as he, incognito, gives alms to his mother’s servant. He knows full well that his alms will identify him to his mother, thus ‘curing’ her sadness – God does not need to intervene (F40). And in a short funny story a blind beggar gets the advice to ask God rather than the king for alms because God has plenty ‘if He wishes to give’ (L55). Rare as direct references to God’s Will are in the tales, ‘God’s Will’ was the ready answer to any ‘why’ question I occasionally asked about some incident in a tale. As God does not appear in tangible form, the Will needs an instrument to execute it, such as an evil person, a jinn or a div to bring

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hardship on the protagonist; a saint, a king, the Prophet Mohamad, a kind person, fairies to help a destitute; a prince or ‘the people’ to punish somebody; a sharp wit and cool strength to get the hero out of a predicament or in possession of wife and wealth. People are instruments of God’s Will, yet also have wills of their own, and these are best employed doing God’s Will. Only in three tales does God work miracles directly. In a tale explaining the anatomical features of a turtle (F30) God sends a mother a fancy scarf to wipe her soiled child with, but when she uses bread so as to save the scarf, the ‘angry’ God turns her into a turtle. In F31, ‘with God’s Will’ the limbs of Hosein’s treacherous wife turn into lizards after Hosein’s people had killed her in revenge.20 These are the only tales where God is wrathful. The narrator of both incidents lets God be na¯ra¯hat, meaning not at ease, troubled, dissatisfied even to the point of anger. In the other case of divine intervention, God is helpful. In another popular legend God saves Noah’s honour by triplicating his only daughter who Noah had promised to three craftsmen for their help in building the ark (F29).21 The narrative style and the reception of the miracle-stories mark them as humorous. ‘God’s Will’ is the unassailable answer to any doubt, but it is ambiguous and problematic (L35, see below). God’s Will is inscrutable, wanton, maybe even unjust, and makes people insecure. As everything that anybody does is God’s Will, people lack guidance in the present. ‘I’ll see what God wants from me’, says a young man, looking toward a problematic tomorrow (F41). God gives wealth to a king and to a poor brush collector (L9), thereby blurring just and ‘normal’ status differences in a social hierarchy that, usually, people accept and justify by referring to God’s Will. Now the nouveau riche brush collector’s daughter becomes uppity and the king is annoyed – God has, in effect, upset His own social order. In the tale most outspoken on matters of God, a wise man tells a pauper who, tired and frustrated, doubts the existence of God, that the happenings in this world, especially bad ones, are signs of God’s Will, and this Will therefore is the proof of God’s existence (L54).

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The theological ambiguity of the relationship between God’s Will and people’s wills as manifested in their decisions and actions finds expression in two Lorimer tales. ‘The Story of Fayiz and his Peri Wife’ (L35, summary) Fayiz, a handsome, honest young shepherd with a wife and children fell in love with a beautiful fairy while he was out in the pastures playing his flute. She took him to her place and they married and had two sons. When he declared his intention to visit his first wife, the fairy made him swear to keep his life with her a secret. He broke his oath, however, when his first wife threatened suicide and with killing their children unless he told her. Upon this betrayal the fairy turned into a pigeon and flew away, and Fayiz left his family to sing of his regret in the mountains. ‘God had willed that he should not again see the face of the fairy’, the narrator commented. (234) Arguably, God had willed the moral dilemma by letting the first wife force Fayiz to spill his secret and thus betray the fairy. The shepherd had a choice between two grave sins, and this, too, was God’s Will. The shepherd was, in effect, unable to do right. Occasionally I heard such sentiments when people talked about matters of guilt and responsibility. This dilemma has no just, satisfactory solution.22 Even less satisfactory is God’s Will in the story of the Wolf-Aunt (L17, from Kerman) where a rich ‘Old Woman’ identifies herself as sister to a poor man and invites him and his family to live with her. The man sees this as a sign that ‘God has been kind to us . . .’ (106) and refuses to belief his wife’s assertion that the sister is a wolf. Eventually the wolf eats him, and the moral of the story is that ‘. . . if he had listened to his wife, this would never have happened’ (107). God obviously was not ‘kind’ in letting the poor man rush to his death. But the narrator disregards God’s Will, as it were, by blaming the man for not having listened to his wife. I heard such arguments frequently: God’s Will often fails as a satisfactory cause of ill effects, while one’s life skills and reasoning – or lack of them – routinely cause things to

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happen in reports of daily give and take. Whatever God’s Will may be, what counts are a person’s decisions and actions. Defiance of God’s Will – this Will being a direct order or understood in normal duties and expected behaviour – brings hardship and punishment, without ambiguity. A brush collector’s wife, tempted by the merchant Shamud, declares that ‘God made my husband for himself and made Shamud for himself’ before committing adultery with him. Thereby she rejects the God-willed allocation of her spouse (‘God made the brush collector for me’, she said earlier, quite properly, about her and her husband) and rejects her God-ordered duty as a chaste wife and good mother, with dire consequences (F41). A fairy in disguise gets even with a treacherous innkeeper who had mistreated her husband and others (F26); ‘the people’ kill an adulterous woman (F23); a father kills his nymphomaniac daughter (F24); a half-wit kills his elder brothers who had cheated and tormented him (L12); an enraged father kills the 40 robbers who cheated his simpleton son (L29); an energetic young man turns a woman who had misused her beauty, and the young men who had foolishly lost their heads over her, into donkeys (F41). Seven brothers kill a div and his ‘heathen’ wife who had harmed their only sister (Gh16). A government official jails the murderer of a blind man (Lama’e: 134). A king kills his adulterous daughter and her lover (A/Th6). Two lovers kill every one of the many wrongdoers who had made them suffer, a witch among them (Gh2). ‘Bi Salbi and Sidi Khan’ (Gh2, summary; the protagonists’ names suggest nobility) Sidi Khan, out hunting, saw beautiful Bi Salbi; on the strength of mutual liking and a dream they contracted a temporary marriage and lived together. An ‘old woman’ wanted to get Bi Salbi for a king who wanted the ‘most beautiful girl’ for his son. She got Sidi to take her home to Salbi. Salbi saw that the old woman was no good, but when she warned Sidi he hit her, and then ordered the old woman to cook rice. She did so but poisoned Sidi’s rice, and the king’s servants came and beheaded Sidi. They left with Salbi. The young man who had witnessed the marriage contract appeared and brought Sidi back to life. Sidi asked the

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old woman about Salbi, and the old woman got him to marry her own daughter instead. Sidi left to get sheep from his brother, and on the way met the wedding party for Bi Salbi and the king’s son. With the help of a little girl he identified himself to Salbi. Salbi joined him with her servants, and Sidi killed the servants in the mountains. Next she pulled the king and his son from their beds and killed them. Sidi got an old man on the threat of death to fetch the old woman. He said, ‘You old witch! What you did to us was the answer for the good I did you?’ and killed her forthwith. As these examples show, infringements of (God-willed) norms, after propelling the story and making interesting things happen, usually meet with revenge or punishment without reference to God. God’s Kindness Indirectly, God’s kindness and generosity are assumed as the source of good things happening to people. In L37 the narrator lets a kind old woman who finds a Cinderella-heroine see ‘that her face was so beautiful that God could never have created it for Himself alone’. God shares. In the Boir Ahmad tales the phrase ‘God gives a child’ means a birth. In F12 God turns a childless woman’s peas into children, but this abundance makes the woman panic and kill all but one. Thus, God’s generosity may be of dubious benefit, even mischievous, and the story is meant to be funny. God explicitly provides for a poor man’s dependents by regularly letting food appear in the house (F11) or letting the father shoot partridges every day (L51). Father and stepmother use the food and only understand it as ‘God’s gift to the girls’ when it stops after they abandoned the girls so as to keep the food to themselves. God’s gift, thus, led to the children’s abandonment. The tale then spins the girls’ adventures, but the parents simply disappear, unpunished. In L31 and F41 a poor man and his wife take the man’s finding of a jewel-egg as God’s way of granting them and their two sons ‘a livelihood’. This egg brings them and especially their children a tale full of trouble. In L17 (see above), the poor man pronounces a

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self-declared benefactor as due to ‘God’s kindness’, refusing to acknowledge her cannibalistic intention. The tales suggest that what may look like God’s kindness is not always unequivocally beneficial. Yet, anything that seems to work in one’s favour easily is taken as proof of God’s benevolence and also of God’s approval of one’s conduct. Justice and Punishment In contrast to everyday life in the here and now where justice is rare, people say, the tales guarantee God’s justice, mostly in the form of punishment of those who did ‘evil’. In most cases ‘evil’ means harm done to others. Not once is anybody punished for not fasting or not praying or for other neglect of rituals, and only in a few cases for outright disobedience to God. This is in accordance with the popular belief that God will more readily forgive sins against Himself than sins against people.23 ‘May God punish/destroy you’ are popular curses for an adversary, but a mishap to oneself also may prompt the question, ‘O God, what have I done that you sent me this difficulty?’ This is what the heroine said in L57, when her husband told her that he had just given her to his friend who was smitten by her beauty and did not know that she was married. He passed her on to the lovesick man as ‘my brother’s daughter’. In the tales only obviously innocent people ask questions about their own possible guilt, though; the largely rhetorical exclamation is a sign of humbleness and strongly implies that the person is harassed for no good reason or perhaps as punishment for an ancestor’s sins. But curses and self-reflection happen only rhetorically and in passing, without further elaboration, soul-searching or consequence to the plot. In the tales God Himself punishes only rarely: a ‘troubled’ God turns a vain woman into the first turtle when she disobeys Him (F30), and turns a murderous, executed wife’s limbs into lizards (F31). Otherwise, where the people’s sense of justice requires punishment, it is the king/prince who metes it out or else ‘the people’ take matters into their own hands and kill the evildoers. Revenge and justice in these cases are close together – revenge is a form of justice. Only fathers can harm those in their care with impunity: four abandon daughters (L10,

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L51, F11, F17); one kills his son over a wager (L14); one tries to kill his son to get the son’s wife (F40); several are blind to a child’s mistreatment at home (for example, L39 and F13 and its variants, L7, L13; F34); one repeatedly and unjustly beats his daughter (L39); another falsely accuses a son of jealousy and of lying (F16). A king disowns his daughter (A/Th10), another threatens his innocent son with execution (A/Th1). The worst that happens to abusive or neglectful fathers is that they disappear from the tale. Between the lines one can discern a strong God–father link: both authorities are beyond reproach when exercising their will. Rewards from God are rare in the tales. In Gh22 the son of a rich man persuades his father to give away his wealth ‘in the way of God’ and from then on works for a living. One day he sees a ‘skinny colt’ for sale and buys it, feeling that ‘it has a message’. Indeed, this horse eventually makes him rich and gets him a fairy-wife. Although God is not mentioned again, the pious beginning links the young man’s generosity and humbleness to his ultimate success. (Other versions of this tale, such as F40, have no reference to God.) In Gh32, a woman reaps rewards for her generosity. ‘The Woman with Ten Sons and One Piece of Bread, and a Dervish’ (Gh32, summary) A poor woman had ten sons and one piece of flatbread. A hungry dervish came by and asked for food. She gave him the bread. She went to the bazaar and bought a little bit of flour to bake more bread. A wind came and blew the flour off the tray. She had no flour left to make bread and was very sad. A young man came by and asked her what was wrong. She told him. He told her to go to the house of Saint David and tell him about her difficulty. She did so, and Saint David gave her a load of wheat. On the way home again she met the young man, who now told her to turn back and tell Saint David that she did not want the flour but wanted the man who had taken her own flour from the tray. She did so, and at Saint David’s house the young man appeared and said, ‘I was the wind – I took the flour to stuff a hole in the hull of a merchants’ ship to prevent it from

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sinking. Now the traders will pay you’. They did, and she became rich. The narrator summarized: ‘Thus, for the one bread she had given to the dervish, God gave her seven doors to paradise as her share’ (55). This multiplies the reward for the good deed, even provides access to paradise, if one wants to read it this way. The ‘seven doors to paradise’, however, also are a metaphor for her worldly bliss. God in Humorous Settings God’s name is part of a funny story or a funny episode ten times. Three times an invocation to God intentionally creates a diversion that saves somebody, for example, a duck from being eaten by a fox when the duck suggests that the fox say, ‘Thanks be to God’, which gives the duck time to escape (see F4 above) and makes the audience laugh. In F15 a prince uses it to prevent a girl from leaving his room, that is, the prince uses piety to trap the girl. Mulla Nasreddin in the mode of a trickster lures an innocent shepherd into a death-trap set for the Mulla by using God’s alleged will as an instrument of persuasion. He says, ‘God does not want me to be a guest tonight, you go in my stead’, knowing full well that the shepherd will be killed at the party. The Mulla, however, being in good health, survives all villagers (F35). In another episode, the Mulla turns a plea for help to God into a ‘contract’ with God that he then uses to swindle a rich man. ‘Mulla Nasrein and the Jew’ (F42, condensed) One day the Mulla heard the rich Jew on his roof. He said, ‘O God, please drop a hundred Tomans through the smoke hole – if it is just one korush less I will return the money’. The Jew wanted to see if a Muslim would lie to his God. He threw the money down but kept the last korush. The Mulla’s wife counted the money and found one korush missing. ‘Never mind’, said the Mulla – ‘God didn’t have the one korush, so what’. When the Jew heard this he came to the door and told the Mulla that not God but he, the Jew, had thrown down the money and that

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the Mulla’s contract with God was a lie. But the Mulla said, ‘I asked God for money, not you. My contract was true, but God did not have the last korush, that’s all’. They agreed to take the issue to the judge. The next day when the Jew came to the Mulla well dressed and riding a good donkey, the Mulla refused to go to the judge. ‘Look at my shabby clothes’, he said, ‘And look at yourself. The judge will not listen to me’. The Jew exchanged his pants with the Mulla’s, and then his coat, and in the end he also let him ride the donkey. At the judge’s place the Mulla tied the donkey in front of the house, put the hundred Tomans before the judge, and sat down importantly. When the Jew came, on foot and in tattered clothes, he told the judge how the Mulla had made a contract with God, how he, the Jew, had dropped the money down the smoke hole, how the Mulla had put the money away although it was short of a korush, and how he had argued with the Jew, asking him if he was God, maybe, and saying that one could not take offence at God for not having one lousy korush to make it a full hundred. ‘The money is mine’, said the Jew. At this, the Mulla shook his head and said, ‘Now the Jew will also say that the donkey is his’. And the Jew said, ‘It is, isn’t it?’ And the Mulla said, ‘Now I am afraid he also will say that the coat on my back is his’, and the Jew cried, ‘Well, it is, isn’t it!’ – In the end the Mulla kept everything, the money and the coat and the donkey, and the Jew went home.24 Although God is mentioned several times in the story and is of importance to the argument, the context is funny, and the story is about human cleverness, not about God. It does show, however, that people ask God for help. An ‘idiot’ boy who is repeatedly cheated by his elder brothers ‘saves God’ from being eaten in the form of a dough figure a disgruntled stranger had made and then – with God’s Will – becomes king (L12). L55, about the beggar who ought to ask God not the king for alms, belongs to this genre, as does F12, where God turns countless peas into children, thus fulfilling a childless woman’s hasty wish. And popular

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wily Fox turns several dumb animals into an easy dinner with a fake promise of a pilgrimage to an exalted place of Islamic ritual (F4, see above, and variant L20). The linking of the fox, a religiously unlawful animal, and a pilgrimage to Muslim shrines is part of the joke. Finally, in several tales religious personages are the butt of jokes: L23 pokes fun at a qazi, a judge of religious learning, at his beard, his wife, and a crow who is a ‘messenger from God’. The judge in F7 (and similarly in Gh44) is laughable because he has non-committal, evasive answers to each complaint an old woman makes about her rooster, and in Gh37 (see above) he is humiliated. In A/Th15 an akhond, a theologically learned member of the religious establishment, a ‘cleric’, becomes pregnant after eating an enchanted cucumber and bears an enchanted turtle, the protagonist in the tale. It seems that people’s direct dealings with the apex of exalted power is so preposterous or uncomfortable an idea that it prompts jokes, or else that people who feel powerless try to level the power differences by laughing the higher powers down. An anti-clerical sentiment may be noticed, too, but it is not elaborated.

Absent Themes The this-worldly and pragmatic orientation of the tales explains notable absences in the stories. Nowhere are there apocalyptic messages or references to the Day of Judgement, and prophetic moments are confined to a few dreams of foreboding. The protagonists get through the world without revelations, visions or premonitions. Sin, heaven and hell hardly figure at all, neither does religious merit (sava¯b) although merit and its opposite, sin (gona¯h), routinely appear in everyday speech. People in the tales handle rewards, punishment and forgiveness in the here and now rather than deferring them to an afterlife. Rewards for ‘good’ behaviour (cleverness and fulfilment of one’s duties rather than ritualistic piety) are in this world, among people, as is punishment of evildoers. Thus, worldly authorities order ‘bad’ women to be dragged to death, an idiot kills his abusive brothers, several husbands divorce their misbehaving wives. Forgiveness, too, is in this world: two sons forgive their mother whose betrayal had caused their hardships

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(but also, indirectly, their success abroad); two young heroes forgive the brothers who had mistreated them; a son forgives his father who had tried to kill him; daughters forgive parents who had abandoned them. A wise and just king restores justice without punishment by dividing a dead trader’s wealth among the trader’s sons and the sons of a poor man the trader had cheated and killed earlier (F19). In these cases the issue is justice: revenge, forgiveness, retribution, restitution restore a disturbed balance in the lives of the actors. People rarely, if ever, refer to God and His apparatus for governance when reordering their social relationships. The Qur’an appears only a couple of times in the tales, once with an outspoken warning against fake piety when a demon swears, ‘By God, I won’t eat you, by the Qur’an I won’t eat you . . .’ (A/Th15: 73). Wisely, the protagonist distrusts these oaths. Paradise is nowhere mentioned. The tales’ use of ‘heaven’ as a faraway place is implied in the expression, ‘God is above, we are here’, as, for example, in a father’s plea with his sons’ teacher: ‘Schoolmaster, above there is God, but down here I put these two boys into your hands until I come back’ – that is, the father explicitly puts responsibility for the boys’ welfare in the hands of the teacher, not the faraway God (A/Th12: 61; similarly A/Th16: 79). Hell comes up a few times to emphasize that a dangerous being is gone for good – a div, for example, or a ‘bad’ woman. Burning has the same purpose of finality (L39, L51, A/Th12).25 The afterlife (u dunya¯, the ‘other world’) is similar to life on earth in the rare views the tales provide. Soul (jun) is synonymous with life-energy (for example, A/ Th11; see text in Appendix 1). Sin appears in two tales from Kerman, both times in connection with beauty: a person is so beautiful that it is ‘sinful’ to look at him or her (L5, L11); this beauty/sin link is familiar throughout the Zagros region. In a riddle-tale, a mosque stands for a person’s house (A/Th3). Most religious rituals are absent. Pilgrimages appear in irreverent contexts. Prayer (nama¯z) fixes time: it was ‘the time of nama¯z’, an idiom Amanolahi and Thackston translate simply as ‘at dawn’ (for example, in A/Th1: 3). Similarly routinely and tellingly, these authors rob the address/reference term ‘Hajji’ of the religious significance of a successful pilgrimage to Mecca by translating it as ‘Merchant’ (for example, A/Th2, A/Th4), thus reducing it to a mere

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status-attribute. (It implies that bazaar merchants are so wealthy that they have to fulfil the hajj-obligation.) Thus, ‘The Hajji’s Son’ (kur hâjî, 128) becomes ‘The Merchant’s Son’ (25) in translation. A word for ‘angel’, mala¯kat, gets a curious translation in A/Th, where a mother warns her infatuated son against his desired girl, saying, literally, ‘(She may be) fairy or angel, whatsoever, howsoever’.26 In the translation this becomes, ‘It’s a fairy, a devil, or something or other’ (84). I agree with the translators about the meaning, but the turning of an angel or a fairy into a ‘devil’ is noteworthy. Rewards for piety or moral superiority rarely are an issue. In L40: 272 the protagonist is described as ‘godly, obedient to Divine will, pure of heart’, which is meant to imply that this helped him to succeed, but being so handsome as to make a fairy fall in love with him helped even more. In any case, rewards and punishments come in this world: div drown, are decapitated or slashed in half; the men who had annoyed the fairy-princess burn in a pot of magic milk; ungracious hosts turn into wild animals; a vain woman ends up as a turtle; the man who used his Evil Eye to kill a camel is in turn killed by the camel owner’s Evil Eye; fishes save a man who had fed them earlier. The afterlife where pious Muslims expect to find repose and rewards does not figure in the tales. It is mentioned in a funny story (F44) where Mulla Nasreddin thinks he is dead and, rudely awakened by passers-by who in jest ask what news he had from the other world, says a silly proverb fitting his unpleasant situation. In A/Th11 (see text in Appendix 1), ‘the houris of paradise’27 take away a dead woman; this is meant to emphasize the dead woman’s goodness. It is not a scriptural image, and not ethnographically popular either. The other world in the tales is not a ‘paradise’. In the one story that describes it, it is much like this world but orderly and peaceful: people go about their business without any problems (A/Th11). Ethnographically, when there is talk about ‘the other world’, the popular expression, ‘Nobody has come back from there to tell us how it really is’, reveals scepticism about life after death, including the paradise/hell promises of Islam.28 Several times I heard people, especially women, say that the other world, if there was one at all, likely had the same rich and poor people and their pursuits as this world.

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One link to the afterlife in the stories has to do with the care of the dead. It seems that if a dead person is not ‘remembered’ correctly he or she will not be properly dead or else will be troubled by darkness, cold and hunger.29 In F26 a youngest brother outperforms his brothers in a competition of horsemanship on the strength of having guarded his father’s grave, as the father had requested: there he had killed three of his father’s enemies bent on desecrating grave and corpse. In F37 Fox, who had helped the protagonist get the princess, blackmails the young man into a promise of giving the fox full mortuary honours. In L14 a murdered man can turn into a bird after his sister performed the customary death rituals. L27 is driven by this motif: the kind passer-by who buys the corpse of an indebted man off the gallows and buries him, later receives timely help from the dead man reappearing as a young man. Both Lorimer tales are from Kerman but the sentiments are familiar in Lur areas. In A/Th4 the motif of unpaid debts that do not let the dead debtor rest inspires a double swindle. ‘The Merchant’s Son’ (A/Th4, excerpt) [A cobbler and a ‘boy’ pretended to mourn at a rich merchant’s wake, telling the merchant’s son that his father had owed them much money. They suggested visiting the grave and asking the father; the boy now is hiding in the grave.] At the grave the merchant’s son called out, ‘O father!’ and at the third call the boy said, ‘Son, what is it?’ The son asked, ‘Whom do you owe?’ The boy said, ‘I owe the cobbler with the thin beard five thousand Toman, and somebody else five mules. If you pay [these debts] I will sleep well. Now I am not dead’. [A/Th translate this as ‘I have no rest’.] The merchant’s son paid it and the cobbler took off with it, abandoning the boy in the graveyard to fend for himself. In F43, to the merriment of the audience, the debt-ridden Mulla Nasreddin fakes his death, is buried, and then kills his creditors who come to defecate on his grave by driving spits from the grave into their behinds. In L34 a wife’s depravity finds expression in the prediction that she would ‘kick the husband’s grave’. L45 and F3 are long chain-tales

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elaborating outlandish acts of grief over the death of a bug. In L56 and L43 the narrators find it important to mention that the dead boys are buried properly. In F39 the Prophet Mohamad is able to resurrect two long-dead lovers because their servant had taken care of the death rituals. In A/Th3 a wise girl says, ‘If you don’t have a good son or brother to leave behind, you die’. One gets the distinct impression that the care of the dead is truly important for their wellbeing. Tied to remembering, commemorative obligations prevent the dead being forgotten and thus their disappearance, but beyond remembering there is not even a hint in the tales as to what is at stake for life after death. Only once, in Gh11, is the prayer for the dead (fa¯teha) mentioned. Conversely, burning a person or corpse guarantees ultimate, final disappearance. For example, in A/Th1 the ‘bad’ Old Woman in the end gets impaled on a saddle horn, rolled up in a rug, doused with oil and burned on a pyre as punishment as much as to make sure that she is gone for good. ‘I’ll burn your father’ is a bad curse (L30). Sending somebody ‘to hell’ likewise means assuring eternal disappearance. The flames of hell keep the people on earth safe from dangerous beings.

Summary Although never denied as Creator of Everything and as prime mover in the universe, God in the tales is aloof, inscrutable, near-absent, far away (‘God is up there, the two of us are here’, says a mysterious woman before she marries the hero in A/Th11).30 The world turns according to God’s plan, and although He is all-powerful and knows everything, including people’s suffering, He does not change a system He has set up. He is above nature, not in it. People cannot argue with God, nor manipulate Him. They find it difficult to draw God’s attention (‘God’s eyes’) to their plight. They can reach God through prayer or through the intervention of a third party close to God. In the tales, some exalted figures such as the Prophet Mohamad or his nephew and son-in-law, Ali, appear to be able to move God to help those who invoke them. It seems, however, that there is more involved than turning ‘God’s eyes’ when these saintly personages intervene. There is an efficacy,

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a power inherent in some saints’ agency and in certain invocations that seemingly bypasses God’s particular attention. Created in God’s master plan, this efficacy is automatic, as it were, just as are natural processes such as the four seasons or day following night. For many Muslims this may contradict Islamic doctrine of God’s accessibility without intervention, and of God being in charge of every detail, all the time, but as the tales and their reception indicate, the ancient notion of a deus otiosus is a choice people have for experiencing God.31 The absence of references to the workings of God in two-thirds of the tales parallels Thyen’s findings in the Grimms’ tales. But while in the German tales God’s power appears as unfriendly, hostile even, in the Lur tales there is no such sentiment. Almighty and all knowing, the supreme judge ought to instil fear in people, but narrators of the tales do not dwell on this aspect, neither in the tales nor in comments. There is an ambiguous attitude toward the inescapability of God’s seemingly erratic Will, but no dread. God is ‘angry’ only rarely, and leaves punishment of infraction of rules to others, in this world. The narrator of F41: 189 said it clearly through one of the protagonists, who just had successfully tricked the sons of a man who had harmed the protagonist earlier: ‘Justice arrives at its own pace . . . Your father brought hardship on us, now I brought hardship on you.’ He does not need to refer to God at all when it comes to justice, and neither do the two tricked men: with a this-worldly ‘eye for an eye’ logic the argument is settled and the men leave quietly. Rather than a jealous, stern disciplinarian, in the tales God mostly is the hoped-for ultimate help out of dire situations. Thereby good outcomes for oneself can be ascribed to God’s kindness or justice, bad outcomes to God’s inscrutable (but rarely wrathful) Will. In this theology, one can easily maintain a self-image of righteous innocence. And while nobody can challenge God’s authority, nobody, good or bad, seems to be very afraid of it either. Rather, God Himself, and piety as the correct approach to God, provide a resource for people to use in meeting life’s challenges, the very challenges God is sending them. Although this sounds like an illogical argument, it is not illogical when people talk about it. The analogy, rather, is of a Lordking who passes laws and regulations and announces punishments for

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infractions, but who also has compassion for people who disobey or come to grief, sometimes helping them once he is made aware of their plight. Once the ‘eyes of God’ behold you, God will help. Hardships in this world may well be due to God’s direct intervention or to God not watching you, but mostly they are due to God’s Will in the sense of an ultimate, remote cause. They are implicit in one’s status in life (a firewood peddler is poor), in the intended and unintended impact all creatures have on each other (hunters kill game, stepmothers are mean, beautiful girls make fools of men) and in the failure to apply one’s knowledge and abilities. Success, measured in wealth, easy life and getting the princess, is due to one’s luck, destiny, help from extra-human powers and a good dose of boldness that makes one face all kinds of adversities, often by employing lies, pretence, cunning and sheer force. For women, the attainment of success is more problematic because women are, by prejudice, weak and unreliable, which puts them low on the morality-scale and exposes their conduct to harsher judgement. The few strong ‘good’ women in the tales, though, follow the same strategies for success that men use. The mixture of Islamic/Qur’anic features and an entirely thisworldly, stoic attitude that excludes many orthodox theological features points to two philosophical systems the narrators of the tales operate in.32 The one discussed here is in evidence when people pray and invoke God, in what passes as morality in the tales and in using God’s purported Will as explanation after the fact. This absolves one of guilt, of unnecessary brooding over possible causes. Prediction of events, though, is impossible beyond those events that follow reliable patterns one can adjust to, such as sunshine and rain, or one can manipulate, such as kicking a rock out of one’s path so as not to stumble. But necessary adjustments to conditions in this cosmos lead to a different philosophy of life – it invites people’s agency and advises them to use all knowledge, all advantages within reach in order to succeed. God bestows benefits unequally and ignores minor issues in people’s affairs. Most tales by far operate without reference to God and God’s Will – in those tales agency, success, failure, punishment and rewards follow a different and more complex logic.

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CHAPTER 6 PEOPLE AND OTHER POWER S

In contrast to the remote God, extra-human beings such as fairies (peri), jinn and various ghouls (div, ghul) interact with people in the tales frequently. For better or worse they scheme and scuttle and influence people’s lives in a cause-and-effect logic that governs all living things. People do not worship these beings.1 Rather, they try to keep a prudent distance from those that are potentially harmful and try to ingratiate themselves with those who they think can help them. In the tales and in anecdotes people interact with them mostly involuntarily, benefiting from their generosity or empathy, suffering from their habits, or else manipulating them by playing on their vanity or stupidity. Unlike the distant God-Lord, in the tales these beings exist on one plane with people. It is understood that God created them just as He created people. They live in this world, within the natural order of all things, parallel to humans but mostly invisible to them. These beings and powers are extra-human rather than ‘supernatural’, as they usually are called in the literature. This may look like a trivial point, but for my argument it is important: in the cosmology of the Lurs as portrayed in the tales, these beings are as ‘natural’ as everything else in the cosmos, put in place by God and existing according to natural laws. Like people, stars and animals, they cannot create order and cannot change God’s laws. When pressed into a theological argument, people will say that these beings carry out God’s will, but in the tales and in daily discourses the beings simply exist as agents in their own right.

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Peri and Jinn At the times when the Lorimers, Lama’e, Amanolahi and I recorded tales, most people counted on the presence of jinn and fairies in their surroundings. For example, a nightmare was routinely blamed on Tapu or on Al, two particular jinn; people took care not to pour out hot ashes or hot water without murmuring ‘bismillah’ (‘in the name of God’) to warn the invisible beings around them; women hung amulets on cradles and young children’s shirts and did not leave babies alone lest a jinn or peri exchange them for their own. People avoided ruins assuming that jinn might live there. Hunters told of encounters with fairies and their herds in the mountains. Indeed, there was almost no division between fairy/jinn tales and fairy/jinn anecdotes people told as true stories that happened to real people.2 According to peri-lore, peri live like human beings but in the wilderness, and thus hunters and people alone in the mountains are more likely to meet them than are others. Recently people said that, because fairies try to stay away from humans, they have made themselves rare now that the human population has greatly increased and roads and leisure-time activities have brought cars, noise and tourists into the mountains. At the time of the tales people described jinn as being different from peri but sharing some characteristics. Concerning their appearances in the tales it suffices to say that people considered jinn to be less benevolent and more dangerous than peri. People hesitated to say the word ‘peri’ and especially ‘jinn’ aloud for fear that it would draw their unwanted attention. If people could not avoid a reference to them, especially to jinn, they likely said ‘those’ or, appeasingly, ‘those who are better than we are’. Since then – that is, since the 1960s – under the influence of modernity and of re-education into the puritan Shi‘i theology of the Islamic Republic, the jinn/peri differences have become blurred. Religious scriptures and readings of the Qur’an support a belief in the existence of jinn – Sura 72 is called ‘al-jinn’ – and of angels, but not of peri. The fairies thus merged either with jinn or else, in their positive aspects, with heavenly beings, the huri, paradisical virgins, and fereshte, angels of Zoroastrian roots. (Rarely do people use the Qur’anic word

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for angels, maleke, when they mean peri.) Educated, ‘modern’ people in Iran tend to distance themselves from these beliefs, relegating them to ‘folklore’. In Ghaffari’s collection peri do not appear at all. In Gh41 a ‘fereshte from Ahura Mazda’ visits the protagonist in a dream, and in Gh43 the narrator is so much in denial of fairy-lore as to call a mysterious benefactor to the protagonist ‘a man’, although when this ‘man’ appears, the protagonist is resting under a willow tree, the traditional setting for human/fairy interaction. Yet, feelings of intimacy with extra-human beings live on, quietly, muted and diminished, but strong enough to let people understand the tales on the level where ‘they’ and ‘us’ belonged together. In this cosmology, jinn and peri are not as tangible as are people, but not as fictitious, symbolic or fantastic as they are for audiences that see themselves as sophisticated and enlightened. Peri appear in only 13 tales but are prominent and of consequence for the plot and the protagonist in all of them. They appear in two contexts: as donor/helpers of humans in distress, and as irresistibly beautiful women who bewitch men and make them sick with passion (L32, L35, L41, F40; also L11 from Kerman).3 ‘The Gazelle Maiden and the Golden Brothers’ (L32, summary) A dervish claimed one of twin sons of a couple he had helped to conceive, and left with him. Counselled to do so by a ‘greybeard’ near a well the young man killed the dervish, turned into gold, married the daughter of a village chief, and then was led astray by a gazelle-peri while out hunting. She lured him to her cave, where she appeared as a beautiful woman. She demanded a wrestling match, the loser to become the ‘property’ of the winner. He lost, and she imprisoned him. His magic ring alerted his younger twin. He went after his brother and met the Greybeard, who showed him how to grab the peri to subdue her. He let the gazelle lure him to the cave. There ‘. . . he saw a beautiful lady, so beautiful that there was no one like her, sitting on a throne’. She proposed the wrestling match, which he won. He tied up the lady and freed his brother, and then ‘they gave themselves up to mirth and jollity, and they told each other their stories’. They

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loaded everything up and took the lady with them. The younger brother married her, and the elder brother reclaimed his wife, and they all went off to their own country . . . The ‘Greybeard’ and the gazelle-peri-princess belong to the realm of beings who can harm and help people according to their whim or the humans’ cleverness. They can cross the human/transcendental border, especially so a fairy who becomes a human man’s wife. The dervish is more problematic – by definition, a dervish is human, but the term has negative connotations of demon traits, as it does here. In one of the funniest scenes in the tales the protagonist (in F40) must hide and wait for 40 doves to alight in a tree, turn into beautiful fairies and undress and frolic. ‘Don’t faint!’ says the young man’s guide earnestly, which made narrator and audience guffaw. (In L22, from Kerman, the young man indeed promptly faints in a similar situation.) In the tales the fairies live in this world, mostly invisible or well hidden from humans in lonely mountain pastures and near springplus-tree settings, or else in beautiful ‘gardens’. These gardens echo paradise, just as, generally, formal gardens do in Persia.4 Two tales mention a peri-king but otherwise peri appear as women. Male perilike beings are called jinn or div in the tales, even if the circumstances point to the world of the fairies. Unlike female peri, who beguile men with their beauty, fall in love with them, even marry them, male perijinn appear in the form of animals and abduct human girls. In three tales (L35, L41, F26) a fairy marries a human man, that is, she and not he takes the initiative, in contrast to marriages among humans, which traditionally are initiated by men. In all three cases she is her human husband’s second wife, the ‘love’-wife,5 severely testing the man’s conflicted loyalties, especially so as the peri-wife’s unquestioned superior position as peri challenges the husband-wife hierarchy (F26; also F40.) L35, the story of the shepherd who stayed with a fairy in the mountains is a good example of this genre: in the end he lost his tie to his human wife and lost his peri wife because he was not able to satisfy the wives’ conflicting demands (see the text in Chapter 5). In L41, the peri-wife eventually permits her human husband to resume

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visiting his human wife, whom he had neglected on the peri’s order, because now the peri acknowledges the human wife’s patience and loyalty to her husband. This underscores the peri’s high status and power over humans and at the same time illustrates what it takes to be an exemplary wife that impresses even a fairy. Yet, as wives of human men fairies often are frustrated by their husbands’ dismissive attitudes towards their (superior) wifely counsel (for example, F26) and by having to submit to a husband’s customary commands to a wife (F41). In two tales a man has to overpower a fairy before she is safe for him: once by wrestling her (see above, L32), once by abducting her and not looking at her until she speaks a formula of surrender (F40). A long string of episodes in the same tale deals with a captured peri’s extravagant conditions for her consent to marry a lovesick human prince and her deadly scheme to get rid of the prince and marry the protagonist of the tale, who had fulfilled her demands. As the narrator commented, ‘Woman or peri, all beautiful wives are fickle’. In L11 (from Kerman) a prince is under the spell of a peri; he neglects three human wives and is able to leave the peri only after the spell is broken. In these tales, as in F39, where a peri-gazelle leads a prince astray, the peri’s dangerous side brings hardships on humans. Mostly, however, fairies help people, especially men. They may do so by revealing hidden useful properties of objects (such as twigs that cure madness, or leaves that cure blindness) or else by bestowing gifts of beauty and healing. They may appear in the form of birds (doves, pigeons) perching on the tree under which the protagonist is resting. In F15, seven peri-doves assist a poor mother giving birth alone in the wilderness, and then give the baby girl magical gifts that later help her survive, get a prince-husband, win him back after she had lost him to a treacherous aunt, and prosper. ‘Khanzade and Bagzade’ (F15, excerpt) [A rich woman humiliated her poor, pregnant sister. The poor woman and her husband move away from this hostile place.] They walked and walked until they arrived at an abandoned campsite with ruins. They entered one. The woman went into labour. Her husband said, ‘I will walk around the camp to see

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if I can’t find a rag to put on the child’. He left and fell asleep somewhere. Now the woman was alone. Seven doves came to her. They sat down next to her and with God’s will they turned into seven women. God gave the woman the child, a girl. The doves had brought clothes with them, put them on the girl, and then gave the mother food . . . Meanwhile dusk had fallen. One of them said, ‘Sisters, shouldn’t we fly away?’ Another said, ‘First let us give a present to this sister’ . . . One said, ‘My gift is that every morning when she gets up, a bar of gold and a bar of silver shall be under her head’. Another said, ‘I give her this: whenever she laughs it will be sunny and whenever she cries it will be cloudy and rain will fall’. Another said, ‘I give her mascara that will give sight to a blind eye’. Another said, ‘I give her a ring worth a million Toman’. Another said, ‘I give her this: her braids shall be reddish brown and be so long as to touch the ground’. Another said, ‘I give her this: Whenever she says “Rehei”,’ flowers shall grow behind her.’ Another said, ‘I give her a face so beautiful that even God will praise her loveliness’. Then the doves flew away . . . In all other cases of helpful fairies they help men, not women, by rescuing them or by bestowing magical powers on them such as healing, walking on water or finding a treasure. In one, a peri makes a good man grow his lost penis again, thus saving his marriage to his human wife (F45). In another (F26) a peri-wife in men’s clothes rescues her human husband from his abusive master and later from her husband’s murderous wolf-sister, whom she kills. In the few tales where jinn are named (people consider it dangerous to use the word) they carry the ambiguous qualities of peri of the ancient hunting-lore. Twice somebody asks about an unknown, beautiful young woman, ‘I don’t know if she is jinn or peri or human . . .’ (L16, F17). In F9 a jinn in the shape of a bear and in F38 in the form of a ram abducts a girl and marries her. The ram looks like a male peri, given his form as an ibex and his proper conduct as a husband (if one

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discounts the abduction). Knowing that hunters will kill him, like any good husband he makes provisions for his widow and son: one of his antlers contains jewels. His ‘brother’ is a snake/dragon, that is, a divlike being released from the ram’s other antler through the widow’s greed and disobedience to her dead husband who had admonished her not to break this antler. Here, in one and the same story, many jinncharacteristics appear: jinn live in the wilderness; there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ones, that is, helpful or harmful to people; most are male and like to steal human women; they can take the form of wild animals such as bear (also F36) or ram (also F38) or dragon/snake (also F28, F38; L34 – here, however, the ‘white snake’ is the daughter of the periking, merging the world of the jinn and the peri). In the ethnographic present there are people who count fairies as ‘devils’, sheitun (rather than ‘angels’, fereshte, as most people do) along with jinn, despite the jinn’s special place in the Qur’an. For these people, cosmology has become strictly bipolar, divided into good and bad forces, God and devil. But in the tales jinn and peri still exist in their own, ambiguous, rights, and ethnographically they live on in people’s memories. Unlike God, peri and jinn are agents that interact with people personally and ‘do’ rather than ‘will’. It is understood that God created them and that without divine will they would not have power, but as far as the stories are concerned, peri and jinn mostly act on their own, for better or for worse. They may act, implicitly, as God’s instruments, such as, for example, when doves tell the sleeping protagonist about the powers of leaves or about hidden treasures he can later use and that, presumably (but not explicitly), are put in place by God’s Will. There is a fine line between possessing magical powers and only revealing them, though. The words the bird/peris use to introduce their willingness to help the sleeper make this distinction. The phrase mostly used is, ‘If the young man was awake and not asleep, was bright and not an ass – if he would take from the leaves of the tree he could cure blindness’, etc. (for example, F45). That is, the doves inform the sleeper of an existing quality he is not aware of. This meaning is different from, ‘Let us give gifts to this newborn girl . . .’ (F15) which implies that the fairies have independent creative or magical powers.

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But this distinction is of no consequence either for the narrators or the plots of the tales.

Div (ghoul) Div and ghul, the vilified descendants of ancient deities, appear in 28 tales, mostly as males. In five of these the div has a name (Ala)Zangi or Zingi,6 and is after human virgins. Div are said to abduct people in order to eat them (for example, F11, A/Th11, Gh13). As cannibalistic monsters they are strong but vain and rather stupid, living in the wilderness in caves, underground or in a garden that belongs to another world (F40, Gh22, Lama’e: 87). Div may rob people and hoard treasures (L26, L27 from Kerman, expressing what I also heard about div in Boir Ahmad). They may control people’s water (F40, Gh38) and can smell humans. Female div want a human husband and male div want human wives. They may ‘ride the wind’ (A/11; F8) or take the form of a cloud (F8, Lama’e: 105, Gh26), and appear in many other forms. ‘Teylengak’ (Gh26, excerpt)7 [Slandered by his stepmother after he had spurned her amorous advances, the young protagonist left home, aided by a magical horse. Now he is the servant of an ‘Old Woman’.] She said, ‘Go to my sister; if she gives you a black veil make it white, and if she gives you a white one make it black. If you can’t do it, I’ll kill you’ . . . On the way he came to a well spoiled with blood, and said, ‘Well, well, instead of water this well has honey’. He went further and met an old woman with a frog and a salamander on her head. He said, ‘Well, well, you have beautiful things on your head; I have six mothers like the salamander . . .’. A little later a black and a white cloud appeared in the sky and came down to the ground, and the boy said to the black one, ‘Auntie Cloud, give me your dress so that I can look like you . . .’. Now the black cloud turned white and the white cloud black, and then the white cloud turned into a div and said, ‘Tell me what to do, I’ll do it’. The boy said, ‘Take me to my mother’. The div put him on his back and took him away . . .

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Only as a kind of ‘Frau Holle’ is a div a donor (in A/Th16; a male in L39, F13 and also in L6, L13 from Kerman).8 In several more tales the mother of div-sons helps a human by hiding him. In F10 a cannibalistic div has two wives, a ‘bad’ heathen one and a ‘good’ one who helps the protagonist and whom the narrator identifies as ‘Muslim’. Div are dangerous to all humans, sinners and innocents alike, and it is difficult for people to cope with them. However, their gullibility and stupidity make them vulnerable and create humorous scenes, especially when paired with a scared man. ‘The Coward and Seven Ghouls’ (Gh48, condensed) In olden times there lived a man who was scared of everything. One evening he went out, saw a fox and went back home straight away. His wife offered to go with him but left him after a few steps. When he realized that he was alone he ran back, but on the way met a guy who took him home with him. There were six more fellows. The man soon realized that they were div who wanted to eat him. At night he put a big chunk of firewood in his bed and moved behind one of the div. When one div sank his teeth into the wood, the man jumped to the fireplace and shouted, ‘Lice are biting me and don’t let me sleep!’ The second night the man put an egg into the fireplace. It burst, the div woke with fright and let him be. The next night he found a cat for them to roast and eat. Now the disappointed div told one of them to take the man home. The man was afraid of the div and even more so of the fox they met on the way, but he knew he had to do something to frighten the div. Out of fright he attacked the fox and cut off its head. He tied the fox’s head to the div’s foot and [persuaded the div to] walk back to the div’s house [together]. The div saw the fox’s head and ran away, and the man went home and said to his wife, ‘From now on I won’t be afraid of anything’. The div’s world is much like the human world, but in several tales it is an opposite world: the protagonist saves him/herself by doing the

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opposite of what the div orders (L13, L18 from Kerman; F41). In dealing with div-danger, humans are left to their own wits and devices, their own strength and cunning (for example, L51 and variant F8; F9; Gh47). ‘The Man, the Fox, and the Ghoul’ (Gh47, condensed) In days gone by two poor orphaned brothers had nothing but two hens. They divided the hens, and the younger brother left with his. A fox saw him and lay down in the road pretending to be dead. The boy saw it and walked by. The fox ran ahead and lay down again. Now the boy put the hen down to see if the fox was dead. The fox jumped up, took the hen and ran away. Hungry, thirsty and sad the boy walked on and came to a cave with smoke rising, entered, and saw a ghoul. He was afraid but greeted the ghoul, and the ghoul thought that the boy would be a good bite to eat. The boy asked for some food, and the ghoul gave him two sacks of flour to bake bread. The boy made dough, baked the bread in hot ashes, ate his fill and threw the rest far away, and then told the ghoul that it had not even been ‘enough to fill the cavity in my tooth’. The ghoul was astounded. At night he took a burning log to roast the boy from behind. The boy put a piece of wood in his place and hid in a corner. In the morning he said, ‘Last night I thought a mouse was hopping around on my back; it did not let me sleep’. The ghoul started to shiver with fright. Now the boy asked for water, and the ghoul told him to drink from the big bearskin water-bag. The boy drained the water and hid the bag, and told the ghoul he was still thirsty. At this the ghoul fled. The boy went on top of the cave, and when he saw the ghoul come back with the fox, he shouted, ‘Good work, Fox, I told you to bring the ghoul!’ At this the ghoul threw the fox down by its tail and fled for good. The boy found the ghoul’s gold and jewels and became a rich man. In discussions of ghoul-topics the term ‘sheitun’, devil, came up occasionally. This moves div/ghouls into a religious discourse. But div do not embody the scriptural devil leading people astray. Div are not

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personified Evil in a moral sense either but a dangerous power that is part of creation and can harm anybody, including the innocent. Unlike consorting with the devil or giving in to the devil’s seduction, which is sinful, consorting with a div is outside the sin-parameter.9 A div is a challenge to a person’s life and wellbeing, not to his/her soul. The div’s merging conceptually with ‘devil’ widens the meaning of the concept of devil considerably and begs the question of the image people have of ‘evil’. ‘Evil’ as an issue of morality is not much in evidence in the tales, however, and therefore I will not discuss it here. Leaving aside the occasional merging of jinn and div with ‘devil’ that simply emphasizes these beings’ dangerous qualities, only in one tale does the devil actually appear, but in the paradoxical role as a selfless helper of a poor man: A pauper fell in with the devil in order to have a better life. The devil turned into a mule for the pauper to sell to the corrupt judge and to embarrass the judge into becoming honest (Gh37; see Chapter 5 for text and discussion). Such beneficial acting hardly fits the customary image of the devil but it can fit the doings of a jinn or a div. In no tale is evil personified. There are only dangerous beings and bad people whose passions (jealousy, lust, greed, vanity) bring about hardships for others and punishment on themselves.

Khezr, Mushkil Gusha and the Lord of the Last Day The ‘Fellow in a Well’ (khezr, L53, F14) and the ‘Remover of Difficulties’ (Mushkil Gusha, L9, from Kerman and known in Boir Ahmad) appear in seven tales as advisers in male human form, whose good counsel helps people attain success.10 Here, a short digression is useful to show how a narrow motif may carry quite different meanings in different cultural settings. In Tehran people say that Mushkil Gusha will sometimes remove a worry if the worried person sweeps the ground in front of the house and washes it daily for 40 days. After 40 days the person may see Mushkil Gusha in the shape of an unfamiliar man walking by the house, which is the sign that the wish will come true. In this ritual, the water is as important as the sweeping and the 40-day repetition. (The emphasis on water links Mushkil Gusha with Khezr.)

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Until recently in the southern city of Bushehr, women prepared nazr Moshkel Gusha, or nazr ajil, that is, a votive-promise (nazr) to Mushkil Gusha specifically for the lifting of a difficulty, by reading from a book of special prayers while cleaning ‘ajil’, a mix of raisins, walnuts, chick peas, sugar candy and so on, that then they gave to neighbours in fulfilment of the vow.11 In Boir Ahmad people reported a similar, but less specific, ritual without a bartering component for imploring Mushkil Gusha. The difference in the approaches to this benevolent power becomes even more significant when compared to an English retelling of the Mushkil Gusha story for children that ends with the explicit message that sharing and thankfulness will bring the wish fulfilment.12 From Lorimer 53 to Friedl 21, Khezr, the fellow in the well, merged with the ‘Lord of the Last Day’ (Imam zama¯n), that is, he changed from an ancient water-deity/biblical prophet (Chedir, Elias) to the Last, the Hidden, Imam of Shi‘i cosmology.13 The two tales are close variants of each other, but in L53 the helper is called Khizr and in F21 he is the Hidden Imam in the shape of a ‘beggar child’.14 In F40 he is an unidentified ‘Old Man’ whom the protagonist meets on his dangerous journey and whose specific suggestions lead him to make use of the magical horse that saves him. In L32 (see text above) a ‘Greybeard’ at a spring advises the protagonist on how to kill a murderous dervish and how to subdue a fairy. In two other tales (L53, F14) Khezr helps an honest, poor man to riches. ‘The Apparition of the Prophet Khizr’ (L53, summary) A poor man desperately in debts and at his wits’ end promised to show the King the Prophet Khizr. The King paid him well, the man paid off his creditors and ‘sat down to have a good time of it’. When the time came to produce the Prophet he knew that, having lied to the King, he would lose his head, but he was glad that his wife would have a livelihood. He went to the King and told his story. The King asked his viziers what to do with the man. ‘Cut off his flesh with scissors’, said one. Another said, ‘Burn him in a baker’s oven’. A third said, ‘Give him some money and a landlord’s income from a village to live on’. An old

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man had come into the room, and now said, ‘Each man speaks according to his own intelligence. The first vizier was a tailor once; the second, a baker; the last comes from a long line of viziers. The poor man acted out of consideration for his wife, and you, the King, now have seen Khizr’. At this, the old man vanished. The King dismissed all but the last vizier who had counselled mercy and generosity. Among the Lurs, the goodness of this extra-human power is activated by human need, but in a chancy, unpredictable way. Khezr does not sit in every well nor does he help every needy good man, and nor are Mushkil Gusha and the Hidden Imam available to everybody in difficulties. Their powers, however, are autonomous; there is no reference to God.

Salomon and the Prophet Mohamad Famous King Salomon (in the tales he is a ‘prophet’) does not appear in person, but even in his absence his miraculous powers help people who invoke (‘remember’) him. In L40 and A/Th6 his ring is an instrument of wish fulfilment, and in F41 Salomon’s flying carpet, wishing bag and wealth-spending hen drive the plot. (In L6 and L22, from Kerman, the protagonist calls on God for help ‘in the name of the Prophet Salomon . . .’ and help is, indeed, forthcoming.) One narrator in my collection routinely started his tales with a blessing on the Prophet Mohamad, but in the tales the Prophet figures only twice. Once, in a frame story (F18), he has a toothache and orders an old man to tell him a story to divert him from the pain. The old man’s story about two young lovers he had shot accidentally many years earlier is so touching that the Prophet decides to bring the two dead people back to life, saying a ‘prayer’ over their bones. In the other tale he is a slighted guest who turns the stingy hosts into a bear and a boar (F33). Otherwise, exalted religious figures appear in funny contexts and without acting: in L12 a disgruntled man forms dough into little figures of the Prophet, Gabriel, Satan, Ali ‘and others’, including God, abuses them verbally and then eats them. In L29 Abbas, a relative of

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the Prophet, is mentioned when the protagonist identifies an imaginary flock of sheep he invented to deceive people as ‘the sheep of Hazrat Abbas’ that, he says, a chief of the neighbouring powerful Qashqa’itribe was giving away in fulfilment of a vow to Abbas. Compared to peri and jinn, religious personages are not well integrated in the tales. I heard the story of the Prophet and the stingy hosts (F33; see text in Chapter 4) also told with ‘Holy Jesus’ and with ‘Holy Hosein’ as the guest. Where religious figures do appear in the tales they are mostly part of a safety net of potential helpers for people in difficulties.

Dervish and Pir In popular definition a dervish is a mendicant person who renounces worldly goods and aspires to spiritual perfection. This gives the dervish some spiritual powers that demand respect. In the tales all mendicant dervishes are male. Then and now, in exchange for food or money dervishes offer services such as writing amulets, giving counsel, bestowing blessings, telling fortunes and performing prayers/rituals for healing. A less polite definition describes the dervish as a migrant beggar who (mis)uses piety to swindle people. Today people say they give honours and alms to dervishes (and beggars) not out of respect but out of fear of a slighted dervish’s potential curse. In the tales, and in accordance with people’s stated opinions, the stereotypical dervish seems to have undergone a noticeable transformation from the Lorimers’ to my time. The Bakhtiari of around 1900 in their tales gave credence to dervishes, according to a narrator who has the legendary Shah Abbas (1557–1629) walk around town disguised as a ‘dervish’ to learn of his subjects’ problems (L52). In L26 a humble and honest man is identified as a ‘dervish’ and becomes king. But even then people judged abilities and behaviours of dervishes as ambivalent in several tales: three of the five dervishes in the Lorimer collection have the power to bestow fertility on barren women via a fruit, but two claim half of the child and become hostile (see also L32, above). In contemporary Boir Ahmad as in the tales a dervish figures as a lazy man whom people suspect of using fake piety and world-weariness to swindle people. For example, in F36 ‘a worthless dervish’ seduces

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the daughter of his host. His child becomes a destructive force, and it is understood that one cannot expect any better from the seed of a corrupt dervish. In A/Th13 a ‘demon’ dresses as a dervish. However, ‘dervish’ also may connote men and women who do not get married or else, as Sufis, do not participate fully in social competition and do not aspire to worldly possessions; rather, they are pious, kind, empathic and honest.15 Only two tales involve such dervishes. ‘Pir’ literally is an ‘elder’, a wise old man. The pre-Islamic pir was a hermit who advised people seeking his counsel. Eventually, pir merged with dervish on the one hand, and on the other with descendants (ima¯mzadeh) of the Prophet Mohamad whose alleged graves are popular pilgrimage places throughout Iran. In the past, in many places in Iran people used the word ‘pir’ (instead of ima¯mzadeh) for these small shrines (see the reference to ‘Pir Sardasht’ in Chapter 5, note 15). In F23 a young man poses as a ‘pir’, hiding in – or behind – a pile of rocks to set up an intrigue in order to trap and destroy his uncle’s unfaithful wife. Among Baharvand Lurs, this memorial rock pile, a dangerous place, is called chuk (A/Th11: 54). ‘Holy places’ marked by cairns, that is, by piles of rocks, also were/are common in Tajikistan and in Turkish regions of Central Asia, there called with terms of which a Luri word for them, qarre/a or karre/a, is a variant.16 Connected with this history is the custom in Iran of marking the roadside spot from where an ima¯mzadeh is first visible by adding a pebble to little piles started by earlier travellers. A prayer and/or wish may accompany the gesture. The narrator has no comment on the fake pir’s deception in this tale. It is understood that such behaviour fits mendicant people living off their piety. In this case the deception furthermore happens in the frame of what passes in the tale as a good deed, the killing of an adulterous wife, justifying the deception. The powers of both, dervish and pir, are ambiguous: they pose a danger for the unwary as well as offer assistance to those who know how to approach them.

Luck (Bakht) In five tales Luck figures prominently, embodied in male human form. From the texts one may conclude that every person has Luck as

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a companion, a memory of Zoroastrian fravashi, the protective guardians. A person’s Luck may be young, awake and active, which means that the person is lucky, things work out well for him or her; or else Luck may be old, tired, even asleep, which means the person has no luck in his or her enterprises (a disappointed person may say, ‘bakhtom ve khou-e’, ‘my Luck is asleep’). Thus, Luck can be ‘bad’ or good.17 In L5: 315 ‘bad Luck had done its work’ for a good princess when a slave-girl usurped her place. In L50, the generous host of an impoverished merchant comforts him by declaring that, like everything else, poverty, too, ‘has its origin in a man’s Luck, be it good or ill’. Luck acts under its own power. It is not linked to morality and not explicitly linked to God’s Will either. In L44 the young and energetic horse-groom of a thriving herd turns out to be the owner’s vital, good Luck, while in F39 Luck in the form of a ‘hairy, dirty old man’ is turning around in the dust to find a place to sleep, cutting off his master’s good fortune so completely that even his gold coins turn into worthless black metal (see text in Chapter 1). In two tales the protagonist goes in search of his sleeping Luck in order to wake it and turn his luck around. When awakened, Luck even provides reasons for some people’s lack of luck that go beyond Luck’s vitality, deep into causalities. ‘The Story of the Man who Went to Wake his Luck’ (L44, summary) There were two brothers. One was rich and the other poor although he worked hard. One day Poor Brother met his brother’s horse-herder who told him that he was Rich Brother’s Luck, and that Poor Brother was poor because his Luck was asleep. Poor Brother left to wake his Luck. On the way he met a gardener who told him to ask Luck why his garden did not bear fruit, then a King who wanted to know why the subjects did not obey orders, a wolf who wanted to know why he found nothing to eat, and a thorn-gatherer who wanted to know why he had such a hard life. Poor Brother found his Luck asleep in a cave, woke him, asked the questions, got answers, and left. When he came to the thorngatherer he told him, ‘Things will go on just the same for you,

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neither better nor worse’. To the King he said, ‘You are a woman, that’s the reason why people don’t obey you’. The King-woman said, ‘I’ll marry you and the kingdom will be yours’. But he said, ‘No, I have wakened my Luck, I have to go home’. He told the gardener to dig up the pot of gold buried in the garden to make the land fruitful. When the gardener invited him to wait for a share of the gold, he said no, he wouldn’t stay. When he told the wolf that his food ought to be foolish men, the wolf said, ‘I have seen no greater fool than you’, and ate him. This tale (and a similar one from Kerman, L19) suggests that in some adverse conditions human effort may very well bring change, and be it as drastic as wakening one’s Luck, but some other conditions, like the innate qualities of women or poverty inherent in one’s lowly status, cannot be changed easily. They almost belong to the basic order of things. A fool is anybody who does not seize an opportunity for advancement.

Destiny or Fate (Pishuni Neveshte) Of the several kinds of fate that exist in Persian popular philosophy, only the one that is circumscribed with ‘it is written on the forehead’ figures in the tales specifically, although Ghaffari’s narrators also used recently popular terms such as chance (shans, etefa¯q, Gh20, qasa¯, Gh18) and ruzega¯r, that is, ‘what the day will bring’ (for example, Gh47; see Chapter 7, Note 9 for translations). The narrator of Gh2 started the tale with, ‘Days came and went’. The most prominent kind of destiny, the Qur’anic qismat (kismet), appears only twice, in A/Th5 and A/ Th10, in the context of marriage. ‘It is written on the forehead’ quite literally means that one’s purpose in life or one’s circumstances are inscribed on the forehead like a programme that one cannot change. In F24 a skull has a message on its forehead about 40 past killings and one more in the future, which then is the topic of the tale (see Chapter 7); in F16, it is written on a girl’s forehead at birth that she will be a werewolf. It is understood that God determines destiny, but this connection is not emphasized. No one says, ‘God wrote such and such on her

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forehead’ but rather, ‘IT is written . . . (neveshte)’ – the written text is important, not who wrote it. This is the kind of fate that is open to detection by fortune-tellers, but even if one knows about it, it is inescapable.18 In L43 fortune-tellers predict that a wolf would eventually eat a baby boy. The father hides the boy underground and arranges his brother’s daughter as his bride, that is, he provides the most safe and proper marriage imaginable. But in the bridal chamber the bride turns into a wolf and eats her groom, fulfilling his fate. In L56 a father keeps his son hidden in a garden to prevent his predicted death by a snake bite, a fall and drowning – the boy climbs a tree to get into a bird’s nest; a snake in the nest bites him, which makes him fall off the tree into a pool and drown. The narrator comments, ‘Whatever is written on the forehead cannot prove false’ (334). In the ethnographic vernacular the term appears mostly in connection with marriage, such as, for example, for the kind of husband a girl might get and for the circumstances of her married life (see also L43 above, where the boy’s fate catches up with him on his wedding night). If an unwelcome suitor is unshakably persistent, the young woman’s people will accept him in the end because he obviously is ‘written on her forehead’ as her husband, as her destiny. Mother Goat likewise accepts the foolish but persistent sheep as her ‘fate’ (see Chapter 4). In a few other cases fate is not identified as clearly, or else it is linked to God. When two young hoodlum-protagonists suffocate a ‘rich monkey’ in his sleep, the narrator vaguely comments, ‘It was not meant that he should sleep well’ (F36). In L22, the pious wish ‘May God grant that the beautiful, peri-like girl may fall to your lot’ comes true against the odds of a pauper marrying up, given that his ‘fate’ is poverty. In L40, regarding marriage three statements relate to fate: the protagonist hears that his wife will be ‘whoever was appointed by destiny’ to him, and that ‘God allots a woman to every man’. But the protagonist also sees himself as a responsible agent when he says that he would not have suffered had he not told his secret to his wife, and had he ‘not let the outside woman’ (a dangerous stranger who corrupted his wife) into his house. Thus, for the narrator, human agency inserts itself even into discussions of ‘fate’, and with the same logical and emotional problem – as a teleological argument, no matter what one does

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or does not do is ‘written on one’s forehead’. Although this provides a cogent reason for passivity – submission to God’s Will is the foremost duty of a Muslim – the people in the tales as well as in everyday life opt for agency wherever and whenever they see a chance.

Animals The most consequential and dramatic of the many animals with unusual powers that populate the tales is the wolf/girl who eats everybody she can get until she is killed (F26, F16, L43). She is not a werewolf as punishment for sins or in consequence of magic – she simply ‘is’ like this, without explanation. Only death can stop her destructive force. Upon her death one such wolf/sister turns into a bird and now, as a soul-bird, helps the brother she was about to eat earlier (F16). The motif of the so-called soul-bird comes up twice more, once in the only thoroughly sad story in the collections, of the mistreatment of a motherless girl by her stepmother, the aloofness of her father, the girl’s suicide and her transformation into a bird. Only now, as a bird, can she tell her father what happened (F34). In L14 (from Kerman) a boy murdered by his father on suggestion of the boy’s stepmother, turns into a nightingale with the help of his loyal sister who performs all death duties for him, and then he sings of his own death and avenges it. It is not clear what part of a person turns into a bird in these stories – a soul maybe or the life force (in F16 and A/Th14 it is a drop of blood) – and it is not clear in the ethnographic context either. The soul-bird is a familiar motif, though. One of the oldest gravestones in Sisakht, from the nineteenth century, shows an engraved stylized bird on a stick-‘tree’ (a tree of life) and this image is popular in needlework too.19 People may talk about the death of a person as ‘She or he took wings; she or he flew away’. In the tales the soul-bird carries a justice/revenge issue beyond the grave, then disappears. Otherwise, birds in the tales are God’s messengers or instruments of God’s Will, such as when a falcon chooses the next king (L31, L33, F41); they are also the most likely animal-form (mostly doves) female peri take at will. Only the crow has ambivalent meanings. The popular expression for having met the dangers of life, ‘I have heard the cawing

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of crows and the howling of wolves’, is in A/Th14. An ‘evil crow’ tells a div girl intent on eating her human brother how to keep water in a sieve to get to her brother: ‘Mud in sieve, mud in sieve’ it caws (A/ Th14: 69). A crow also appears as a bad omen. But a little girl in search of her lost brothers gets a crow to transport her by bribing the bird with goat-intestines bit by bit as they are flying (F10). Indeed, various animals help people. Frequently they do so in gratitude for a person’s earlier generosity or kindness. Thereby they emphasize people’s agency and the rightness of such behaviour, even if the kindness is a bit calculated, as in the girl’s feeding the crow, above. Ingratiating oneself emerges as an important and wise strategy to win support. A boy saves the brood of a phoenix (simorgh), thereby turning the grateful bird into his powerful supporter (L36; Gh38). But just as frequently animals help for no obvious reason and without reference to an ethical or moral principle. Thus, a dead mother sends her daughter (who had killed her) a magic calf that keeps the girl alive (L39, F13); an eagle (a mythical da¯l in A/Th17) rescues an abandoned baby girl and brings her up (F17); a pigeon, a dog, a cat and some mice help to unite two lovers (L40); a pack of dogs save their master from a wolf-girl (F16, A/Th14); a rooster falls silent when his mistress’s son dies far away (Gh38); a hen lays golden eggs (A/Th12, F41); a magic black horse helps his rider to success (F40; also Gh22, Gh26, A/Th10). The black horse in F40 is the only major animal-figure in the tales that turns out to be a (bewitched) human being, but the origin of the horse-man identity is not developed or explained in the tale.20 In one tale (F28) a dog and a rooster help a man depressed over his wife’s infidelity to do the right thing – divorce her publicly. However, this was not because of these animals’ extraordinary powers but because the man had been rewarded by the ‘king of snakes’ (a peri) with understanding the language of animals for a service to the king’s daughter. The animals’ discussion of the man’s predicament in the story rests on the perceived unity of experiences and mental capabilities of humans and animals: animals talk just as people do, but usually people cannot understand their language. Most tales take interaction based on verbal communication among animals and people for granted. Thus, the story of the clever fox (F37) who befriends the human protagonist and

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helps him get the princess, only to blackmail the young man into a promise of a proper funeral, rests not on any transcendental powers of this fox but on the stereotypical smartness of foxes and on the assumption of one plane of interaction for humans and animals. Whenever a div or peri turns into an animal, the animal retains its own nature and customary behaviour. It is chosen, as it were, for its natural inclinations. Peri who want to outrun a hunter turn into gazelles; in A/Th15: 75 a pair of lovers fleeing and fooling their pursuers turn into a calf and cowherd, and later the young man turns himself into a rooster and kills the pursuers who had taken the shape of chickens. Even the donkeys in F41 show this principle when the protagonist with a fairy’s wand turns some lovesick young men into donkeys as punishment for their foolishness and sexual greed, together with the young woman who had misused her beauty to make men fall in love with her. The tale combines humour with a statement about morality, playing on donkeys’ stereotyped qualities of foolishness and great sexual appetites. (In A/Th6 a donkey is a female demon.) Wild animals appear as dangerous, including div or peri in this form, and one had better beware of them because one cannot be quite sure if an animal is just that or a peri or div. In L26 ‘wild beasts’ unwittingly reveal a treasure to the wisely hidden protagonist but kill and eat another man who is too lazy to conceal himself properly; beardiv/peri abduct girls, a lion/tiger eats a bride tied to a tree by her treacherous aunt (F15/L39), and in two tales a peri in the form of a gazelle leads a hunter astray (L32, F39); a bear-div threatens an indiscreet man and his wife, whereupon their children flee to avoid being sacrificed to the bear by the parents (F36). All these animals talk and argue like human beings, but within the characteristics people ascribe to them: the lame hungry lion cannot afford to pass up an easy meal of a woman tied to a tree; foxes are wily; gazelles are fast and unpredictable in their movements; donkeys are dumb and sexually voracious beasts of burden; goats are resourceful and agile; sheep need guidance and protection to stay alive, bears have human-like features.21 There are no such animal motifs in the Ghaffari collection. It is as if narrators had lost the fear of wild animals over the last two generations after most wild animals had been hunted to extinction in the Zagros

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and the government had restricted gun ownership and hunting, and after most pastoralists had changed their lifestyle. Indeed, in several Ghaffari tales people appear as the masters of all animals, including of a lion (Gh42). ‘The Lion and the Man’ (Gh42, condensed) A fox told a lion how afraid he was of Man, and that the lion, too, ought to be afraid, because his life was in danger. The lion laughed and left to find Man. On his way he met a donkey and asked him, ‘Are you Man?’ The donkey said, ‘Where am I and where is Man? Man uses me to haul loads and to ride on my back’. Lion walked on, met a cow and asked if she was Man. Cow said, ‘Man milks me and ploughs with me, and puts loads on my back and kills me for my meat’. The lion walked on and asked a sheep, a camel, a horse and an elephant. All said, ‘Man makes us miserable’. Now the lion started to tremble with fear. At the edge of the woods he met a man and his son making firewood. Lion asked, ‘Are you Man?’ The man said, ‘Yes, and what is your business?’ The lion attacked him. The man said, ‘If you spare me, I’ll build you a good house against cold and wind’. The lion liked this. The man built a big box, got the lion into it by telling him he wanted to get the measurements right, told his son to bring hot water, poured it over the lion, and the scalded lion fled. The other lions scared the man up into a tree. The scalded lion told the others to climb onto his back to get at the man. When the first lion appeared in the tree, the man shouted, ‘Quick, bring the pitcher!’ Whereupon the scalded lion fled, the other lions tumbled down and either died or fled, too, and never troubled Man again. Besides the tales where animals appear incidentally in a story about people, a group of tales involves mostly animals, as described in Chapter 4. These tales have few human actors and make no reference to the transcendental realm. Rather, they deliver concise, simple messages about life on earth that bear on philosophy and morality.

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Evil Eye One of Ghaffari’s tales includes the only reference to the Evil Eye (tië shur, literally, ‘salty eye’) in all tales. This is curious, given the prominence of the belief in the Evil Eye in popular culture, where it is taken to be a destructive power inherent in some people’s gaze. As one can never be sure who might possess it, people take precautions to protect what is dear or valuable to them, especially children and animals. Although the fear is widespread, I never heard of anybody being accused of knowingly using it as a weapon, in contrast to the Ghaffari tale. In this tale (Gh29) a man uses it deliberately to kill a camel and then is killed in revenge by the camel’s owner, who also has the Evil Eye. When Mr Ghaffari told me this story in 2006, he made it clear that it was making fun of revenge as well as of the belief in the Evil Eye. For him it was a funny story about silly people. Admiration is taken to be the easiest path for the Evil Eye to strike, and therefore it is impolite, at best, to express admiration. In a few instances in the tales admiration is used to manipulate a div or another dangerous being, but not in other contexts. The narrator of a tale may call a woman, for example, ‘beautiful as the full moon’, or ‘so beautiful that it was a sin to look at her’, but does not let an actor in the tales make such statements. Similarly absent are any references to apotropaic jewellery, beads, the blue bead or bangles that people used to guard against dangerous forces such as the Evil Eye.

Summary The tales suggest that in this world humans are surrounded by numerous powers and beings that pose dangers as well as opportunities. All exist in this world, in nature, but this world also includes an underworld and paradisical gardens to which people potentially have access. The tales neither dwell on a life after death nor on transcendental beings in an afterlife. All beings exist on one plane, that is, they interact with one another, basing their relationships and actions on the same language, assumptions and logic. The cases where people first have to acquire

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an understanding of the language of animals (there seems to be but one such language) are rare, but once they understand it, it is evident that the animals operate with the same behavioural and moral models as do people. Taking advantage of opportunities these beings and powers provide and avoiding dangers they pose both depend on people’s knowledge of these powers and on wits and common sense: the more of these a person has, the better off she or he is when dealing with these powers. Rarely, if ever, is a person completely at the mercy of such a power – no matter how much an encounter might be ascribed to ‘fate’ (or, implicitly, even to God’s Will), there is always a way in and out of a dilemma, a do-or-don’t possibility, a yes-or-no decision, a more or less ethical or cunning choice for the next step, especially for men. There are occasions for manipulation. These are the moments of consequence in the tales. Thus, the several kinds of fate/luck/destiny in the tales set a frame, a direction and limits for action for people; they place people into a situation or propel them into a happening but do not render a person completely helpless. Rather, good or bad as luck or fate may be, for the protagonists it provides chances they either grab or let slip. Indeed, the narrators make it clear that whoever passes up such chances is a true fool. The various powers/beings may be dangerous but they are not evil in a moral sense. Rather than malicious, vindictive or immoral, they are dangerous by nature in an amoral sense. It seems that the only truly ‘bad’ beings are humans. Indeed, people expect that the many powers/beings are more likely to reward and help them than to hurt them. Some of these beings appear to take a fancy to a person, others to be generous by nature and to act spontaneously or else in response to a plea for help. The preIslamic beings and deities such as fairies and div emerge in the tales as ambiguous in their effects on people, and people neither worship them nor ask them for help. Beings that were syncretized into the Islamic context, such as Khezr and Salomon, occasionally – but not reliably so – respond to pleas for help. However, ostentatious piety is suspect and does not guarantee good will in the tales but, in contrast, might be a strategy for taking advantage of a situation.

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Taken together, these beings/powers pose a challenge to people. Their abilities transcend human abilities; they are around but not easily accessible; their dangerous qualities and their beneficial acts are unpredictable. A fairy might kill while some div and even the devil might be of assistance. Only people of superb self-confidence and stamina can feel at ease in such a universe – most people try to stay clear of dangerous powers and look at them as potential resources for getting by, or, better, for getting ahead.

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CHAPTER 7 THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVERYDAY LIFE

The principles and assumptions people live by provide choices for thinking and acting, even contradictory choices. Rarely do they form a structured, rounded body of logic, ethics and metaphysics. This point is important: there is no single ‘world view’, a master plan that informs any people’s thinking and acting. Rather, the local culture provides an array of possibilities for thinking and acting that is shared, and from which people choose to construct – and change – their identity and their conduct as circumstances suggest and they see fit.1 In Iran many historical processes and cultural influences left behind thought systems from which people now choose. Even Islam, the most strictly formulated philosophical system, offers choices and validations for just about any kind of behaviour. The tales reflect this wealth of options.2 In their tales people express their assumptions about various aspects of life. One can read tales for assumptions regarding just about any cultural feature, provided that the texts are original, from one place, recorded from a native narrator and minimally edited. For this reason I limit references and texts here with few exceptions to my own collection3 – I had control over recording and translation and I have useful insights into the narrators’ personal circumstances as well as into the larger cultural context. However, conclusions based on these tales correspond to those I drew from the other collections; not a single tale

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contradicts them. All tales express philosophical tenets that are also present in the others. The most basic tenets in the tales deal with managing everyday life in small communities in a precarious environment. Thus, status, age and gender attributes are well defined, as are respective expectations for behaviour within the family and the community; their universality is implied. The narrators formulate these attributes and expectations realistically rather than idealistically, that is, their stories reflect what actually is rather than what they wish for or what they think ought to be. For example, in one tale (F21) a cannibalistic girl (a wolf-girl in a variant, F26) interrupts her plan to eat her brother when he demands a drink of water from her. She obeys without hesitation or resistance, as indeed she ought to as a sister. ‘Sawhead, Axefoot’ (F16: 71, excerpt) [The protagonist is visiting his father’s camp after many years of absence. The camp is empty save for a girl trying to catch a rooster and a cat. He realizes that she must be the sister his father in vain had ordered killed at birth because she was a cannibal. She just ate her protagonist-brother’s horse and now is going after her brother, who tries to stall her.] The brother gave her a water bag with a hole in it and said, ‘Sister, bring me some water to drink. Then eat me’. The water was far away. The girl left to fetch it for him. The brother now – he had two legs and borrowed two more and fled. The girl put water into the water bag but on the way she saw that the bag was empty. She turned back and fetched more water, and did this three times. In the end she got angry and said, ‘I’ll just go and eat my brother’ … Obviously, the demonic nature of the girl was less out of the ordinary for narrator and audience than would have been the girl’s denial of a brother’s request. Just as realistically, Auntie Bug (F3) expects occasional violence from her future husband as a matter of course; itinerant beggars are

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potential sexual predators (F36); mothers watch over their children with empathy and anxiety even beyond the grave (F13, L39); women prefer their own children to a stepchild (F34); fathers work hard but are aloof to their children’s problems (F34); traders drive hard bargains (F41); good, just rulers make their subjects contented (F41); one is bound to obey those above oneself in authority and to take care of dependents (F39); a ‘good’ person is one who discharges his/her obligations well, ‘bad’ is one who neglects them. These ethical principles appear as self-evident; they do not need to be stressed as the ‘moral’ of a story. Even more generally, in their tales people handle and judge behaviour ambivalently. People say that ‘good’ is all that supports rather than disturbs balance and harmony, but such goodness is, by the very logic of life on earth, impossible to sustain. Thus, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are strongly contextualized. For example, saints are ‘good’ because they do good, they help and heal; but a person who metes out justice through bloody revenge is ‘good’ too, although killing as such is ‘bad’. On principle, lying is ‘bad’, but a white lie is neutral, may even be good, a lie that entertains is good and a lie that brings oneself and especially one’s dependents an advantage is good, too. The ethical parameters of lying have no absolute standard for evaluation and judgement. In the following, in six points I formulate the main philosophical tenets about everyday life and the human condition by summarizing the salient features of the choices for explaining and dealing with the conditions of life as they emerge in the tales. All are checked against and supported by ethnographic evidence. The full text of the tales I quote from is in my Folktales from a Persian Tribe (2007).

The Natural Attributes of Things Of all philosophical principles the most basic is that all that exists is real, it ‘is’, and has inherent meanings and qualities. Thus, all things and beings in this world, by the necessities and character of their respective existences, have certain needs and habits that impinge on the living space, comfort and wellbeing of everything else around. This impingement is outside the realm of morality; it reflects pure

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necessity beyond good and evil intentions. It is, as people say, ‘natural’ (tabiï), that is, implicitly God-ordained, and as such cannot be questioned. Wisdom rests on knowledge of the ‘real’ world, and knowledge becomes a survival strategy.4 Fate in the sense of allocated qualities and destinies provides the background for life in the tales, but knowledge is most important for the outcome of engagements with this world. Agency in the form of rational exertion of human will thus is implied in this concept of knowledge and wisdom; it is God-willed. Thus, foxes and wolves are after meat, birds sing, dogs bark, snakes have poison, ghouls are dumb and dangerous, rivers will carry one away, angry husbands beat their wives, children whine, traders are crafty. In order to survive, let alone live well, a person has to know and respect the qualities and proclivities of all things and beings. Unclouded alertness and observation of what goes on in the world lead to useful knowledge, and this is the key to success and to minimizing harm to oneself. Unsentimental realism guides the wise. Some examples will illustrate this point. • In ‘The Wolf Girl and the Fairy’ (F26) a youngest brother is willing to kill the newborn wolf-sister in order to prevent her from destroying the community later, while the sentimental elder brothers are not willing to do so, at their peril. • In the same tale, the wolf-girl who eventually eats everybody save the hero-brother, in the end dies not as punishment for a crime but because only death will stop her destructiveness. For her, eating people is a matter of course, not of evil intention, because, alas, she is a wolf by nature. Only a dead wolf is a safe wolf. • In ‘The Old Man and the Snake’ (see Chapter 4, no. 13) a snake makes promises to a man only to renege on them later, nearly killing him. The fox tricks and kills the snake and scolds the man for being so foolish as to believe a snake’s promises – any snake’s promises. • ‘Auntie Bug’ (F3; see Chapter 4; also L4) is looking for a husband whose beatings will not hurt much. The expectation of wife beating gets no comment. Rather, Auntie Bug is clever to take precautions to soften the predictable blows.

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• Tricked by a woman, a little girl kills her mother (‘The Brown Calf’, F13). As, according to local (and pre-Islamic and Islamic) developmental psychology, a little girl does not yet have reason and discernment enough to be responsible for her behaviour, nobody blames her for the matricide – the dead mother even helps her to survive. • In ‘The Fox’ (F4) a hungry fox on a donkey on a pretended pilgrimage with a rooster, a duck and a partridge finds fault with what these animals do naturally and eats the rooster and the duck. Partridge and donkey escape and the fox goes hunting again (see text in Chapter 4). The fox is neither reprimanded nor punished in the tale for the tricks and the killings – the joke is on the dumb animals because they trusted a wily fox that is, by nature, cleverer than they are, and hungry for meat. Extended to people, this means that a thief’s vocation is to steal – and therefore a thief realistically should not be expected not to steal – just as a hunter’s vocation is to hunt, a herder’s is to herd, a servant’s is to serve and a king’s is to rule.5 This pragmatism is visible in the grand tales but informs especially the short, simple tales of Chapter 4, where the natural attributes of things (stone, walnut) and categories of people (Old Woman, Wife, Stepmother) drive the plots. In ‘The Bird’ (F34) a woman’s (expectable) ill treatment of her stepdaughter and the (expectable) aloofness of the girl’s father lead the girl to kill herself. As a bird she sings her story to her father, and the song prompts him to divorce his wife. The predictable drama unfolds in one short, smooth, unsentimental schematic chain of events. ‘The Bird’ (F34) Once there was a girl. Her father’s wife had a goat. She milked it and put the pot with the milk in front of the girl, and said, ‘Watch the milk, I have work to do’. When she came back the foam on the milk had settled and it looked like less milk. The woman scolded the girl. ‘What did you do with the milk?’ she

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said . . . and punished her and threw her out. The girl left. She did not want to stay with this woman any more. She killed herself and became a bird. The bird alighted on the roof of the father’s house. The father came home and asked, ‘Where did the girl go?’ The woman said, ‘She fell in love with somebody and ran away’. The bird on the roof said, ‘Kupi, kupu, The milk was bitter, was foamy, was rotten, My father’s wife gave me troubles. I wished to kill myself, to hang myself’. Now the father divorced his wife and threw her out. Similarly sober and direct, the popular chain-stories play on the natural needs and actions of things: stones crack walnuts, mice get into flour sacks, dogs bark, wolves kill sheep, sheep eat grass. Suffering is part of each and every thing, a given, unworthy of lament.

The Order of Things All people in this world exist in a hierarchy of authoritarian relationships with obedience expected upward, from the lower-positioned to the higher-positioned, and the exertion of power together with responsibility for subordinates expected downward, from the higher-positioned ones to those in lower positions. Thus, proper relationships between rich and poor, master and servant, king and subject, male and female, fairy and human, and within the family are reliably defined and easily placed into an ethical frame: whoever behaves according to his/her position is ‘good’. Narrators assume (and people express) such appropriate expectations as ‘ought to, must . . .’: brothers ought to take care of their sisters, sisters ought to support and obey their brothers; mothers, even dead mothers, ought to help their children and children ought to work for and support their mothers; rich people ought to help the poor; servants must be loyal to their masters and masters ought to appreciate their servants; kings ought to be just. Failures motivate happenings and

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often – not always – end in reprimand and retribution. Frequently, confusion within the hierarchy leads to conflicts in a story, such as when a fairy, a being superior to humans, marries a human man: is the fairywife bound to her status as a subservient wife or bound to her status as a fairy? Similarly challenging is a youngest brother who upstages his elder brothers: a youngest son’s superior awareness, abilities or luck are in conflict with his duty to defer to and obey his elder brothers. Blatant violation of the hierarchical order leads to drama and to interesting stories. The tales describe ample opportunities for the clever use and misuse of status requirements. Sons disobey a father, a wife disobeys a husband, a sister disobeys brothers, a master kills his servant, the rich oppress the poor, a husband neglects his wife, a father abandons his children – all with dramatic consequences that propel the story as violations are punished, justice is restored and conflicts are solved. But the higher up a violator stands in the hierarchy, the less he is reprimanded. The consequences are mitigated in proportion to status and standing. The doings of God, the ultimate authority, ought never to be questioned. In the stories most violations occur within the family, with the father, the most powerful person, emerging as the most controversial figure. While disobedience of a father’s wishes leads to hardships for the children, fathers’ frequent neglect, even abandonment, of children, their hostilities and injustices toward sons and daughters, go unpunished. A father who orders his newborn daughter’s infanticide simply gets the story going – he is within his rights, deplorable as his order is. However, fathers’ often imperious and deleterious actions do get noted when fathers are described as emotionally distant. In one memorable Freudian instance, ‘father’ and a cannibalistic ghoul intent on eating human girls are linked when the girl-heroine and the ghoul address each other mutually with the local word for father, bou6 (F11). This eo ipso is a critical comment on ‘Father’. ‘The Seven Girls’ (Mahteti) (F11, excerpt) [Abandoned in the wilderness by their parents, clever Mahteti and her sisters become guests of a cannibalistic ghoul. He wants to eat the girls while they are asleep.]

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The ghoul came to their door and said, ‘Bou [Father], who is asleep, who is awake?’ Mahteti said, ‘All are asleep, I am awake’. He said, ‘Father, what do you want me to do so that you can sleep?’ She said, ‘Father, bring seven leather bags with grape syrup’. He did so. The next night Mahteti put the seven bags with syrup under the blankets and fled with her sisters. When the ghoul came and asked who was awake, nobody answered. He sunk his teeth into the syrup bag that was in Mahteti’s place. It was sweet. He said, ‘Mahteti, had I known that your blood is so sweet I would have eaten you a while ago’. He ate his fill. [Eventually he saw that Mahteti had deceived him and the girls were gone, and followed them.] At the shore he saw the girls on the other side of the water and shouted, ‘Hello, hello, Father, Mahteti, Father, by God I want to kiss your red lips. How can I cross over to you?’ She said, ‘Father, put your feet on the white rock in the water and come’. He stepped on it, but it was foam and he fell into the water [and died]. Men are frequently dangerous to women in the tales. They take not only the form of a father but also of a predatory ‘black slave’, a cannibalistic ghoul, princes who abduct maidens they fancy, a king plotting to kill his son to get the son’s wife, a young man who catches a fairy, a dervish who gets his host’s daughter pregnant, ghouls and dragons that eat virgins. Although none of these behaviours are right in a moral sense, narrators and audience treat the sad happenings matterof-factly: voracity and aggression are two of men’s natural attributes. Women who presume to negate this reality will come to grief just like a child who stumbles when disregarding a rock in the path. In Persian folklore, the naturally dangerous wolf is a popular symbol for young men.7 The most compelling and swiftly punished misuse of innate power concerns women. According to the tales few women are trustworthy: they beguile men, cuckold their husbands, are vain and capricious and betray family secrets. God turns a vain woman into a turtle (F30).

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As punishment for Aisha’s betrayal of her husband, the Faithful dismember her (F31; see Chapter 5, Note 20 for the fusion of Aisha and Jud’a). In ‘Kelahmad’ (F23) a virgin-born boy’s only purpose on earth is to uncover the sexual transgressions of the Chief’s daughter, thus facilitating her prompt and proper killing by her father. (Most of the more outspoken and obvious such misbehaviours of women happen in an Islamic/religious context; here, Kelahmad’s name is Arabic, with the title/prefix kel, that is, kerbela¯i, one who has made the pilgrimage to Kerbela.) With few exceptions, women in the tales are nameless, generically referred to as ‘Old Woman’, ‘Mother’, ‘Girls’. Although different storytellers deal with women in the tales differently, all take the bias of women’s moral inferiority for granted but not their intellectual inferiority. Women’s abilities, however, if used against men, are taken as part of women’s moral weakness and are punished. This interpretation of moral responsibility in the face of innate fate, of allotted characteristics, is confined to women in the tales in contrast to children, for example, who are not made responsible for misdeeds precisely because their innate tendencies are taken to lean toward misbehaviour. This difference makes the logic for the treatment of women misogynistic.8

Fate, destiny (pishuni neveshte; shans; bakht; khoda¯ kha¯ s; ruzega¯ r; qismat)9 ‘Fate’ has two dimensions: one is the will of God, God’s inscrutable plan for everybody and everything; the other is ‘power’ in several manifestations. One cannot go against God’s Will, but one does not know what this will is, either. This means one has to exert oneself even in seemingly hopeless situations, and yet has to accept and patiently endure one’s lot at all times in humility. Success and failure, humiliation and revenge, ‘chance’ and good planning all point to God’s Will. Endurance, however, is not the same as resignation or fatalism. ‘Luck’ (shans) can change at any time, for better or for worse, and one must be alert at all times and willing to act. Practically, people treat neither God nor fate as being completely deterministic. This logic behind the concepts of fate, God’s Will and human agency is close to that in Greek, especially Stoic, texts.10

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Fate is a difficult concept because one does not know for sure when to give up hope and effort, and when and how to take responsibility for actions. In F14 a princess successfully trains a lame man to use his limbs – not so much for his sake as to assert herself vis-à-vis her father, who insists that women cannot elevate men socially. Her father’s distrust of women’s abilities, the lame man’s paralysis and his cure are God-willed; had the experiment failed, it would have been the will of God too, but the will of God and one’s fate become clear only as people act. In F18 a grief-stricken old servant finds miraculous help at the end of his life through the Prophet Mohamad – clearly a sign of the will of God, but after a lifetime of God-willed sorrow. God may will that fairies or members of the Prophet’s family or even animals help people, or else that invocations and vows and medications bring no results, but wise people nevertheless heed fairies’ suggestions, make vows and visit physicians. During storytelling sessions narrators and audiences sometimes invoked God and saints at dangerous or stirring moments, assuring themselves of their belief in God’s unaccountable agency that makes anything possible. ‘It is written on one’s forehead’ expresses the belief in God’s will for one’s life-path as well as for unexpected happenings. In F24, a skull has its grizzly purpose/fate literally written on its forehead. ‘The Dried Skull’ (F24, condensed) Once there was a girl. She did not have a mother, only a father’s wife. She also had a bad stomach ache. One day her father went somewhere and saw a skull that had written on its forehead: ‘I have killed 40 and shall kill 42 more.’ The man took the skull home and pounded it in a mortar. He said, ‘Now I will see how you kill 42 more people!’ He put the bone dust into a bag and hung it in the rafters and told his wife and children not to touch it because it was poison. One day the woman argued with the girl. The girl said to herself, ‘I have this stomach ache and my father’s wife is always arguing with me. There is nothing left for me than to eat the poison’. She took the bag down and swallowed some of the powder and drank some water so that it would kill her quickly.

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But she did not die. Instead her stomach got well, and then it grew big and the people saw that she was pregnant. Without telling anybody her father took her behind a hill to kill her, but in the end did not have the heart to do it . . . God gave her the child, a boy, and he grew up . . . One day the village chief said to his men, ‘Tell me what to do with my daughter. She refuses to marry and says, “Kill everything that’s male”’. The men did not know what to say and brought the boy. He said, ‘First set a price on my life and give the money to my mother. Then I will show you’. The chief did so. At night the chief and the boy hid near the chief’s daughter’s door and saw 40 men enter. The boy said, ‘Your daughter lied to you so that you wouldn’t realize what she is doing every night’. The following night the chief waited at her door with a sword and cut off the men’s heads one after the other. Then he killed his daughter. As to the boy – his destiny was fulfilled and he died . . . It was the will of God that all this happened. People use the expression, ‘written on the forehead’ routinely in everyday situations. For example, the kind of husband a girl will get (or else what kind of husband the man she marries will turn out to be) is ascribed to what is ‘written on her forehead’. (In A/Th5 and A/Th10 this kind of fate is ‘qismat’.) It expresses the insight that no matter how careful parents are in finding a good groom for a daughter or else approving the advances of a suitor, the success of the marriage cannot be controlled, it is fated. The inescapable fate-on-the-forehead is so basic an idea that narrators rarely felt the need to mention it explicitly, but it was a likely answer to my occasional questions of why something happened to an actor. The other kind of ‘fate’, however, is just as important, and has several manifestations. These appear as the ‘natural order of things’ – presumably God-willed just like everything else in the world, but now operating on its own, so to speak. One such fate even is personified: bakht (luck, fortune; see Chapter 6) is a usually invisible being in human form attached to a person. When it is ‘awake’ and full of energy, the person is what we would call lucky; things go well for him

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or her. But when it is asleep, even gold turns to rubbish (see text in Chapter 1). One cannot easily influence one’s fate but has to accept it and work within the limits it sets. Shans (chance, luck) has the aspect of chance and coincidence. A fortunate or unfortunate coincidence, for example, is shans. When Seïd, a protagonist in F41, ‘by chance’ meets three brothers with useful magical objects and learns that he is entitled to trick them in revenge for their father’s misdeed, the meeting turns into his ‘good shans’ and the three fellows’ ‘bad shans’. One cannot rely on shans, though. It seems to be operating on the principle of chance (from which the term is derived) rather than on ethical principles such as reward for good conduct or heroic deeds. Yet another form of fate, ruzega¯r (time, fortune, opportunity) is akin to the English, ‘let’s see what this day will bring’, that is, the expectation that things simply will happen and that one has to deal with them as they come. Implied but not elaborated is a cyclical worldview: things come and go and come again, linked through the movement of Time. Ghaffari – or his narrators – use this term frequently, while in the other collections it appears rarely (see, for example, the text of Gh9 in Chapter 5). However, in everyday speech people use the expression when talking about what might or ought to or did happen, always with the connotation of a coming and going. Flow is a natural attribute of Time: days come and go, autumn follows summer, sunshine follows rain.11 It, too, suggests wise, pragmatic acceptance of the natural, innate qualities to be successful: an impatient lover who misjudges the advent of spring dies in the snow (Gh25). Despite fate’s omnipresence in many forms, the main actors in the tales are powerful and energetic agents who do not use ‘fate’ as an excuse or explanation for letting things be, for accepting the status quo as immutable. Neither do they use ‘fate’ to avoid moral responsibilities in making choices. ‘Fate’ and the ‘Will of God’ mostly are post hoc explanations of why things turned out the way they did. Rarely are they instruments of resignation. ‘I’ll piss on my fate’, said a young woman once in an argument with her father, in my presence. This is the spirit in many tales, too.

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The Consequences of Want In the stories as well as in life, shortages and scarcity form the backdrop to existence. One has to be on one’s toes to get what one needs, not to speak of what one wants. Rarely is there enough of the needed, the useful and the appealing to go around. Under such circumstances generosity is a luxury, expected of those who can afford it, but even then only a simpleton will count on it. Mulla Nasreddin’s ill-conceived plot to kill his cow to oblige his neighbours is a funny story – the Mulla is the butt of a joke (F35). ‘Mulla Nasrein and his Cow’ (F35, summary) The Mulla had one cow, nothing else. He said to his wife, ‘Let’s kill the cow and invite everybody to dinner. Then all neighbours will invite us in return and feed us through the winter’. They did so but nobody invited him back. Only the wind howled at his door. So the Mulla invited everybody to shit on his flat roof. They all came and did so. The Mulla dried the things, put them in bags, loaded the bags on a donkey and left. He met a caravan. They asked him what he had loaded, and he said, ‘Perfume from the Shah’s son for his bride’. At night he camped with the caravan, opened the bags, and the donkeys ate the dried things. In the morning he screamed and cursed the caravan people, who had no choice but to give him all they had so that he would not denounce them to the Shah’s son. The Mulla returned home a rich man and told the neighbours that he had sold the dried turds. So all went on their own roofs with their wives and children to shit, then dried the things and took them away to sell them. But wherever they went and said they had dried shit for sale, people laughed at them and cursed them. They went home, knowing that the Mulla had tricked them. They decided to dig a pit, spread a rug over it and invite the Mulla to sit there so that he would fall into the pit and die. But the Mulla learned this and told a shepherd out in the pastures, ‘God does not want me to be a guest tonight. Put my clothes on, go there and keep your mouth shut, and eat’.

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The shepherd did so, fell into the pit, and died. The villagers thought it was the Mulla and were glad about it. But in the evening the Mulla came home driving a herd of sheep. He said, ‘Whoever jumps into the pit will get a herd of sheep from God’. So the people jumped into the pit, one after the other, and all died.12 The tale mocks hunger and mocks people who let themselves get duped in the pursuit of food: the Mulla is snubbed, the shepherd loses his life for the promise of a square meal and the Mulla’s revenge on his neighbours makes fun even of the people’s belief in God’s generosity. There are exceptions to the habits of frugality that are so ingrained in the etiquette of everyday life and in gender and status obligations as to be, ethically, a matter of course: the obligations to one’s dependants is one, hospitality another. (Alms-giving is a third but is rarely used in the tales.) A poor man may even lie to the king to be able to feed and clothe his daughters, and still come out the honest winner in a tale (F21). Even a woman intent on adultery cannot deny a stranger’s request for food and shelter, as dangerous and unwelcome as the request is (F22). Although a son knows that his father wants to harm him he will not deny him hospitality (F41). A widow with children is by her implied poverty entitled to the head of a wild goat two hunters just shot (F38). Even a ghoul may demand – and get – the minimum service a guest may expect (F8). ‘Namaki’ (F8, excerpt; see also Lama’e: 72, text in Chapter 3) [Namaki forgot to lock a door at night and a ghoul came in.] The ghoul said, ‘You all, when somebody comes to your house you must put a pillow under his elbow’. They brought a pillow . . . He said, ‘You all, when somebody comes to your house, you must put bread before him’. They brought bread . . . He said, ‘You all, when somebody comes to your house, you must make tea for him’. They made tea . . . He said, ‘You all, when somebody comes to your house, you must throw a cover

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over him so that he can sleep’. They threw a blanket over him . . . He said, ‘Namaki must come to sleep in my arms’. But they did not give him Namaki. Refusing reasonable hospitality is punished in the tales, as is greed. Thus, two stingy hosts turn into a boar and a bear (F33). The gold a greedy woman expects from her daughter’s mouth turns into vomit (F15). But mostly, thrift and a tight fist govern behaviour. In F6 all actors turn the requests of the cat that lost its tail into bargaining chips: the cow even barters her dung for grass. A fairy uses her capricious assent to an unwanted marriage to bargain for extravagant luxuries (F40). One of the stereotyped characters in the tales, ‘Old Woman’, by definition poor, hungry and shrewd, routinely uses whatever she can get a hold of to barter with. She makes a deal with a man to bring him back his lost thumbeline-son (F12, see below); she makes a deal with a king to abduct a girl for him (F17); for a bowl of food she arranges an illicit tryst for a rich man (F41); in the expectation of money she helps a young man to a job and a young woman to justice (F15, F18). ‘Esa the Hero’ (F18, excerpt) [Esa lost a fight for the girl he wanted to marry and now is imprisoned in a pit. An old woman told his faithful servant about it. He wants to save Esa. The servant is speaking.] I showed the old woman my money and said, ‘Can’t you do something to make me the head of the guards?’ The old woman said, ‘I am the girl’s nurse. I will go to the Shah and say, “My son was away for many years and now has come back. Give him some work so that he won’t leave me again”’. Every day the woman went to the Shah’s kitchen. On this day she sat down somewhere where the Shah would see her. He walked by and said, ‘What are you doing here? Haven’t they given you anything to eat today?’ The old woman said, ‘Dear, I’ll be your sacrifice, I want nothing for myself. But I have a son who was working abroad and now is back. Give him something to do so that he will stay . . .’. [The plan worked. The servant killed the other guards and escaped with Esa and the girl.]

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Although Old Woman often earns ridicule and scorn for her meddling, her stinginess is accepted as a given attribute of her status – how else is she to survive? This assumption rests on a deeper one yet: widows, spinsters, old women without a son will have to go to great length to make a living if they want to or have to be independent, because they operate outside the male/female authoritarian hierarchy.13 Quite reasonably, the narrator of F24 (‘The Dried Skull’, above), an old woman, found it necessary to mention that the boy protagonist asked the king for money for his mother to live on after his death, when he no longer could take care of her. It is understood that with an illegitimate child nobody would marry her. The corresponding ‘Old Man’ in the tales is positioned quite differently. He simply is a hard-working pauper, likely married, and of little consequence to the story. Where kindness and unconditional generosity outside the obligations of family and status come up in the tales (they do so rarely), the context acquires a dimension of Islamic morality – one is generous because one is a good Muslim – if not of extravagant reward. A poor man who is kind to a beggar child becomes rich because the beggar child is the Hidden (the 12th) Imam (F21). The narrator of F15 introduces the wife of a ghoul who helps a human girl as a ‘Muslim’, implying a ‘good’ jinn, while the unbeliever-jinn harms the girl. A pauper saddled with seven daughters takes in an abandoned girl out of the goodness of his heart and in the end becomes rich because of this good deed (F15). Poverty itself has no redeeming qualities in the tales. Poor people are miserable. They are tired of being poor. (‘God, I am tired of gathering firewood’, says one pauper, A/Th7: 39.) Poverty motivates parents to abandon children; lets a woman accuse a stepdaughter of wasting milk; makes it impossible for a man to get a wife; lets a man lie to his king, another pretend to be a hero, a third to dare the king; lets Old Woman spin intrigues. Although the narrators leave no doubt that such behaviours are ‘bad’, they explain most of them, even excuse them (by the absence of punishment in the tales) in the context of coping with poverty. Some people’s poverty also motivates a saint or a fairy to help out with miracles – this, one narrator commented, made the stories real ‘lies’.

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Zerengi, Cleverness, Strength This is the most controversial of ethical principles. The term itself does not appear in the tales but is popular in everyday judgements of people’s characters and behaviours, and its attributes are amply used in the tales. It implies cunning and the wisdom to choose the most successful strategy in any situation. Acceptable choices for strategies range from persuasion, bargaining, reasoning and hard work, to deception and dissimulation, lies and outsmarting others by whatever means. Success justifies the means. Never in the tales is a protagonist berated for outfoxing his adversaries, for stealing or lying, for framing others, for taking revenge or for taking advantage of people who antagonize or harm him or her. • A clever bird (Gh36) gets others to work for it to acquire a bag of wheat (see text in Chapter 4, No. 8). • Seïd (F41) tricks three young men out of valuable magical objects in retaliation for their father’s earlier harm to Seïd’s family, but also in order to be able to out-trick a shameless beautiful woman who had taken advantage of him and of other men. • In ‘The Old Man and the Snake’ a fox tricks a snake into sliding into a trap (see text in Chapter 4, No. 13). In several tales flattery traps a ghoul. • A clever wife in men’s clothes strips a dishonest innkeeper of all possessions by out-tricking him in retaliation for having tricked her husband earlier (F26). • Several clever protagonists enlist the help of extra-human beings by ingratiating them with food: fish save the protagonist in F14 who had fed them earlier; an otherwise hapless girl feeds a crow that then transports her to her brothers (F10). • A young man who killed the lover of his uncle’s wife frames the woman as the murderer and gets the villagers to kill her. He is the hero in the story (F23). • Mulla Nasreddin tricks an innocent shepherd into being killed in his stead, and then tricks the whole village into perdition, yet comes out the winner (F35, see text above).

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• To free his jailed master, a servant murders the guards with the help of an Old Woman (F18, see above). The opposite of a person who is zereng is a simpleton, a loser, ‘mute’ (zounbaste) and ‘without means, poor’ (fakir), weak (zaif) in body and/ or mind. This category also includes people who are morally good, honest, peaceful and hardworking but unsuccessful economically, in terms of ‘progress’, that is, of getting ahead, and/or in terms of wielding power and influence. Here, two contradictory value-systems meet: honesty and meekness (morally good regardless of success) versus cunning and boldness (with ‘good’ success). In the tales zerengi usually wins over peaceful meekness. Thus, in three stories a young ruthless man saves his honest, and therefore unsuccessful, uncle (for example, F36). A hardworking pauper loses two jewels to a cunning trader (F25). ‘Shamud the Jew’ (F25, summary)14 There was a poor old firewood collector who got nowhere with his hard work. One day he saw two nice round rocks under a bush. He took them home and they gave light all night. They were diamonds but he did not know this. Shamud saw the light and recognized the diamonds. He said, ‘Old Man, I’ll buy your rocks. I’ll give you 50 Toman’. He thought the Old Man knew that these were precious stones, and the Old Man thought Shamud was making fun of him, offering him money for rocks. ‘No’, he said. Shamud said, ‘I’ll give you 100 Toman’. The Old Man said, ‘Boy, don’t make fun of me’. Shamud said, ‘All right, I’ll give you 200’. The Old Man was glad about the money and bought rice and tea with it. ‘Shamud gave me a lot of money for two little rocks’, he thought. And Shamud sold the diamonds for a fortune and built a fine house. When I recorded this story, the narrator’s and audience’s sympathies were with the poor man with whom they easily could identify. However, the listeners nevertheless admired the winner and shook their heads over the pauper’s stupidity, as they said, which had made it

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possible for the trader to take advantage of him in the first place. ‘The old man was a Lur’, they said, meaning a simpleton like them. Strategies of zerengi such as playing tricks on others are connected to morality, but only tenuously so, for example, through revenge and retribution. If one comes to harm because of somebody else’s intentional action, politeness and generosity are suspended for ruthless retaliation or punishment. A treacherous aunt and her daughter are dragged to death by horses (F15); a treacherous young woman is turned into a donkey together with the foolish young men who had fallen for her (F41). While freeing a prince from captivity, the exemplary servanthero kills an innocent guard in order to disguise himself with the guard’s clothes (F18). Although the saints, that is, descendants of the Prophet Mohamad with graces bestowed on them through their genealogical connection, are admired for the honesty by which they came to grief, in the give and take of everyday life depicted in the tales, the less honest but successful protagonists are admired. Ali Marak (F38) shows his uncle, who almost lost his life because of his honesty, how to get rich by cheating and destroying the exhortative master. After Gedulak (F36) killed his mistress’s children and husband she rewards him, as it were, by taking him on as a son. Fairness in the Western sense has no term and is never an issue. In the zerengi-mode one fights to win and in the end is rich and at leisure. Victims of injustices suffered through others’ zerengi manoeuvres deplore their fate together with the audience, but only personal revenge or authoritarian intervention by high-ranking beings can mete out justice. People commented that this was just like in real life.

The Difficult Human Condition In this world the lot of people like the Lurs is to work hard yet be hungry and get nowhere. Ethnographically, this condition has changed considerably for the better, people point out. Indeed, in Sisakht only a few people now live off the land. Most families have at least one member who earns a wage or a salary, and the income from their land is of secondary importance. But the memory of the bad old days is still vivid, and there are enough poor people around to keep images

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of the economic difficulties, illnesses, insecurities and hunger of the past visible. The tales paint pictures of dearth: a thistle collector can provide only a little bread for his wife and two sons (F41); a fisherman has ‘nothing’ until he receives magic help (F15); old women beg and hustle for food; despite incessant physical labour a poor cobbler cannot afford a wife (F20). ‘The Old Man and the Shah’ (F20) A Shah and his three viziers were walking around in the village. It was raining. They saw a man whose legs were sticking outside his hut. Rain was falling on his feet. He was sewing shoes. The Shah said, ‘Hello old grandfather, tell me, “With the nine you work you don’t get by for three?”’ The old man said, ‘No’. The Shah said, ‘How are you close up?’ The old man said, ‘I am far’. The Shah said, ‘How are you far away?’ The old man said, ‘I am close’. The Shah said, ‘Don’t sell it cheaply’. The Shah left. At home he told his viziers, ‘By tomorrow I want you to tell me what the old man and I meant, or else each of you must give me 4,000 Toman and go to prison for a year’. The three viziers each put up 3,000 Toman and took the money to the cobbler and said, ‘Tell us what it all meant’. The old man said, ‘In his first question the Shah asked me if my earnings from nine months of work were not enough for the three cold winter months, and I said, no. In the second question he asked me if he should give me a wife, and I said, no, I can’t provide for a wife. In the third question he asked me if I could see far, and I said, no, only what is close to my eyes. And when he said, “Don’t sell it cheaply”, he meant that you would come and ask me, and I should take your money’. The old man took the money and the viziers gave the Shah the answers. Hard work includes pain but also deprivations that come with poverty, such as no clothes to swaddle a baby, no house, no comfort, no wife. Work is necessary to be able to discharge one’s obligations toward dependents but does not have any other redeeming quality in the tales.

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People do not earn a comfortable life by working hard. Only hunting is described as enjoyable work, fit for a prince. Children are pressed into service at a young age as shepherds, to fetch and carry, to run errands, to plough – indeed, F12 explicitly links the value of children to their usefulness. ‘The Peaboy’ (F12, condensed) A childless woman put a pot of peas on the fire and said, ‘O God, how I wish that all these peas were children when I get back’. She left, and when she returned the house was full of pea-sized children. She said, ‘Who am I to be able to feed and clothe all these children?’ She took a stick and killed all but one, who hid behind a stack of household goods. Now the woman said, ‘Woe, I did not even leave one child for taking bread to his father in the field!’ The hidden boy said, ‘Mother, you won’t scold me if I come out and take bread to my father, will you?’ The woman said, ‘Child, I’ll be your sacrifice, come take the bread, I won’t scold you’. The boy took the bread and left. At a spring he saw a partridge that was so heavy with water that it couldn’t fly away. He grabbed it and brought it to his mother. She said, ‘Woe, if I had not killed these children, each would have brought me a partridge!’ The boy took the bread to his father and said, ‘Let me plough while you eat’. He started to plough and the cow dropped some dung and covered him. The father said, ‘Peaboy, where are you?’ The boy said, ‘Under the dung of your cow’. The father looked and looked and even slaughtered the cow but could not find him. A few days later an old woman was collecting dry cow dung for fuel. She took the very piece the boy was in. The dung kept pinching her. She went to Peaboy’s father and said, ‘Will you give me some food if I gave you Peaboy?’ The father said, ‘Yes’, and she took the boy out of the dung and gave him to his father, who gave her something good to eat. The narrator and the audience found this string of absurdities surrounding their everyday, familiar experiences very funny. The child’s labour was a matter of course.

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Quite logically, when one pauper in the tales (F41) gets rich by means of a magic hen, he exchanges his work promptly for that of a trader. It is understood that a trader has access to easy money while comfortably sitting in his shop. Trading is depicted as a sure way to wealth. A variant of this idea is the conviction that one can escape poverty by leaving home and looking for opportunities elsewhere (F14, F18, F19, F27, F28). Only the rich have an easy life. Wealth comes automatically through high status (viziers, kings, fairies) or by ingratiating oneself with a rich and powerful personage; by being in a position to charge others or to swindle them (for example, as traders, innkeepers); and by magic acquired by chance. This is a sad outlook, but the tales do not lament it – there is always the possibility that good luck will let one find a pot of gold. In the spirit of self-deprecation, many stories about work and poor people are even cast as funny, such as, for example, ‘The Peaboy’, above. The hardships of sickness and physical pain, too, are part of life, God-willed no matter what the immediate cause might be, and placed within the natural attributes of life on earth. As such, they receive little attention in the tales. A lame man gets well by the cleverness of a wise princess (F14). A frail old man’s dramatic personal story diverts the Prophet from his toothache and the Prophet in turn restores the old man to youth (F18). A hungry lame lion eats a helpless young woman (F15); women self-mutilate out of grief (F3). Blind daughters signify a man’s existential misery (F15). Only love-sickness has a moral component: narrators present it as a sign of men’s foolishness and weakness against which reasonable men should be on guard. (The few women in the tales who ‘want’ a man become not lovesick but cunning.) Lovesick men voluntarily abandon rational thinking for an asinine passion and are punished for their foolishness (F41). A lovesick king almost kills his son, but the good son restores his father to his good senses and forgives him – he is his father, after all (F41). The tales do not place hardships into a context of hope for ease later in paradise or for rewards in the afterlife, nor do they place sin in the context of eternal hell (with one exception in Lorimer, and some laconic references to hell in Amanolahi/Thackston).15 Wealth, goodness, beauty, happiness and youth, together with danger, grief, sin, pain and old age,

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stay on the plane of life on earth. Punishment and redemption happen right here. Religious authorities such as the Prophet, the 12th Imam, saints and Noah, act in the here and now along with dragons, fairies, animals and people. People in the tales use the Prayer of Necessity (hejat), pious appeals and exclamations, the daily prayers and pilgrimages to the shrines of saints to further their own worldly goals, even cleverly-fraudulently so to gain advantages. God personally helps Noah out of an embarrassing predicament caused by Noah’s false promises he gave to craftsmen to oblige them to help him carry out God’s order to build a boat (F29). Kelahmad pretends to be an itinerant seer-saint in order to trap an adulterous woman (F23). The tales suggest that the religious sphere, from God and saints to alms and amulets, and including morality, provides yet another important and convenient choice for operating wisely and successfully in this world.

Summary and Conclusion On principle and implicitly in the tales, God is assumed to be the highest, absolute authority, the creator of everything, omniscient and able to interfere in earthly matters at any time. But on the level of everyday happenings in the tales the most basic assumption is that all things on earth have ingrained qualities and attributes that create their own dynamics and function without God’s personal attention. God may have allotted each earthly feature a fate, a path, but this is unknown to people and unfolds only in happenings as time goes on. On this basis fatum appears as everything’s and every person’s innate lot, a programme that is not teleological but realistic. It is open to observation and empirical inquiry. It identifies all qualities and attributes as ‘natural’, as part of nature, and thus as rational and outside the realm of sin and merit. In moving through life, the better one knows and uses the properties that characterize categories of people and things the wiser one will be, the better one can adapt to the natural order and the better off one will be. For people, dispassionate acceptance of thingsas-they-are, the use of reason in thinking and acting, is the ‘natural’ way to approach life. It lets people see possibilities; it makes things happen; it brings success; it is virtuous; it is good.16

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This is an ethos where determinism and choice for action coexist, where submission to the Will of God also includes the obligation of agency, reasoning and moral judgement. It extends to the God-ordained hierarchical relationships that order social life, with obedience and responsibility as key concepts – the better one adapts to them the less grief one will have, the better people will get along, although ‘fate’ and God’s Will may disrupt this link at any time. Several forms of ‘fate’ explain a person’s life path as well as individual happenings, and all are unpredictable, but fate is not used as an excuse to accept a painful status quo without further efforts to change it: deprived sons leave to make a (good) life elsewhere; the scorned servant patiently waits until his luck turns. The heroes in the tales are people who brave their fate rather than seek glory. In general, the tales do not valorize adventurous, battle-hungry young men and their feats. Although moral and pious standards of dos and don’ts exist, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are contextualized. Good, honest behaviour frequently leads to poverty and hardship – uncritical goodness is foolish. The all-important aspiration (elevated to an ethical principle) of success furnishes a palette of principles and strategies, summarized as ‘cleverness’ (zerengi), that allows for the application of superior knowledge and abilities as well as deception and playing tricks on people. Finally, want, hard work and hardships characterize life in this world. They explain what people reasonably may and may not expect from their surroundings, and what they have to do and to endure to get by. The stoic philosophy expressed in these factors rests on a realistic appraisal of conditions of life for poor tribespeople who make a livelihood in small communities in an authoritarian system and a challenging natural environment. The tone of the tales is unsentimental and sober and reflects the experience that fortune is fickle and life’s hardships are part of a natural system that provides ease, health and justice only rarely, but that does furnish choices for managing one’s life, and many funny moments.

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APPENDIX 1 FOUR TALES

Note on tale titles: at the time when the tales were recorded, narrators started most stories with an announcement such as, ‘This is the story of . . .’ or a question: ‘Do you know the story of . . .?’ Thus, the titles do not always identify the tale’s main theme or the protagonists. The titles in the collections are of this kind or else are the respective collector’s own. In the following I will provide the text of four tales as examples of how narrators express sentiments I described and points I made in the analysis, as well as for local narrative style.

Ghaffari no. 33: ‘The Crafty Lion and the Simple-minded Cows’1 Note: Mr Ghaffari, a teacher, turns the authoritarian generational wisdom and duty of instruction on its head when he lets the children in the story be the wise ones, admonishing their elders. This is in line with the modernization goals of schools in Iran at Mr Ghaffari’s time: to turn out children who know more than their elders. An old lion no longer could go after the herd animals or hunt game. He thought about it and came to the conclusion that he had to use wile to put the livestock at ease. One day as he was slowly walking along he saw some cows and their calves in a green pasture, chewing grass. He was glad and moved

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towards them. When the cows saw him they prepared to ward off his attack with their sharp horns, ripping open his stomach. The lion, who saw his life in danger, approached them from the side of friendship and greeted them politely and kissed their faces and said, ‘My dear friends, you know how I, year after year, have ripped apart and eaten the animals, wild and livestock alike. But for a while now I have repented my earlier ways and vowed that from now on I will trouble animals no more but defend them and be at their service for the rest of my life’. The dumb cows let the lion hoodwink them and forgot all they knew about what lions were like. They went with him and lived together. The lion, who meant to kill the cows, hedged a plan. One day when the cows and the lion were resting together, the lion said to them, ‘This is a place of quiet and water and grass, and we could live here for the rest of our lives. But there is great danger here, and we ought to leave, the sooner the better’. The cows said, ‘What? What danger?’ The lion had remembered the face of one cow and said, ‘A cow with a shiny white forehead will betray our place and you will perish’. The cows praised the lion’s wisdom and good heart, and pleaded with the lion to kill the cow with the white forehead to avoid the danger. The lion, who had become very hungry, right away fell upon the cow with the white forehead and killed it and ate it. The next day the lion again assumed an air of pitiful depression. The cows asked, ‘Esteemed Sir Lion, why are you depressed?’ The lion said, ‘Today on that yonder hill I looked around and realized that you cows are in great danger because the colour yellow on the yellow cow can be seen from afar’. The cows said, ‘Tell us what to do about this danger’. The lion said, ‘The only way is to get the yellow cow away from us’. The cows said, ‘You are so compassionate, tell us, how’. The lion said, ‘I have renounced my old ways but for your sake I will take care of it’. And he fell upon the yellow cow and killed it and ate it. A few days later the lion was hungry again and said to the cows, ‘We have to be very careful because the black-and-white cow can be made out from miles away. This is a great danger for us all, and we have to get it away from us, the sooner the better’. The simpleminded cows, having swallowed the lion’s fake kindness, didn’t hesitate to ask

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the lion to deliver them from this danger. Again the lion said, ‘I have renounced my ways, but to help you I’ll break my vow’, and he quickly ripped apart the black-and-white cow and ate it. With this ruse the lion deceived the cows and ate one every few days. The calves realized the lion’s swindle and told the cows not to believe him and to get rid of him. But the cows didn’t listen to them and continued to be polite to the lion. The calves got impatient and left. The lion ate all but the last cow. One day when they were lying in the grass next to each other, the cow, who had become suspicious of the lion, kept moving her mouth. The lion, annoyed, asked her what she was doing this for. She said, ‘Dear friend, this is how we cows make meat lawful (hala¯l). We are ruminants, and I know that you, in order to save me from the danger of all the other cows, have killed them all’. The lion said, ‘You lie and mock me’, and attacked. The cow fled. The lion, who because of his age could not keep up with her, didn’t follow her. The cow went on top of a hill and mooed, and all the calves came running. The cow told them never to believe in the kindness of a lion, but to attack any such animal with their horns. The calves said with one voice, ‘We know that the wild animals are the enemies of our herd animals, but you did not believe us. Thanks be to God that in your old age you finally heeded what we said’.

Ghaffari no. 34: ‘The Hakim and his Vizier’2 Note: In this tale, too, knowledge, learning and teaching are dear to Mr Ghaffari, the veteran teacher, as is the correct attitude between generations. A Hakim had an old vizier who had four sons who were even more knowledgeable than he was. One day he said to the Hakim, ‘I am old and no longer of much use, and I want to spend my remaining days studying more. My four sons are ready to take my place in your service’. The Hakim ordered the four sons to come to him so that he could examine their knowledge and devotion. At night he drew the

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eldest boy near and said, ‘It is time to sleep; you stand guard here but don’t go behind my bed-curtain’. The Hakim went to bed and the boy stood guard. Soon he saw a dragon moving through the drapes. The boy thought, ‘O my God, what do I do? I am not to go behind the drapes, but if I don’t make any noise the dragon will kill the Hakim who relies on me to watch him!’ The boy hesitated no longer but went behind the drapes and with his sword cut the dragon in half just as it was about to kill the Hakim. He put the dead dragon under the bed, but when he was about to leave the Hakim woke up, saw the boy with the sword and thought the boy wanted to kill him. He was so frightened that he did not sleep at all and didn’t talk to the boy either. In the morning the boy left and the second brother came to guard the Hakim. The Hakim said, ‘If you want to be of use to me you have to kill your big brother tonight and bring me his head’. The boy thought of his father’s order to do whatever the Hakim asked. So he went home to kill his brother. There he saw him sound asleep. Suddenly he remembered that his teacher had said, ‘Before you do anything pause and investigate if it is right’. He said to himself, ‘My brother is sleeping so well – maybe he has not committed a crime’.3 He returned to the Hakim who asked, ‘Did you do it?’ ‘No’, said the boy, ‘the king went hunting and took my brother along. But please let me tell you a story’. The Hakim assented. ‘One day a King went hunting. He saw a gazelle and chased it, and it disappeared in a hill. The King was very thirsty, saw water dripping from the roof of a cave, put his bowl under it, filled it, and when he was about to drink the hunting-falcon pushed its head against the bowl, it fell and the water spilled. The thirsty King was angry and killed the falcon. The falcon-groom asked for a reason, and the King told him. The falcon-groom now went on top of the rock wherefrom the water was dripping, and there saw a big dragon hanging from a tree, dead. The water dripping from the rock was dragon/snake poison and the falcon had thrown the bowl down to save the King’s life. Now the King felt sorry for having killed the falcon, but this sorrow was useless. I think that my brother has committed no crime, and there is

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no use to wail after he is dead’. The Hakim said, ‘I have no use for you. Send the next brother’. When the third brother came, the Hakim again said, ‘First bring me the head of your elder brother’. The boy went home, saw his brother sound asleep and knew that he was innocent, and returned to the Hakim. The Hakim asked, ‘Have you killed your brother?’ The boy said, ‘No, but permit me to tell you a story my teacher told me’. The Hakim said, ‘Talk’. The boy said, ‘A King had no children. After a while he got a son. The King liked him a lot. He took him to his maternal uncle. The cradle stood next to the uncle’s bed. The uncle had a monkey who protected his house. At night a snake came to the cradle to eat the baby. The monkey bit the snake. At that moment the uncle woke up, saw the bloody mouth of the monkey, started to wail, and everybody came and asked what was going on. The uncle said, ‘The monkey has eaten the child’. The monkey stood next to the King who didn’t think about the monkey’s faithful service but took his sword and cut the monkey in half. Only then did he look into the cradle and saw the child hale and happy. The King realized his mistake and regretted his bad thoughts and his deed, but the regrets were useless. I think my brother is innocent’. The Hakim said, ‘I have no use for your service. Send the fourth brother’. When the fourth brother came the Hakim said, ‘Your first job is to kill your eldest brother and bring me his head’. The boy left, saw his brother sound asleep and said to himself, ‘A person who sleeps so comfortably is innocent and should not be killed’. He decided to ask the Hakim what crime his brother had committed. The Hakim told him. The youngest brother said, ‘Permit me to search the drapes. Maybe I can find something that shows that my brother is not guilty’. The Hakim assented and the boy searched the drapes and found the dead dragon under the bed. He brought the Hakim, who was amazed and sent for the brothers. They came, and the Hakim said to the eldest, ‘Why did you enter the bed-curtain against my order?’ The boy said, ‘I disobeyed you because your life was in danger and it was my duty to protect you’. The Hakim praised him and their teacher, and kissed all four brothers, and gave each an important job.

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Amanolahi/Thackston no. 11, ‘The Four-Eyed Dog’4 Note: I selected this text because it is the only one of the tales that explicitly describes the ‘other world’. The translation is partly the authors’ and partly my own from the Luri-transliteration provided by the authors, especially when it concerns key terms and phrases pertaining to philosophy, cosmology and theology. Literal phrases are in parenthesis, my editorials are in brackets, deleted repetitions are indicated by dots. There was an old man who had four sons. He said, ‘Sons, when I am dead don’t sleep in a ravine, at a memorial pile of rocks or in a wood’. They said, ‘Very well’. With this admonition he gave his life out of his hands. One day the sons went hunting. They killed a game animal. Night fell when they were in the forest – by God, I made a mistake: [I mean] in a ravine. The youngest said, ‘O brothers, hasn’t our father admonished us?’ They said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Where not to sleep. It is good advice’. The brothers said, ‘Brother, we will sleep here. You bake us some bread and roast the meat, then wake us’. He said, ‘Very well’. They slept and he roasted the meat and baked the bread, and when it was time to wake them he saw a snake coming toward them, you wouldn’t wish even an unbeliever [=enemy] to see this – a being with seven heads. He shot an arrow and severed one head. It said, ‘Well, this head isn’t mine’. He said, ‘Well, this arrow wasn’t from my bow’. In the end he shot all seven heads. He took some meat from around its mouth, put it in a bag and this into his pocket. Then he woke his brothers. ‘Brothers, get up, it is daytime, we ought to leave’. They got up, ate bread and water, girded themselves and left. They walked the mountains from morning to night, and when night fell they were near a memorial pile of rocks.5 He said, ‘Worse calamity! Our father admonished us, he gave us good advice [but you won’t heed it]’ . . . They said, ‘Brother, we are going to sleep here. You make bread and meat and things ready for us, then wake us’. They slept. He made bread. While he was looking around, he saw a dragon coming, hissing – you wouldn’t wish even an unbeliever to see this – and wind coming from its mouth. He shot and killed it. He cut off a bit of its

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tail . . . and put it in his pocket with the things from the snake. He woke his brothers, they ate lunch, girded themselves and left. Again they walked and walked. Night fell when they were in a forest. He said, ‘Ei, brothers, you are crazy. Our father advised us against it’. They said, ‘Until now nothing happened to us where we slept. . . . Brother, we are sleeping here. You get bread and meat and things ready, then wake us’. He said, ‘Very well’. He got everything ready. He saw a fat woman with unkempt hair come their way. She said, ‘Give me my share’ . . . He said, ‘Sister, this meat is for my brothers. It is wrong [to deprive them]. Here is the fire, here are the skewers, the meat is next to you – cook it yourself as you like’. She said, ‘No, I want my share’. He gave it to her. She said, ‘Go away, I have taken both your brothers’ life-souls’. He said, ‘If you did so, where is your place?’ She said, ‘In the middle of the forest’. So she said and left. At dawn he went to wake his brothers for breakfast. But however he shook them this way and that, the brothers did not wake up. He wailed and cried and stayed with them until sunrise. Then he walked into the middle of the forest. He came upon some small girls playing ‘Shirin and Leyla’. He said, ‘bismillah’6 and grabbed one by her hand. With this exclamation the others disappeared. She said, ‘Brother, let me go. My playmates have left . . .’. He said, ‘No, you’ll have to feel pain. I won’t let you go. We are together’. He pestered her [until] she said, ‘You are mine and I am yours. We are together’ [i.e. married]. He said, ‘I have two brothers, they are dead. What is beneficial for them? Help now, you are my wife’. She said, ‘You know what is good for them? With all respect . . . fat from the old woman’s buttocks. Put soot from the [burned] fat under their eyes and they will be well’. He said [cursing], ‘May God lift the pain from me and put it on your lifesoul’ and at once cut her into two pieces with his sword. [The girl was the old woman, a div.] He put soot from her fat under his brothers’ eyes and they came alive. They said, ‘Curse you, you didn’t let us sleep’. He said, ‘Curse you for not heeding our father’s admonition. [Sleep] in a ravine, next to a rock-pile, in the forest! The old woman did this to you. Get up, let us go’.

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They ate bread and water and got up, girded themselves, and left. They saw a male demon riding the wind with a four-eyed whining dog. ‘I’ll turn you into liquor, I’ll turn you into wine, I’ll turn you into something!’ he said. He attacked them and did not let them go . . . He tied their hands behind their backs and threw them into a pit. He said [to the dog], ‘Prepare them for breakfast by the time I am back’. The dog – with all respect . . . ate the two troublemakers. It was about to start on the adventurer . . . [The narrator interrupts the story here; likely, the protagonist fed the dog the dragon- and snake-meat he had in his pocket] . . . but in any case it took him out of the pit, and when he had his hands free, he severed the dog’s head with his bow and arrow. He went into the forest. He saw a plantain, taller than the others, and climbed it. He saw the demon riding the wind. When the demon saw the dead dog he flew into a rage. He said, ‘If I find you, I’ll turn you into liquor, I’ll turn you into wine!’7 He tied the wind to the plantain where the boy was and looked for the boy all over the forest but could not find him. He mounted the wind and flew away. The boy came down, invoked Ali, sat down and wept. Then he got up, took his staff and walked on. He walked and walked into the hot desert. He met a one-eyed shepherd with a billy goat. This billy goat had a bell on every hair of its body. [The boy] said, ‘By my soul, take me as a servant’. [The shepherd] said, ‘All right, come with me, be my servant. You can eat a bite of bread with me’. The boy said, ‘Very well’. He went with him, and they stayed in the mountains. The boy said, ‘Now, for God’s sake, why is the billy goat like this?’ [The shepherd said,) ‘When I am not around, it gets up at the break of dawn and bleats once to get the herd going. If the animals are slow it bleats again to drive them on, and it lets them graze until evening, when it brings them back into the pen’. ‘Very well’, said the boy.8 They walked together until they came to a fortress in the desert. Nobody was there. They settled the herd in the pen. [The shepherd] went and brought a rock so heavy that not even two men could lift it, and put it against the door. [A little later] the boy saw him roast a man over the fire. ‘O God’, he said, ‘I have escaped everything, but what do I do now?’ [The demon-shepherd] went to sleep. The boy put his foot on the billy goat’s neck and slit its throat. He skinned it and stored

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the meat. Then he put a skewer into the fire. When it was red-hot he put it into [the demon’s] one good eye. It sizzled and blinded him. He began to writhe and scream with pain . . . Meanwhile the boy put the goat hide on himself . . . At sunrise he bleated once like the billy goat. The demon said, ‘I could have eaten him, but if I find him I’ll turn him into liquor’ . . . He moved the rock [from the door] and sat in the doorway. Leading the sheep the ‘billy goat’ came out, and the demon stroked it and kissed it on the forehead and said, ‘My life on your eyes!9 If I find him, I’ll cut him to pieces, I’ll leave nothing, I’ll drink his blood. You take the flock to pasture and bring it back at night’. The boy lined the animals up one behind the other and led them out the door. Now he took off the skin, wadded it up and threw it at the demon’s chest. ‘You son of a dog’10 he said, ‘stay here! The meat’s stored away, go get it’. He left. [The demon] wailed behind him. He walked and walked until he came to a fortress in the desert. There was a woman who said, ‘God is above, the two of us are down here’. She made a marriage contract. ‘Now you are mine and I am yours. Here is my property, here is the house, here is my livelihood. You eat and be well’. He said, ‘Very well’. She said, ‘I will marry you for one year under the condition that when the hour [of my death] happens, put my hands together, put me on the bier . . . and put me aside . . . Do not mourn for me. You will have not spent much on me’. He said, ‘All right’. For a year they lived together companionably. After a year she died on a Friday. He put her hands together and put her on a bier, and the houris of paradise took her away. For six months he sat in mourning. He said, ‘I’ll stay here, there is nothing more for me to do’. Then he left and came to the bank of a river. There he saw so many people that even God had to say, ‘Enough’. He grabbed a plump, good [woman], said, ‘bismillah’ and invoked the light of God, and took her to his house. Then he saw that she was a fairy. He locked her in, of course. She scratched [the door] to get out but couldn’t find a way out. After a while she quieted down. She took a piece of paper and wrote on it. She said, ‘I have written a marriage contract’ . . . For a while they were together.

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After some time they had a son and a daughter. They grew up. The boy spoke his father’s language, the girl her mother’s. One day the mother said, ‘Go to your father and get his clothes so that I can wash them at the river’. The boy went to his father and told him. The father . . . gave him the clothes, the mother washed them clean and dried them, and . . . he put them on. Now the mother said, ‘Children, will you stay with your father or come with me?’ They said, ‘We will come with you’. She dived into the river and the children followed her. They said, ‘Father, may God protect you’. However much he lamented by invoking Husain and Hasan, they left. They said, ‘Father, don’t fret. We’ll come to your aid from this world and from the other world. Don’t be afraid’. For a year the father grieved. Then he took his staff and said, ‘It is of no use’. He went to a city. There he saw a man with cows. He said, ‘Dear Sir, are you a herdsman?’ The man said, ‘No, I and the others take turns herding our cows . . . Where are you going?’ He said, ‘I want to go to an honest man (musulman) to be his servant’. The man said, ‘Come with me. I will give you my sister. But I tell you that it is our custom to bury a husband with his wife when she dies, and when a man dies, we bury his wife with him’. He said, ‘Nothing wrong with it’. But he thought, ‘My God, I have escaped all kinds of things, but how will I get out of this?’ Anyway, the man took him and married him to the girl. One day the wife died. Our fellow had gone to the mountains, and [the people] came after him, shouting, ‘Your wife is dead, come, let them [us] bury you’. They threw him and his wife into a grave and left food for 40 days for him. That same morning people were knocking on doors . . . ‘The chief is dead’, they said. ‘They are taking his wife to be buried with him’. So they buried them, but she was a good housewife and had cooked as much as she could. After the people were gone the young man came [out of the grave] and married her. Then they saw a mouse . . . It took a bone and ran away. The young man ran after it, and it went into a hole. He looked into the hole and saw a land, a whole country down there with pilgrims on a pilgrimage, ploughmen ploughing, water carriers carrying water, everybody doing something [orderly and

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efficiently]. He said to himself, ‘If I leave the woman alone something might happen to her. I’ll bring her along’. So he went back, took her by the arm and said, ‘Let’s get out of here before anything else happens to us’. He took her down to the [other] land and said, ‘Let’s make a pilgrimage’ . . . [The pilgrims] were blowing air into goatskin-bags [to cross water]. He, too, inflated one and put the woman on it. But their skin-bag took on water and the current swept it away. His son grabbed him, and his daughter and the mother grabbed the woman. They pulled them out of the water . . . ‘Father’, said the boy. ‘I am your son. I have saved you from doom and brought you back into this world. Now go about your business’.

Lama’e, pp. 96–98: ‘The Story of the Father with Seven Daughters’11 Note: The Luri version of this popular tale as transliterated by Lama’e is shorter and more laconic than is the one Lama’e wrote in Persian (pp. 91ff.) I translated the Luri version and added features from the Persian text, where necessary, in parenthesis. At the time when there was nobody but God there was a man who had seven daughters. He went to the mountains every day and got seven partridges for them, and the seven girls ate them. His wife said, ‘Husband, take the girls somewhere far away and leave them there and come back so that we can eat the partridges ourselves’. The man took the girls to a shady place and left them, and said, ‘You keep your eyes to the ground while I go pee’. The man made a hole into the goatskin-water bag with a stick and hung it on the tree. The water dripped down, drop, drop. The girls thought it was their father’s pee. (When the water stopped) they lifted their heads and saw that their father wasn’t there and that it was evening. They said, ‘God, what are we to do?’ Suddenly they saw a door opening up (into the tree) and walked in. And they said, ‘God, what are we to do (when the wild animals come in)?’ Suddenly the door closed. They said, ‘God,

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what are we to do about our hunger?’ The youngest girl, whose name was Ma¯ra¯teti and who was observant and watchful12 looked under the ashes and saw a flatbread, and they ate it and slept. Suddenly a wolf and a tiger and a bear and a fox came to the door and said, ‘There is a smell, a smell of a human being’. The girls were so frightened (that they did not sleep all night). In the morning the girls walked away, and in the deserted wilderness came to a house. An old woman lived there whose name was ‘Mother of A¯lazangi’, the div. They stayed with her (and she gave them food, and then hid them in a big storage pot). In the evening A¯lazangi came and said, ‘Old woman! There is a smell, a smell of a human being’. She said, ‘Dear, there is only your mother. (These are your sisters. Don’t eat them)’. At night A¯lazangi said, ‘Who is asleep, who is awake?’ And [Ma¯ra¯teti] said, ‘All are asleep except dear Ma¯ra¯teti’. He said, ‘Why are you not asleep?’ The girl said, ‘When I was still at my father’s house I had seven hide-bags with butterfat next to me’. A¯lazangi brought seven bags full of butterfat. Then he said, ‘Who is asleep, who is awake?’ She said, ‘All are asleep except Ma¯ra¯teti’. A¯lazangi said, ‘Why are you not asleep?’ The girl said, ‘When I was still at my father’s house seven saddled horses were always near me’. A¯lazangi brought them but again she did not sleep. He said, ‘Ma¯ra¯teti, why don’t you sleep?’ She said, ‘When I was still in my father’s house seven caps (with gold coins),13 seven shirts, seven skirts and seven pairs of shoes were always near me’. A¯lazangi brought her all this but again she did not sleep. A¯lazangi said, ‘Why don’t you sleep?’ She said, ‘When I was still at my father’s house I always drank water from a sieve’. A¯lazangi, the luckless guy, went to bring her water in a sieve, but however often he went, he couldn’t bring her water in the sieve. And while A¯lazangi tried to bring her water, the girls, afraid he would eat them, left. When A¯lazangi saw he couldn’t bring water, he went back to eat the girls. When he didn’t see them he looked around and saw Ma¯ra¯teti and her sisters riding away. He said, ‘Hoi, Ma¯ra¯teti! Wait until I have kissed you, then leave’. Ma¯ra¯teti (had poured the butterfat on the road and) said, ‘This white rock in the river – step on it and come’. A¯lazangi put his foot on the (slippery) rock and fell into the river and died. The girls were happy and said,

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‘Let’s go and look: if there is blood he is wounded and dead, and if it is clear he is alive and will eat us’. The girls looked and saw that there was blood, and they were glad. They made a good life for themselves. After they had left home their father and mother became poor and ended their life in poverty.

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APPENDIX 2 LIST OF TALES

This list contains the tales referred to in the text. Those marked with an asterix* have quotes, excerpts, summaries or complete texts in the chapters with boldface numbers.

Lorimer L1: L3: L4: L5: L6: L7: L8: L9: L10:* L11: L12:* L13: L14: L16: L17:* L18:

The Wolf and the Goat (Chapter 4) The Fortune-Teller (Chapter 3) Susku and Mushu (Chapter 5, 7) The Marten-Stone (Chapter 3, 5, 6,) The Snake-Prince Sleepy-Head (Chapter 2, 3, 6) Qeyta¯s the Colt (Chapter 3, 5) Nukhudu¯ or Master Pea (Chapter 3) Mushkil Gusha, Remover of Difficulties (Introduction; Chapter 5, 6) The Jealous Sisters (Chapter 5, 2) The Prince and the Peri (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Idiot Boy who became King (Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6) Little Fa¯tima (Introduction; Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Boy who became a Bulbul (Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6) The Golden Lamp-Stand (Chapter 2) The Wolf-aunt – a Moral for Husbands (Chapter 2, 3, 5) Na¯m Tanak, or Half-Boy (Chapter 6)

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220

L19: L20: L21:* L22: L23: L26: L27: L28: L29: L30: L31: L32:* L33:* L34: L35:* L36:* L37: L38: L39: L40: L41: L43: L44:* L45:* L46:* L50: L51: L52:* L53:* L54: L55: L56: L57:

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FOLKTALES

AND

STORYTELLERS

OF

IR AN

The Brother whose Luck was asleep (Chapter 6, 3) The Fox’s Pilgrimage to Mecca (Chapter 5) The Shawl-weaver and the Seven Spinsters (Chapter 3) The Orange and Citrus Princess (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Wise Qa¯zi (Chapter 5) Roads and Shortcuts, or No Gains without Pains (Chapter 6) The Grateful Corpse (Chapter 5, 6) The Praying Baker (Chapter 5) Baldhead and the Scanty-Beards (Chapter 5, 6) The Sad Tale of the Mouse’s Tail (Chapter 5) The Magic Bird (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Gazelle Maiden and the Golden Brothers (Chapter 6) Ahmad Girdu¯ and his Two Brothers (Chapter 6, 2) The Hunter and the White Snake (Chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Fa¯yiz and his Peri Wife (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Merchant of Isfaha¯n and his Faithless Wife (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Cowherd who woke the Princess (Chapter 2, 3, 5) Ta¯ling, the Half-Boy (Chapter 2) How Fa¯tima killed her Mother and what came of it (Introduction; Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6, 7) The Man who bought Three Pieces of Advice (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Peri and the King’s Son (Chapter 2, 3, 6) The Wolf-bride (Chapter 2, 5, 6) The Man who went to wake his Luck (Chapter 6) The Sad Story of the Beetle, the Mouse, and the Ant (Chapter 3, 4, 5) Tortoise Bowl-on-the-Back and the Fox (Chapter 4, 5) The Merchant and the Saffron (Chapter 5, 6) The Seven Daughters (Chapter 3, 5, 6) Sha¯h Abba¯s and the Poor Mother (Chapter 6, 3) The Apparition of the Prophet Khizr (Chapter 6) The Impious Thorn-Gatherer (Chapter 5) The King and the Two Blind Beggars (Chapter 5) The Fate of the King’s Only Son (Chapter 5, 6) Haider Bèg and Samamber (Chapter 3, 5, 6)

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Lama’e Note: Lama’e does not provide numbers for tales; here the numbers refer to the page where the tale starts in Lama’e’s book. Lama’e: 69:* Lama’e: 72:* Lama’e: 77:* Lama’e: 87:* Lama’e: 96:*

Lama’e: 105:* Lama’e: 117: Lama’e: 127:* Lama’e: 128:* Lama’e: 130:* Lama’e: 132:* Lama’e: 134:

Rava¯yat-e gonjeshk (The Story of the Sparrow) (Chapter 3, 4. See ‘Sparrow’s Song’ on page vii Rava¯yat-e ghul (The Story of the Ghoul [and Namaki]) (Chapter 3) Rava¯yat-e gerdu va sang (The Story of the Walnut and the Rock) (Chapter 4) ‘Matil-e Sar-e Xar’ (The Story of Donkey Head, Lama’e’s transcription) (Chapter 2, 3, 6) ‘Matil-e Bo¯ va Haf Dovar’ (The Story of the Father with Seven Daughters, Lama’e’s transcription) (Chapter 2, 3, 5; Appendix 1) ‘Matil-e Merd va Haf Zan’ (The Man with Seven Wives, Lama’e’s transcription) (Chapter 2) ‘Matil-e Ma¯h Ruz Piša¯ni’ (The Tale of Moon-Face, Lama’e’s transcription) (Chapter 3) Mola¯ va ola¯gh gomshodeh (The Mulla and The Lost Donkey) Chapter 5) Da¯sta¯n yek mard, yek zan va yek morgh (The Story of the Man, the Woman, and the Hen) (Chapter 3) Da¯sta¯n mard do zan-e (The Man with Two Wives) (Chapter 3) Da¯sta¯n do bara¯dar (The Story of Two Brothers) (Chapter 2, 3) Da¯sta¯n Da¯d va Bida¯d (The Story of Da¯d and Bida¯d) (Chapter 2, 5)

Amanolahi/Thackston A/Th1: A/Th2:* A/Th3: A/Th4:

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Jahântîgh (Chapter 2, 3, 5) Fortylocks (Chapter 3) Shah Abbâs (Chapter 3) The Merchant’s Son (kur ha¯jı¯ ) (Chapter 2, 5)

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A/Th5: A/Th6: A/Th8:* A/Th10: A/Th11:* A/Th12:* A/Th13: A/Th14: A/Th15: A/Th 16: A/Th17: A/Th18: A/Th20: A/Th22:

AND

STORYTELLERS

OF

IR AN

Hasan’s Adventures (Chapter 1, 2, 3, 6) The City of the Mice (Introduction; Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6) The Unlucky Bear (Chapter 4) The Merhorse (Chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) The Four-Eyed Dog (Chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Appendix 1) The Mangy Kid (Chapter 3, 4, 5, 6) The Seven Daughters (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Demon (Chapter 2, 4, 6) The Akhund (Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6) “Stovepipe” Ali (Chapter 3, 5, 6) Daughter of the Dâl I (Chapter 3, 5, 6) Daughter of the Dâl II (Chapter 3, 4) (Poem) Husayn-Khân Sâki’s Lament (Chapter 4) (Poem) The Mîr-Jûdaki Battle (Chapter 4)

Friedl F1:* F2: F3: F4:* F5: F6:* F7: F8: F9: F10: F11:* F12:* F13: F14: F15:* F16:* F17: F18:* F19:

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The Stone and the Walnut (Chapter 4) The Goat and the Sheep (Chapter 3, 4) The Mouse and the Ant (Chapter 5, 7) The Fox (Chapter 1, 3, 5, 7) Auntie Bug (Chapter 3, 4, 7) Old Woman and the Cat (Chapter 3, 4, 7) Old Woman and the Rooster (Chapter 3, 5) Namaki (Chapter 3, 6, 7) Ma¯hteti and the Ghoul (Chapter 3, 5, 6) The Ghoul and the Seven Brothers (Chapter 2, 3, 6, 7) The Seven Girls (Chapter 1, 2, 4, 6, 7) The Pea Boy (Chapter 3, 5, 7) The Brown Calf (Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6, 7) Tambal, The Lazy One (Chapter 3, 6, 7) Kha¯nza¯de and Baghza¯de (Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6, 7) Sawhead, Axefoot (Chapter 2, 5, 6, 7) The Shah’s Son (Chapter 2, 3, 5, 6, 7) Esa the Hero (Chapter 6, 7) Justice, Injustice (Chapter 6, 7)

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F20:* The Old Man and the Shah (Chapter 7) F21: The Lord of the Last Day (Chapter 3, 6, 7) F22: The Bad Wife (Chapter 7) F23: Kelahmad (Chapter 3, 5, 6, 7) F24:* The Dried Skull (Chapter 1, 7) F25: Shamud the Jew (Chapter 5, 7) F26: The Wolf Girl and the Fairy (Chapter 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7) F27:* Hasan the Lion Killer (Chapter 1, 2, 7) F28: The Snake (Chapter 1, 3, 6, 7) F29: Saint Noah (Chapter 1, 3, 5, 7) F30: The Turtle (Chapter 1, 5, 7) F31: The Lizard (Chapter 1, 5, 7) F32:* The Moon and the Sun (Chapter 1, 3) F33:* The Bear and the Boar (Chapter 4, 6, 7) F34:* The Bird (Chapter 1, 3, 5, 6, 7) F35:* Mulla Nasrein and the Cow (Chapter 5, 7) F36: Gedulak (Chapter 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7) F37: Kecalu (Chapter 5, 6) F38: Ali Pa¯zanak and Ali Ma¯rak (Chapter 1, 2, 3, 6, 7) F39:* Aya¯z (Chapter 1, 5, 6, 7) F40: The Mare with the Forty Colts (Chapter 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7) F41:* Sadat and Seïd (Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) F42:* Mulla Nasrein and the Jew (Chapter 5) F43: Mulla Nasrein and his Creditors (Chapter 5) F44: Mulla Nasrein in the Other World (Chapter 5) F45: Wife and Husband (Chapter 1, 6) *F unpublished: The Old Man and the Snake (Chapter 4, 7)

Ghaffari Dokhtar-e pirezan va ghul (The old woman’s daughter and the ghoul) (Chapter 3) Gh2:* Bi Salbi and Sidi Khan (Bi Salbi va Sidi Kha¯n) (Chapter 5, 6) Gh3: Ma¯teti va ta¯ta¯ ghul (Ma¯teti and uncle [fatherbrother] ghoul) (Chapter 3) Gh6:* Snow and wild Artichoke (khishi barf va kangar) (Chapter 4, 5) Gh1:

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STORYTELLERS

OF

IR AN

Gh9:* The Shepherd with One Goat (Cˇepune ye bezi) (Chapter 5) Gh13: Ketula (Gedulak – see F36) (Chapter 1, 6) Gh14:* Fendfenduq (Fend fenduq va da¯l) (Chapter 3, 4, 5) Gh16:* Seven Brothers, their Sister and the Ghoul (haft bara¯dar va kha¯har va ghul) (Chapter 2) Gh17: Ka¯ kusa (Mister Beardless) (Chapter 5) Gh18:* Goat and Sheep (boz va mish) (Chapter 3, 4, 6) Gh19: Kenizak kecal va dokhtar-e da¯l (The scurfy bald maid and the eagle’s daughter) (Chapter 3) Gh20: Ta¯melada¯r Ta¯melaguš (Ta¯melada¯r and Ta¯melagush, [two foxes]) (Chapter 6) Gh21: Dokhtar ha¯kem va pahleva¯n (The healer’s daughter and the strongman) (Chapter 3, 5) Gh22: Mahmi va jeqlak (Mahmad and the youth) (Chapter 5, 6) Gh23:* Wily Brother and Crazy Brother (kakei fandin va kakei kelu) (Chapter 2) Gh24: Ketelak (Ketelak) (Chapter 2, 5) Gh25:* The wild Almond Tree (Tenges) (Chapter 4) Gh26:* Teylengak (Chapter 3, 4, 6) Gh27: Duar bidei va gojeleke zard (The motherless girl and the lightcoloured calf) (Chapter 3) Gh29: Adame¯ teye sur (The man with the Evil Eye) (Chapter 6) Gh30: Ahmad va perigol (Ahmad and Perigol) (Chapter 5) Gh31:* The Brushpeddler (kha¯rforush) (Chapter 1, 3) Gh32:* The Woman with Ten Sons (Zan dah pesari va yek na¯n va darvish) (Chapter 5) Gh33:* The Crafty Lion and the Simple-minded Cows (šire¯ fandin vo ga¯yale¯ sa¯deq) (Appendix 1) Gh34:* The Hakim and his Vizier (Ha¯kem va vezir) (Chapter 1, 2; Appendix 1) Gh35:* The Wolf who lost his Eyes (Teyei kandei gorg;) (Chapter 4) Gh36:* The Sparrow (Bengešt) (Chapter 3, 4, 7) Gh37:* The Mule went into the Toilet Can (Qa¯ter ra mene¯ afta¯va) (Chapter 5, 6) Gh38: Kere¯ dei gandu (The son of the filthy mother) (Chapter 2, 6)

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Gh41: A¯fsa¯ne ki Khosro va pa¯desha¯h Keya¯n dar shahr ba¯sta¯ni Tell Khosro (The story of Ke Khosrow and Shah Keya¯n in the archaeological town of Tell Khosrow) (Chapter 6) Gh42:* The Lion and the Man (shir va a¯damiza¯d) (Chapter 6) Gh43:* Salomon and the Daughter of the Shah (Saleima¯n va dokhtar pa¯desha¯h) (Chapter 3, 6) Gh44: Ka¯keikava¯ (Mister Flea) (Chapter 5) Gh46:* The Fox Without a Tail (rova kela domb) (Chapter 4) Gh47:* A Man, the Fox and a Ghoul (dasta¯n mard ruba¯h va ghul) (Chapter 6) Gh48:* The Coward and the Seven Ghoul (mard tarsu va haft ghul) (Chapter 6) Gh49: Pa¯desha¯h va dokhtar-e la¯l-u (The dumb daughter of the shah) (Chapter 3) Gh50:* The King with Seven Wives (pa¯desha¯h va haft zan) (Chapter 2)

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NOTES

Introduction 1. For example, Leo Frobenius, Atlantis; Volksmärchen und Volksdichtungen Afrikas (Jena: Eugen Diederichs, 1921–28), Franz Boas, Bella Bella Texts (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928), Ruth Benedict, Tales of the Cochiti Indians (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 98, 1931), Hermann Baumann, Schöpfung und Urzeit des Menschen im Mythus der afrikanischen Völker (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1936); Alan Dundes, Every Man His Way: Readings in Cultural Anthropology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1968), Linda Dégh, Folktales and Society (Bloomington and London: University of Indiana Press, 1969) and Richard Bauman, ‘Verbal Art as Performance’, American Anthropologist 77/2 (1975), pp. 290–311. 2. Richard Bauman, ‘The Philology of the Vernacular’, Journal of Folklore Research 45/1 (2008), p. 31. The popular National Geographic magazine recreated in staged photographs the possible historical ethnographic setting of some Grimms’ tales, demonstrating the wide appeal of this approach (Thomas O’Neill, ‘The Brothers Grimm’ (photographs by Gerd Ludwig), National Geographic 196/6 (1999), pp. 102–29). Yet ethnography is harder to take seriously the more vague the term becomes: now scholars in academic areas as widely apart as law and social work, medicine and rhetoric, may call a couple of hours interviewing or listening to somebody ‘ethnography’. 3. I use ‘tale’ and ‘folktale’ interchangeably, and avoid the term ‘fairy tale’. For a discussion of the relevance and history of this distinction see the Introduction in Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales: A New History (Albany, NY: Excelsior Editions, State University of New York, 2009).

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4. I put ‘real’ in quotes here, aware of the constructedness of what we perceive to exist and of the dialogic process that leads to this perception, but this postmodern theoretical consideration is of little relevance here. Lutz Röhrich’s (Folktales and Reality (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991)) and Margarethe W. Sparing’s (The Perception of Reality in the Volksmärchen of SchleswigHolstein. A Study in Interpersonal Relationships and World View (Lanham, NY and London: University Press of America, 1984)) struggles with the cultural context in what they call ‘reality’ illustrate the dilemma. Elizabeth Wanning Harries, Twice Upon a Time (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001) found that early, oral versions of tales show more of an ‘earthy realism’ than edited/published ones. Shahrnush Parsipur (interviewed by Brian Appleton, Persian Heritage 15/49 (2010), pp. 22–24) uses ‘magic realism’, a term from (high) art, to characterize the mixture of reality-as-lived and ‘magic’ in stories of the 1001 Nights. Folklorists concentrating on Africa seem more open to the ethnographic possibilities in folktales (Godula Kosack, Die Mafa im Spiegel ihrer Oralen Literatur (Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2001)). 5. For example, Susan Honeyman, Consuming Agencies in Fairy Tales, Childlore, and Folkliterature (New York: Routledge, 2010) uses ‘agency’ and ‘material existence’ for a novel analysis of well-known tales. Sparing: The Perception of Reality, read an earlier collection of German tales for what they say about the local world view but later, after extensive fieldwork in the Andes, concentrated on linguistics. The historian Mathew Kuefler, (‘Anderl of Rinn, the Accusation of Jewish Ritual Murder, and the Historical Memory of Childhood’, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 2/1 (2009), pp. 11–36) places a popular Tyrolen legend in a reconstructed historical ethnographic context. In his Arabic collections El-Shamy acknowledges the ethnographic dimension when he groups the tales according to intra-family relations they elaborate, and when he briefly remarks on the functions of ethnographic details. He states, for example, that the tales’ ‘familiar environment (or cognitive map) . . . lends a measure of symbolic realness and credibility to the tale and helps generate a more intense empathetic affect . . .’ (Hasan M. El-Shamy, Tales Arab Women Tell and the Behavioral Patterns They Portray (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), p. 64.) He does not transcend the functionalist mode, however, i.e., the view from outside and above. For various feminist approaches by folklorists see, for example, Ruth B. Bottigheimer, ‘Silenced Women in the Grimm’s Tales: The “Fit” between Fairy Tales and Society in their Historical Context”, in Bottigheimer: Fairy Tales and Society, pp. 115–31, Donald Haase (ed.), Fairy Tales and Feminism: New Approaches (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2004), Kirin Narayan, Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) and Marie-Louise Von

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Franz, The Feminine in Fairy Tales (Boston and London: Shambala, 1993). For a recent Jungian approach see Sybille Birkhäuser-Oeri, Die Mutter im Märchen: Deutung der Problematik des Mütterlichen und des Mutterkomplexes am Beispiel bekannter Märchen, 2nd edn (Binningen: Stiftung Jung’sche Psychologie, 2003); for an example of semiotic analysis see Anna Tavis, ‘Fairy Tales from a Semiotic Perspective’, in Bottigheimer: Fairy Tales and Society, pp. 195–202. For some 81 examples of world-view analysis without any ethnography, see Leander Petzoldt (ed.), Folk Narrative and World View, 2 vols (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1996). A few times I transcend the emic plane in this book by using psychoanalytic concepts from my native Viennese vocabulary, but it is not my place to compare the usefulness of interpretive approaches to folklore. 6. The classic compilation by Arthur Christensen (Persische Märchen (Düsseldorf: Eugen Diederichs, 1958)), and Shusha Guppy’s stories from Persia’s heroic past (Magical Tales from Classical Persia (London and New York: I.B.Tauris, 2005)), in English, offer no analysis, nor do the collectors of the texts I am using in this book. Stilo’s work on Elwell-Sutton’s collection of Vafsi folktales has a linguistic orientation. As an example for the few articles by Iranian scholars accessible to non-Persian readers, see Mustafa Dehqan, ‘Qisey Giranba: A Sorani folktale from Mukri Kurdistan’, Journal of Folklore Research 46/1 (2009), pp. 101–11. For an analytic essay in Persian, see F. Sajjadpur, Fosun-e afsâne: tahlil va bar-rasi-ye afsa¯neha¯-ye a¯miya¯ne-ye Ira¯ni [The Charm of Tales: A Study and Assessment of Persian Popular Tales] (Tehran, 1999). The most recent work on an iconic epic piece of folklore is den Uijl’s literary analysis of the ‘Akvan Div’ story in what the author calls an ‘etymological reading’ within a Jungian frame, that renders the text ‘more completely meaningful’ (Sebastiaan den Uijl, ‘The Trickster “Archetype” in the Shahnama’, Iranian Studies 43/1 (2010), pp. 71–90). Iranian fiction does receive ethnographic attention (for example, Nasrin Rahimieh, ‘Women and Domesticity in Modern Persian Literature’, New Horizons: Commentaries on Modern Iran, 4 March, 2010, (accessed 11 March 2010), but to my knowledge hardly any Iranian folk narratives do. For a comprehensive discussion of the status of folk narrative research in Iran see Ulrich Marzolph, ’Storytelling as a Constituent of Popular Culture: Folk Narrative Research in Contemporary Iran’, in Shahnaz R. Nadjmabadi (ed.), Conceptualizing Iranian Anthropology (New York and London: Berghahn Books, 2009), pp. 30–42. 7. Dégh: Folktales and Society. For examples of these other approaches, see, for example, Claude Lévi-Strauss, From Honey to Ashes (New York: Octagon Press, 1979), Ulrich Marzolph, Typologie des Persischen Volksmärchens, (Beirut und Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1984), Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale

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230

8.

9.

10.

11.

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(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968) and Stith Thompson, The Folktale (New York: AMS Press, 1979). Margaret A. Mills, Rhetorics and Politics in Afghan Traditional Storytelling (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991). J.D.A. Widdowson’s subtitle encompasses the concerns of the day: ‘Folktales in Newfoundland Oral Tradition: Structure, Style, and Performance’, Folklore 120 (April 2009), pp. 19–35. For this eminent folklorist, only the recording of tales ‘in the field’ allows for insights into the storytelling event, the style of individual tellers, audience-teller interaction and the ‘context in which a . . . story was told’. These insights bring us ‘closer to the oral tradition of storytelling than is normally possible in presenting printed collections’ (which are ‘filtered and reshaped by artifice and conventions’ through editing), and this bringing-closer now appears as the prime goal of folklore work (p. 24). There is no mention of an ethnographic context. Dundes: Bloody Mary in the Mirror, p. 76, even questioned the heuristic value of performance theory, saying that it did ‘little more than report folkloristic texts totally devoid of the slightest hint of thoughtful commentary . . .’. His own psychoanalytic approach largely ignores the wider cultural significance of texts. See, for example, Julius E. Heuscher, A Psychiatric Study of Fairy Tales: Their Origin, Meaning and Usefulness (Springfield, IL: Thomas, 1963) and the Bettelheim controversy in Jack Zipes, The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World (Basingstoke: Palgrove Macmillan, 2002), pp. 179–205. Lest I disappoint readers who are attuned to deep-meaning literary analyses, I had better say that I do not look for archetypes, ‘authentic’ meaning – an irksome ‘romantic notion’ (Harries: Twice Upon a Time: p. 6) pervading folklore literature – ‘real significance’ and ‘hidden worlds,’ a distant past, history of tales or motifs, shamanic traits, therapeutic, didactic or political usages of tales or symbol-interpretation; nor do I engage in interpretive speculations of the ‘probably . . .’ kind, as, for example, Carl A.P. Ruck et al., The Hidden World: Survival of Pagan Shamanic Themes in European Fairytales (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2007) do. See also James M. Taggart, Enchanted Maidens. Gender Relations in Spanish Folktales of Courtship and Marriage (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990). ‘Only useful folktales are transmitted, the others are forgotten’, Butor wrote (‘On Fairy Tales’, in Vernon W. Gras (ed.), European Literary Theory and Practice, from Existential Phenomenology to Structuralism (New York: Dell, 1973), p. 353). Compare tales in Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Wickford, RI: North Books, 2001) with the ‘same’ tales in the 1857 edition of the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Jürgensmeier, 2005). As to films,

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NOTES

12.

13.

14. 15.

16.

TO

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compare Hans Christian Andersen, ‘The Little Mermaid’, in Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, trans. Naomi Lewis (Cambridge: Candlewyck, 2004) to Clements’ 1989 film of the same name; ‘The Frog Prince’ in Grimm and Grimm: Grimm’s Fairy Tales to Musker and Clements’ 2009 film The Princess and the Frog. In anthropology, Laura Bohannan’s ‘Shakespeare in the Bush’ (Natural History 75/8 (1966), pp. 28–33) is a famous demonstration of crosscultural confusion: a Tiv audience deconstructs the story of Hamlet. Indeed, tales provide insights into popular religiosity, a field we know little about, be it contemporary or in historical perspective. See, for example, Alessandro Bausani, Religion in Iran (New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2000), p. 122. As far as I know, for Iran only the political scientist Cosroe Chaqueri, Beginning Politics in the Reproductive Cycle of Children’s Tales and Games in Iran: An Historical Inquiry (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992), has looked at philosophy in this sense when he compared Persian folktales to Arabic and Turkish ones regarding ethics and life skills implicitly passed on to children. He, however, relied on published texts without ethnographic contexts. Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977); see especially pp. 163ff. Leo A. Oppenheim (‘The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society New Series 46/3 (1956), p. 185), in his monumental analysis of texts about dreams on tablets from various sites in the ancient Near East, missed the ‘aura of connotations’, the ethnographic and psychological background lacking in the dream-texts. Earlier, Benedict: Tales of the Cochiti Indians, pp. IXf observed about those tales that ‘the fundamental factor in their formation is the daily life of the people’. Joseph Campbell (Occidental Mythology (New York: Penguin/Arkana, 1991), p. 378), talking about popular religion, calls a group’s unquestioned assumptions about life a ‘“system of sentiments” upon which the local institutions . . . depend’. Discussing McCarthy’s book on the Cinderella motif in America, Zipes: Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, p. 111 talks of necessary alterations to ‘British, German, or Irish sensibilities’ to fit the American cultural context. Terms like doxa, aura of connotation, sentiments, sensibilities are less fuzzy and, I argue, less apprehensible when one deals with them within the frame of a local philosophy. In standardized tests such as variants of the Rorschach-test the interpretation of images is taken to reveal features of this inner world of the interpreter. See Irving B. Werner, Principles of Rorschach Interpretation (Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates), 2003; Hans Zulliger, Der Zulliger-Tafelntest,

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17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

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4th edn (Bern: Huber, 1977). In tales the ‘interpretation’ of relations and things by narrator and audience is revelatory in this sense as well. Marzolph’s motif-index of the tales in my Folktales from a Persian Tribe (Dortmund: Verlag für Orientkunde, 2007) attests to the wide distribution of motifs in Iran and beyond. However, as a motif-analysis is not pertinent to the discussions in this book, I refer to Marzolph: Typologie des Persischen Volksmärchens for identifying and tracing these motifs. For the teller as a creative artist and the importance of ‘context and creativity in narrative formation’ see Simon J. Bronner, ‘Introduction’, in Simon J. Bronner (ed.), Creativity and Tradition in Folklore (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1992), pp. 1–38. Bronner saw this creativity as adaptive for keeping up with the changing human experience by unifying story content, message, and culture change. See, for example, Mills, Rhetorics and Politics. Tolstoy is said to have written The Three Bears (Tulsa, OK: E.O.C. Publishing, 1985) as a political comment on Russia’s relationships with her neighbours at the time. Unsure of their reception by authorities in present-day Iran, Yaqoub Ghaffari, Afsa¯neha¯-ye Kohgiluye va Boir Ahmad [Folktales from Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad], unpublished manuscript (Yasuj, 2006) has not published his collection of tales from Boir Ahmad there yet. This concern also is reflected in a Tajik colleague’s decision not to publish stories recorded recently because of their criticism of local political conditions (personal communication, January 2008). See Reinhold Loeffler, Islam in Practice (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1988) about the wealth of religious beliefs among men in one single village in Iran. In short, they reflect Mesopotamian/Iranian syncretism. See Bausani: Religion in Iran and a short discussion of such traditions in Guppy: Magical Tales from Classical Persia, pp. ix–xviii. They are not the focus of this book, though. For a recent shift in the meaning of ‘philosophy’ toward the realm of everyday experience see Derek Johnston, A Brief History of Philosophy (London and New York: Continuum, 2006). I am using the term here in this broad, vernacular sense as ‘the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group’ (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edn (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003), p. 930) rather than in the narrower traditional one that describes philosophy as a well defined system of logic, ethics and metaphysics (for example, Hans Joachim Störig, Kleine Weltgeschichte der Philosophie (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1950), p. 81). This allows me to avoid the condescending term, ‘ethno-philosophy’. I thank Professors Reinhold

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23. 24.

25.

26.

27.

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Loeffler and Arthur Falk at Western Michigan University for generously discussing these issues with me. The local people poke fun at tales, calling them ‘lies’, that is, made-up stories in contrast to eyewitness-reports. For descriptions in English of the area, the village, and the development see Reinhold Loeffler, ‘The World of the People of Deh Koh’, in Richard Tapper and Jon Thompson (eds), The Nomadic Peoples of Iran (London: Azimuth Editions, 2002), pp. 134–43 and ‘The Ethos of Progress in a Village in Iran’, Anthropology of the Middle East 6/2 (2011), pp. 1–13; for two groups in the southern Zagros, see Soheila Shahshahani, The Four Seasons of the Sun (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilm International, 1982) and Yuko Suzuki, ‘Evolution structurelle d’une société tribale du sud-ouest de l’Iran en consequence de la modernisation politique’, PhD dissertation, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, (2011); for Lurestan, see Jacob BlackMichaud, Sheep and Land: The Economics of Power in a Tribal Society (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); for Bakhtiari, see Gene R. Garthwaite, Khans and Shahs: A Documentary Analysis of the Bakhtyari in Iran (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). For the latter two areas there is no new ethnographic research published in English. For descriptions of such storytellers in Iran, called naqqal, see Guppy: Magical Tales from Classical Persia and Kumiko Yamamoto, ‘Naqqâli: Professional Iranian Story-telling’, in Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Ulrich Marzolph (eds), Oral Literature of Iranian Languages: Kurdish, Pashto, Balochi, Ossetiv; Persian and Tajik (London: I.B.Tauris, 2010), pp. 240–57. Fred M. Donner, ‘The Qur’a¯n in Recent Scholarship: Challenges and Desiderata’, in Gabriel Said Reynolds (ed.), The Qura¯n in its Historical Context (London: Routledge, 2008), pp. 29–50 delineates such processes of changing texts and messages over time in response to outside conditions in as unified and monolithic a text as the Quran. In a more popular style, Robert Wright, The Evolution of God (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009) traces these changes in the presumably immutable words of God in all three Abrahamic religions. This brings home the point most convincingly. In the Lama’e collection and in Lama’e’s transliteration, all tales end in this rhyme: ‘Ma¯til ey ma¯ xa¯šy xa¯šy. Literally, it translates as: My tale is nice, nice. Dasey goly vaš bekešin Throw it a bunch of flowers Ka¯h by kelur by There was straw, there was stubble, Har cy gotim doru by.’ All we said was a lie.

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28. 29. 30.

31

32.

33. 34.

35.

36.

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The first two lines are a standard ending for storytellers throughout the Zagros, often said without a second stanza. ‘Straw and stubble’ here provide rhyme and rhythm for the ‘lie’ line. I once heard a woman storyteller end a tale with an image from her own activities in the last two lines: ‘Band bi, ’dar bi, harce go’m duru bi.’ That is, ‘There was yarn and there was a loom, and whatever I said was a lie’. Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye. Ghaffari: Afsa¯neha¯-ye Kohgiluye va Boir Ahmad. For this process generally in Boir Ahmad see my ‘Old Plants and New Woman in the Zagros Mountains, Iran’, in Z. Füsun Ertugˇ (ed.), Ethnobotany: At the Junction of the Continents and the Disciplines (Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, 2006), pp. 475–81; for a neighbouring tribe, the Turkish-speaking Qashqa’i, see Mohamad Shahbazi, ‘Formal Education, Schoolteachers, and Ethnic Identity among the Qashqa’i of Iran’, PhD dissertation, University of Washington, (1998). It remains to be seen to what extent the documentation of folkloric material, especially of tales, will become part of a ‘nationalistic salvage operation’ in which amateur folklorists and the media romantically try to preserve a purportedly ‘dying custom, gathering up the fading remnants of a robust tale-telling tradition that had gone on in a ’cozy corner’ of folk communities’ (Harries: Twice Upon a Time, p. 77). Susan Wright, ‘Iran Collection’, World Oral Literature Project (University of Cambridge, 2011). (accessed 19 November 2012). Unfortunately, I learned too late for this publication that the 13 tales are available for analysis; listening to them, however, I found that their messages correspond to those in the sources I am using here. D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer, Persian Tales (London: Macmillan, 1919; reprinted Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2008), pp. 31–58. Occasionally, when a tale expresses sentiments or happenings that illuminate an aspect in a Lur tale, I refer to folktales from Kerman province that the Lorimers included in this book. The shared tone and motifs speak to their wide geographic distribution. Friedl: Folktales from a Persian Tribe. See Harries: Twice Upon a Time, pp. 24, 39, for a discussion of the impact of narrators’ gender on the form and content of tales. About women’s tales she states that they contain complex and ironic comments on the historical moment in which they were produced, that they are subversive and critical. This fits my observations. Sekandar Amanolahi and W.M. Thackston, Tales from Luristan: Tales, Fables and Folk Poetry from the Lur of Bala-Gariva (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986). Only occasionally do I refer to such sources, to scholars who concentrate on the history of motifs. Thus, for example, Bruno P. Schliephacke, Märchen, Seele

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38. 39. 40. 41. 42.

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und Sinnbild (Münster/Westfalen: Aschendorff, 1974, pp. 9–21, traces ‘Frau Holle’ (Aarne-Thompson tale-type 480) from earth-goddess to Mother Mary, from ancient India to Mexico. In several tales with this motif in the present collections this powerful female figure turned into a male div, a demon (for example, A/Th16, L39; see also L6, L13), and this illuminates local gender dynamics. See also Graham Anderson, The Fairytale in the Ancient World (London and New York: Routledge, 2000). In Ruck et al.: The Hidden World, p. 62, the authors come to the bold conclusion that ‘the events of the protagonists in fairytales are similar to that of a shamanic ritual, traceable back to the prehistoric period . . . to archetypal truths’. In the present collections, narrators on the ethnographic level show no trace of such shamanic ritual or thinking. The wolf, however, with Ruck’s analysis becomes richer, merging through the metaphor of wind with Apollo-turned-demon and with the ‘chthonic abductor’ who carries souls off to the netherworld (p. 103). But these insights are academic; they bypass the audience, which only picks up the ‘danger’ message in ‘wolf’, firmly on the ethnographic plane of everyday life. The foremost being the Organization for the Country’s National Heritage (Sa¯zma¯n-e mira¯s-e farhangi-e keshvar); see Marzolph: ‘Storytelling as a Constituent of Popular Culture: Folk Narrative Research in Contemporary Iran’, for a discussion of folklore research in Iran. Abolqasem Ferdowsi and Dick Davis, Shahnameh (London: Penguin, 2006). Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (New York: Heritage Press, 1962). Amanolahi and Thackston: Tales from Luristan, p. 155. Amanolahi and Thackston: Tales from Luristan, p. 61. Ulrich Marzolph, ‘The Muslim Sense of Humour’, in Hans Geybels and Walter Van Herck (eds), Humour and Religion: Challenges and Ambiguities (London and New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011), p. 175 concludes that Muslims’ various scriptures allow believers to take humour and laughter as ‘essential qualities of the human condition’ tempered by the ‘rule of intensity based on Aristotelian ethics of moderation’, or else to treat laughter as expression of human vanity. Lurs fit this ambivalent pattern: while they appreciated funny moments and said that laughter was ‘natural’, when the fun was over I often heard somebody in the audience mumble that laughter was the work of the devil.

Chapter 1 How Narrators Live in their Tales: Two Cases 1. Indeed, reading through various collections of Persian folktales I felt that I learned a lot about the respective narrator/editor/translator along with the tales. For example, compare the no-nonsense mood of ‘The Fox’ as told by

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3. 4.

5.

6.

7.

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a woman in my collection (see text in Chapter 5 and Friedl: Folktales from a Persian Tribe, F4) to Alan S. Feinstein’s moralistic treatment in ‘The Wicked Fox’ (Folk Tales from Persia (Cranbury, NJ: Gazelle Book Services, 1971), p. 66) and both versions to Forough Hekmat (Folktales of Ancient Persia, Persian Heritage Series, vol. 18 (Delmar, NY: Caravan Books, 1974)) with its overall cheerful can-do attitude and the – for Persian tales rare – message that to be fearless and to do good leads to a rewarding life. People take a person’s (especially man’s) right to a spouse as part of the Godwilled and self-evident social order. Until recently even crippled or blind men got a wife, usually one whose own social status did not afford her alternatives. F20’s main point is a pauper’s inability to afford a wife and the eventual remedy. See text in Chapter 7. Disabled women’s marriage situation was more difficult but is no issue in the tales. Christensen: Persische Märchen, pp. 109–21. The duty-motif structures also Gh34 (see Appendix for full text), where a master tests three servant-brothers’ loyalty and obedience. This leads to a dilemma the brothers solve against the master’s orders but in his best interest. The fürstenspiegel function does not extend to a servant admonishing his master in a parable or fable in Mr Hoquqi’s tales, but the function is obvious in the servant’s behaviour. This is the motif of the ‘confuser of the town’ (shahrangis) in Persian and Turkish folklore and literature. I thank Bert Fragner for this information. See also Thompson: The Folktale, T24.2.3. and Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1968), pp. 303f. A historical fact is of interest here: the last paramount khan in Boir Ahmad, Abdallah Zarghampour, was killed in 1963 by one of his servants when he was a fugitive with a bounty on his head. See Reinhold Loeffler, ‘Tribal Order and the State: The Political Organization of Boir Ahmad’, Iranian Studies XI (1978), pp. 145–72.

Chapter 2 Family as Drama: Siblings 1. An exception for the Middle East is El-Shamy: Tales Arab Women Tell, who analyzed sibling relations in eight tales from an Arabic collection of the 1001 Nights. 2. The birth rate and attitudes towards children have both changed drastically in Iran since the 1990s. See Agnes G. Loeffler and Erika Friedl, ‘Cultural Parameters of the “Miraculous” Birth Rate Drop in Iran’, Anthropology News 50/3 (2009), pp. 14–15, online at

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3. L17 is from Kerman but I heard a variant of this story also in Boir Ahmad. 4. Sexual mores are changing greatly even in small towns now. Couples are much more intimate and affectionate in public than traditionally was seen as proper. Yet, the traditions are not forgotten. See Janet Afary, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). On the politics of reproduction see Agnes G. Loeffler and Erika Friedl, ‘On the Birthrate Drop in Iran’, ms. 2012. 5. Lorimer and Lorimer: Persian Tales, p. 104. 6. This also is a popular explanation in Iran for the reluctance to adopt a child: one might thereby later unwittingly make it possible that a brother marries a sister. 7. In the Persian tale ‘The Mongol Girl’, Henri Massé (Persian Beliefs and Customs (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, 1954), p. 441) gives another example for the link between henna, infatuation and courtship. 8. Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye, p. 87. The story otherwise is confusing. In an earlier version (L6, from Kerman) the relationships make more sense: the young wife burns her husband’s animal-skin (a snake skin here) in order to prevent her husband from turning into the animal again, whereupon he leaves. She goes after him and finds him just as he is about to marry his div-aunt’s daughter. In order to save his human wife he turns her into the div-aunt’s slave-girl – not his sister as in Lama’e. 9. Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye, p. 91. 10. Daily discourse provides several terms for ‘honour’, but as the narrators hardly ever use them in the stories I will not discuss them here when trying to make sense of the tales. In A/Th12: 61 the authors say about a wayward wife, ‘. . . [she] dishonoured herself’. The Luri idiom (154) is more graphic and less bound to ‘honour’: ‘. . . she cut off her braids’, the narrator, a man, had said. 11. At the time of the tales the sieve represented femaleness. Massé: Persian Beliefs and Customs, p. 299 describes a sieve-ritual: an unmarried girl desiring a husband makes the rounds in the village banging a wooden spoon on a sieve into which the neighbours drop some food that the girl later cooks and eats, expecting a suitor to come soon. 12. Mahteti in F11; Marateti in Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye, p. 96; see Appendix 1; also Gh3, L51. The story of Ma¯hteti is popular everywhere in the area. The name, along with the concept of the resourceful and active young woman, points to the earth-angel Armaiti (or her counterpart, Taramaiti), one of the Zoroastrian Amesha Spenta, the ‘archangels’, living on in popular culture (See Mary Boyce, ‘Ameša Spenta’, in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica (New York: Routledge, 1983), pp. 933–36.)

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13. This tale is from Kerman, but as it concisely pulls together sentiments found in the Lur texts as well I include it here. 14. This Cain/Abel motif is as old as the social structure that is its background, as suggested in one of the earliest stories on record from the Near East, from a Hittite source: the elder of twin brothers, ‘Master Bad’, claims the larger/ better share of the inheritance based on an alleged ‘law’; but the younger twin, ‘Master Good’, calls him a ‘cheat’ and gets the Sun-God to intervene (Theodor H. Gaster, The Oldest Stories in the World (Boston: Beacon Press, 1958), pp. 159–71). 15. Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye, p. 132. 16. See Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye, p. 105. 17. Turkish tay means foal, leng means lame; the ending -aki is a double diminutive. Many Lur tales have Turkish language components. The name also comes up as Taleng. 18. Although siblings’ conflicts in the tales are ‘reasonable’ and familiar for local narrators and audiences, it does not follow that siblings mostly are enemies. Rather, as a narrator said when I asked about sibling rivalry in the tales, peaceful and loving people do not make good stories.

Chapter 3

World of Women

1. Earlier I dealt with this topic (Erika Friedl, ‘The Folktale as Cultural Comment’, Asian Folklore Studies 34/2 (1975), pp. 127–44, Erika Friedl, “Women in Contemporary Persian Folktales’, in Nikki R. Keddie and Lois Beck (eds), Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 629–50), based only on my collection of tales and on Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye. 2. Arzoo Osanloo, The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009) addresses this postmodern concern. Despite my circumspection, I was not spared criticism. At the Middle East Studies Association meeting in 1973 an Iranian-born male scholar accused me of disrespect for Iranian women when I mentioned the tale where a wayward woman is turned into a donkey. 3. For recent discussions of this topic see Janet Afary, ‘The Sexual Economy of the Islamic Republic’, Iranian Studies 42/1 (2009), pp. 5–26, Erika Friedl, ‘New Friends: Gender Relations Within the Family’, Iranian Studies 42/1 (2009), pp. 27–43, Homa Hoodfar, ‘Family Law and Family Planning Policy in Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Iran’, in Kathryn M. Yount and Hoda Rashed (eds), Family in the Middle East (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 80–110, Azadeh Kian-Thiébaut, ‘From Motherhood to Equal

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5. 6. 7.

8.

9.

10. 11.

12.

13.

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Rights Advocates: The Weakening of Patriarchal Order’, Iranian Studies 39/1 (2005), pp. 45–66, Pardis Mahdavi, Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009), Osanloo: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran. These numbers are conservative, especially for men. Should one count a ‘rifleman’ and a ‘soldier’ as two categories? Is a ‘first wife’ of the king different enough from other wives to warrant a separate count? This Kermani tale succinctly expresses what people in the Lur areas say, too. Lama’e: Farhang amia¯ne asha¯yer Boir Ahmadi va Kohgiluye, p. 87. A few girls also learned to read and write, which allowed them the title ‘mulla’. In Boir Ahmad and elsewhere, people applied this term as a title to the first generation of secular, government-appointed male and female teachers, followed by the first name, but soon changed to a formal address. (Thus, ‘Mulla Bibi Nushi’ became the ‘Mrs Boir Ahmedi’ of Chapter 1.) One of the storytellers in my collection remembered such a ‘mulla’ woman because she had survived ‘nine husbands’. The Frog-Prince motif here is in a tale from Kerman, but as the presentation of housewifely competence and of luck is identical with what I know of Boir Ahmad, I include it here. In the Lur areas, instead of cotton, women spun wool on the drop spindle. This, too, has changed in the Zagros. In the middle of the twentieth century in some areas women tended their menfolks’ fields of tobacco, poppy and sugar beets without pay. Recently a few women started to work seasonally outside the family in orchards for small wages, but such plantations are rare in the area. Luri duar (Persian dokhtar) means ‘daughter’ as well as ‘girl’ and ‘unmarried (presumably virgin) female’. The Shahnameh indicates how deeply ingrained this attitude is when Mehrab berates himself for not having killed his newborn daughter who now, as an adult, is endangering him by consorting with his enemy. He says that he regrets that ‘. . . when she was born I did not kill her as I ought to have done in the tradition of my ancestors . . .’ (quoted, in Persian, in Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh, Die Frauen im Shahname (Freiburg: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1971), p. 114; my translation). See various census reports on Iran, such as, for example, Iran Statistical Yearbooks, 1986, 1996 and 2006. We received several offers of marriage in Sisakht for our then barely 2-year-old daughter. See Chapter 6, note 19 for a discussion of this name. Souz or soz is Luri for Persian sabz, ‘green’, also meaning dark-coloured in horses; qaba¯ is a foal.

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14. The tale has a messy structure. In cases such as this one, where the logic of happenings is not clear, the details make the story interesting for the narrator/audience: they are cultural markers. They have to be right to resonate locally, and therefore fit our purpose in the analysis. 15. This also is an issue in F34, where a stepmother who had caused her stepdaughter’s suicide slanders her by telling her father that the girl had run away with a lover. 16. Domestic violence in Iran is difficult to assess but hardly anybody there denies it. See Mary E. Hegland, ‘Wife Abuse and the Political System: A Middle Eastern Case Study’, in Dorothy Counts et al. (eds), To Have and to Hit: Cultural Perspectives on Wife Beating (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999), pp. 23–51. 17. See Afary: ‘The Sexual Economy of the Islamic Republic’, Friedl: ‘New Friends’ and Mary E. Hegland: ‘Educating Young Women: Culture, Conflict, and New Identities in an Iranian Village’, Iranian Studies 42/1 (2009), pp. 45–79. 18. Amanolahi and Thackston translate the original ‘ka¯ka¯se’ as ‘golliwog’, which is meaningless here. Ka¯ka¯se literally means ‘black brother’ or ‘black man’ and is used for a male slave. 19. See Mark Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), pp. 100ff. for a discussion of the Aphrodite-theme, including its historical relevance for Persian rulers. 20. It is understood that a stepmother may be close in age to her stepson or even younger than he is. 21. Ghaffari uses the Persian term, delbandi, literally, to bind the heart. 22. Here, Ghaffari uses the Persian a¯shoq, which includes a strong connotation of passion. 23. In the tale Samanbar is a herbalist from far away. These circumstances point to her hidden identity as a fairy. See Maryam Nemat Tavousi, ‘Siyavoš as Vegetation Deity’, Iranian Studies 41/2 (2008), pp. 173–82. See also F41, Chapter 1. 24. A badly vexed wife may leave her husband and their children for a while to drive home the point how important she is for bringing up his children. The community will not condone her behaviour but everybody understands the structural basis for it. There is no such case in the tales. 25. An elderly widow without sons was supposed to stay with a brother or a brother’s son, thus adding to his burden. It is likely that the old woman felt uncomfortable at the mercy of women who did not much care for her. Some old women had daughters nearby who provided services and food, but daughters had no obligation of parental support – they cared out of love and

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pity, people said. The tales do not describe such daughter/mother interaction. The position of the elderly in Iran is grievously understudied. See Mary E. Hegland, ‘Independent Grandmothers in an Iranian Village’, Middle East Journal of Age and Aging 4/3 (2007) (accessed 19 February 2010). 26. This tale is from Kerman but I have heard it also in Boir Ahmad.

Chapter 4

Animals, Plants and People’s Wisdom

1. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edn (Springfield, MA: MerriamWebster Inc., 2003), p. 446. 2. For recent discussions of these issues see the special issue of Iranian Studies 42/1 (2009). See also Shahram Khosravi, Young and Defiant in Tehran (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), Kian-Thiébaut: ‘From Motherhood to Equal Rights Advocates’, Mahdavi: Passionate Uprisings and Osanloo: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran. 3. Father-Brother (ta¯ta¯ in Luri, a¯mu in Persian) is a term implying authority in contrast to ‘Mother-Brother’ (halu in Luri, da¯i in Persian), implying relaxed friendliness. 4. Friedl: ‘Old Plants and New Woman in the Zagros Mountains, Iran’ discusses the meaning and significance of gathering wild vegetables and fruits in the area. 5. The etymology of the English word ‘friend’ also leads to a term that in the past meant ‘kinsman’. The social world is thus made up of ‘my people’, those one can count on for support, and ‘others’, potential enemies. 6. A similar version of this tale is in Friedl: ‘Tales of the Boir Ahmadi of Iran’, The World and I (1986). 7. This is according to personal information from Professor Amanolahi as well as my own observation. 8. The version I heard had a shepherd with a goat instead of a cowherd; this avoids two cows in the tale without changing the message. 9. See Erika Friedl, Children of Deh Koh: Young Lives in an Iranian Village (Syracuse: SUNY Press, 1997) for a comprehensive analysis of children’s lives in the area. Chaqueri: Beginning Politics, described some of these childrearing techniques for Iran in general. 10. For the narrators in Friedl and Ghaffari this is Sia¯hqeitun (the ‘Black Ledhorse’), the ‘black foal’ of Eurasian folklore (Thompson motifs B181, B211: 3, B401), akin to Siavosh’s black horse, Behzad Shabrang (the ‘Nightcoloured’) in the Shahnameh. 11. The first dog cleverly turns the bolting of the sheep into his own virtue by claiming that he himself had taken the trouble of leading them to pasture.

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12.

13.

14.

15.

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It is understood that dedicated shepherds will let their animals graze in a good pasture even at night. This is my translation of A/Th18: 172: gu¯sale hardan [elsewhere: mukhtan] kutal kuna¯it. In the context of an Old Woman’s urging to hurry during an abduction, Amanolahi/Thackston translate it idiomatically as, ‘The cow is in the meadow, the sheep’s in the corn (p. 89). A/Th14: 159: dı¯ na qı¯ žai qala¯ ya¯, lı¯ lai gurg. A similar meaning is in a poem where an assassinated man laments, ‘. . . a crow from the sky has landed on my right hand’ (A/Th20: 94). The fat of several wild animals was part of the traditional local pharmacopoeia. This health-related use links it to the ‘magic action of the fat of the sacrificial bull’ of Iranian antiquity that bestowed a kind of immortality (Bausani: Religion in Iran, p. 21) and other such related uses of fat. The Mazdean ‘community of animals’ is visible here, as are, faintly, the Quranic animal nations.

Chapter 5

God’s Ways

1. In this respect they are not different from other people in Iran. For a description of the many layers of Muslim beliefs in this village, see Loeffler: Islam in Practice. 2. Jürgen Janning et al. (eds), Gott im Märchen, 2nd edn (Krummwisch: Königsfurt Verlag, 2005); Max Lüthi, Das Volksmärchen als Dichtung, 2nd edn (Düsseldorf: Eugen Diederichs, 1990); Petzoldt: Folk Narrative and World View. That Kurt Ranke et al. (eds), Enzyklopädie des Märchens, vol. 5, (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1987), pp. 1432, 1438 discuss the Janning articles at length under the entry ‘God’ indicates the paucity of work on this topic. 3. Von Franz: The Feminine in Fairy Tales, p. 29 sees them as personified human aspects: ‘. . . gods represent archetypal contents in the unconscious, . . .’ and: ‘. . . ego and shadow complexes . . . are generally personified in gods’. 4. Translated from ‘Märchen sind – theologisch gesprochen – antieschatologisch, weil ihre Welt eigentlich heil, in Ordnung, erlöst [ist] – abgesehen von einigen Übeln . . .’ (Günther Lange, ‘Märchen aus der Sicht eines Religionspädagogen’, in Janning et al.: Gott im Märchen, p. 40). 5. Lange: Märchen aus der Sicht eines Religionspädagogen’, p. 40. 6. Otto Betz, ‘Der abwesend-anwesende Gott in den Volksmärchen’, in Janning et al.: Gott im Märchen, p. 11f. 7. Betz: ‘Der abwesend-anwesende Gott in den Volksmärchen’, p. 11: ‘Dem Hörer bleibt es überlassen, ob er in den jenseitigen Gaben die Anwesenheit göttlicher Kraft und Gnade erkennen will oder nicht’.

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8. Dietrich Thyen, ‘Transzendenz und Wirklichkeit in der Sicht der Märchen – Vom Sinn einer gläubigen Deutung der Welt’ in Janning et al.: Gott im Märchen, p. 37: ‘Märchen sind . . . zutiefst gläubige Erzählungen, weil sie jeden direkten Hinweis auf den Sinn des Lebens vermeiden, weil sie das Göttliche in seiner Unanschaulichkeit, Namenlosigkeit, Unkenntlichkeit und Unzugänglichkeit belassen . . .’ [Fairy tales are profoundly faith-based narratives because they avoid any direct reference to the meaning of life, [and] because they leave the divine in its non-visibility, its namelessness, un-knowability and inaccessibility]. 9. Elmar Thyen, personal communication, February 2008. 10. Bernd Rieken, ‘Der Strafende Gott der Volkssage’ [‘The Punishing God of Folk Legends’], ms. 2008. Such approaches to stories require facility in psychoanalysis, familiarity with the narrator, the circumstances of the narration, and a verbatim text in order to allow for serious scholarship. These conditions are met rarely. Moreover, it is ethically problematic to publish results if they go beyond what the ‘informants’ expect. This topic is understudied. See also Erika Friedl, ‘Tales in Analysis’, paper presented to the 7th biennial Conference of the International Society of Iranian Studies, Toronto, 31 July–3 August (2008), Mills: Rhetorics and Politics in Afghan Traditional Storytelling, and ‘What(’s) Theory?’, Journal of Folklore Research 45/1 (2008), pp. 19–28. 11. Bottigheimer: Fairy Tales and Society: Illusion, Allusion, and Paradigm, traced changes in the perception of God in Bible stories published for children from an earlier angry God to a benevolent, forgiving one. I base this statement mostly on discussions with the Catholic theologian-pastor Dr Peter Schleicher in Neuberg, Austria in 2008, the Lutheran Pastor David Sidwell and members of several churches in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2009, and Father James Thayer, PhD, of the Greek-Orthodox church in Gillette, Wyoming in 2010. The Sunni Imam of the mosque in Kalamazoo (2012) only elaborated on how one must relate to God to be a good Muslim. I am much obliged to them for their generous help. 12. Loeffler: Islam in Practice. Bausani: Religion in Iran, illuminates the complex historical background of the significantly different theologies and philosophies that informed beliefs in this part of the world. 13. As such appearances are rare, I also considered some of Lorimers' tales from Kerman, which have more references to God; the God-image there fully corresponds to the one I know from Boir Ahmad. 14. In Islam there are no saints in the vernacular Christian/English sense. The Prophet Mohamad and many members of his family and their patrilineal offspring are taken to be endowed with extra-human powers which they can

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15.

16. 17.

18. 19. 20.

21.

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use to help people. For this status the word ‘excellency’ (hezrat) precedes the name, as in ‘Hezrat-e Ali’. As ‘excellency’ is a cumbersome English term for religious figures, ‘saint’ is commonly used. Gh30: 53: ‘Ya¯ khoda¯, ya¯ Sha¯h Qa¯som, ya¯ Pir Sardasht – seil vadinesh nakonid sha¯la¯ khosh vargasht’. Pir, literally an elder, is the traditional word for the purported grave of a pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian ‘saint’ (see Robert Langer, Pı¯ra¯n und Zeya¯ratga¯h: Schreine und Wallfahrtsstätten der Zarathustrier im Neuzeitlichen Iran (Leuwen: Peeters, 2008)) as well as for a relative of a patrilineal descendant of the Prophet Mohamad, an ima¯mza¯deh (see also next chapter.) The grave may become a shrine and pilgrimage place, especially if the dead man or woman is said to be efficacious when applied to for help. There are many such small and large pilgrimage places in Iran, important in popular religion but barely studied. People know that some preachers say the belief in magic and in the need for intercession contradicts Islamic doctrine, but nevertheless this is how they say that they experience God’s power. Pir Sardasht is a shrine in central Boir Ahmad, Sha¯h Qa¯som in northern Boir Ahmad near the town where Mr Ghaffari lives. ‘Yeki bud, yeki nabud, gheir az khoda¯ hickes nabud’ – literally, ‘One was, another wasn’t, there was nobody except God’. A tale from Kerman (L9) is of interest here: the narrator said, ‘God, who is the God of the whole world, willed that [the maid] should sneeze’. The sneeze leads to a lost necklace and redressing an injustice. This tale, however, is mainly about ‘Mushkil Gusha’, the ‘Remover of Difficulties’, who, demanding veneration and sacrifice, helps a poor man. Both he and God act in this legend-like story. Janning et al.: Gott im Märchen. Shabbir Akhtar, The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam (New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 277. In this Shi‘a legend about Hasan, a grandson of the Prophet Mohamad, his wife Jud’a poisons him. The other ‘bad’ woman in Shi‘a Islam is Aisha, the Prophet’s wife who consorted with the enemy of the followers of Ali, whom Shi‘a Muslims see as the Prophet’s true political heir. The two ‘bad’ women here are confounded. In Iran ‘Aisha’ is a bad word and not used as a personal name; Jud’a is all but unknown. Mrs Boir Ahmedi (see Chapter 1), the educated, devout narrator of these three tales, loves funny stories, including some about esteemed religious personages. In the only other instance of miraculous life giving, a tale from Kerman (L10, see above), God saves a religious personage from embarrassment by giving him the power to breathe life into a wooden figure.

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22. Even for Islamic philosophers such as Akhtar the fact that God obviously allows people to misbehave is beyond human comprehension: ‘Mysteriously, God permits us to resist his will, to our final detriment.’ Akhtar: The Quran and the Secular Mind, p. 275. 23. Loeffler: Islam in Practice. 24. A Toman has 10 rial. In earlier times, a korush connoted the smallest coin, worth less than a rial. 25. Here fire is not a cleansing agent as much as a version of the OldTestamentarian motif of fire as annihilation that precludes resurrection and of hell as a place of no return, and of the Zoroastrian belief in the final ‘burning up the last vestiges of wickedness in the universe’ (Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians. Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (New York: Routledge, 1979), p. 28). 26. The Luri text reads, ‘parîi-a, malâkati-a, Cˇini-a, Cˇitawri-a’, A/Th17: 169. 27. The phrase is, ‘hûriun bihišt’, A/Th11: 152. 28. In Kiarostami’s film The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) the Iranian filmmaker has one of his actors, a physician, say this sentence too, which shows how widespread this agnostic sentiment is in Iran. 29. The Zoroastrian/Quranic ‘Torment of Three Nights’ after death comes to mind, thought to be an unpleasant, difficult, dangerous time when prayers and sacrifices of the mourners can ease the discomfort of the dead person’s soul. 30. Amanolahi/Thackston here translate the phrase, ‘bâlâ xudâ’, (p. 152), literally meaning, ‘God above’, with ‘God is up in heaven’ (p. 57), thus introducing a concept that might be implied but is not expressed in the tales and does not carry the same connotations as the English ‘heaven’. 31. In this regard the local people participate in the philosophical debate between adherents of a deterministic view of the universe and those of kala¯m, rationalist Islamic theology (Frank Griffel, Al-Ghaza¯li’s Philosophical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), Ibrahim Kalin, Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)) as well as face the problem of human agency in the face of ‘fate’ as discussed by Esther Eidinow (Luck, Fate and Fortune: Antiquity and its Legacy (London: I.B.Tauris, 2011). For an overview of the complexities of these issues see Bausani: Religion in Iran. 32. I use ‘stoic’ advisedly. The influence of Greek humanism on particular Iranian notions such as rationality, freedom, duty, or nature is well known and obvious in the tales as well, but not the subject of this book. On philosophies of life in antiquity that are of relevance here see, for example, Albrecht Dihle, Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California Press,

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1982), Eidinow: Luck, Fate and Fortune, Johannes Hirschberger, Geschichte der Philosophie, Vol. 1 (Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, 1991), Terence Irwin, The Development of Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), Johnston: A Brief History of Philosophy.

Chapter 6

People and Other Powers

1. We can recognize descendants of Mazdaean beings such as daena, fravashi and ‘angels’ in the fairies and jinn of the tales, and the daimones of antiquity, but local people do not build shrines for them or venerate them. Many ima¯mza¯deh (some also called pir) among the Lurs started as places of transcendent tree/water beings. Since about 1995, however, such old ‘pir’, unless they are refurbished as tombs of descendants of the Prophet, are being dismantled by governmental authorities because of their obvious link to the pre-Islamic realm, to ‘superstition,’ as they say. Langer’s documentation of Zoroastrian shrines around Yazd shows how alive is the pre-Islamic stratum of shrine-cults in Iran (Langer: Pı¯ra¯n und Zeya¯ratga¯h). The shrines are just as popular in urban Shi‘a communities – Betteridge listed nearly 90 shrines in Shiraz in the early 1980s – but they rarely appear in the tales (Anne H. Betteridge, ‘Zia¯rat: Pilgrimage to the Shrines of Shiraz’, dissertation, University of Chicago (1985)). 2. For examples see Reinhold Loeffler, ‘Lur Hunting Lore and the CultureHistory of the Shin’, in Peter Snoy (ed.), Ethnologie und Geschichte: Festschrift für Karl Jettmar (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1983, pp. 399–409). 3. The motif of the siren who bewitches people with her beauty exists in Iran to this day, for example, in the literary motif of shahrangis and his/her ethnographic parallels (see Chapter 1, note 6). According to Tavousi: ‘Siyavoš as Vegetation Deity’, in the Shahnameh story of Siavosh a strikingly beautiful, unnamed woman appears in a valley in the path of Iranian warriors in Turan, claiming to be fleeing the court, where her beauty had caused problems. Her new protectors, too, fight over her until Ke Kavus marries her to save her life and to put an end to the hostilities around her. She bears Siavosh and then disappears from the story. Tavousi says that her solo appearance in a verdant valley, her beguiling beauty that makes men love-crazy, her marriage and her delivering a hero-child before disappearing are attributes of fairies, the pre-Islamic ‘goddesses of love and fertility’. There are close parallels to this description in the tales (for example, in F40). 4. The etymological roots of ‘paradise’ are Avestan, pairi daêza, an enclosed space/garden. For people in Boir Ahmad, the few large formal gardens in the tribal area and the famous urban ones connect beauty, nature, abundance

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and leisure, that is, they have paradisical attributes still. In L41 a peri lives in a garden; in one tale a garden is the locus for the peaceful resolution of conflict (F19), in another, of healing (F41). See also Neshat’s 2009 film Women Without Men (zana¯n-e bedun-e-marda¯n), where four women find solace in a garden/orchard. Traditionally, the first wife was a relative and the marriage was arranged. Few local men other than chiefs could afford either economically or socially to take a woman they fancied as a second wife. When ordinary tribesmen had two wives, one was usually the widow of a brother and thus more a burden than a ‘love’. This name may derive from the infamously cruel and violent Atabeg of Mosul and founder of the Zengid dynasty, Imad-ad-Din Zengi (1085–1146), who included ‘Conqueror of Iran’ in his titles. His notorious brutality may have made him a div in popular opinion. The name means, ‘Lame Limb’ but there is no such person in the story. Aarne-Thompson tale-type 480. See about Frau Holle in the Introduction, note 36. Only once in the tales is a sin/devil link visible: the narrator of L36 calls a faithless, ‘bad’ woman a ‘creature of the devil’. See Marzolph: Typologie des Persischen Volksmärchens, motif 778. The Lorimers add information on a Mushkil Gusha-ritual in connection with the tale (p. 57). I am grateful to Dr Afsaneh Gächter for the description of this Mushkil Gusha-ritual in Tehran, and to Mr Hasan Farniya for the information on the ritual in Bushehr. Dr Mary Hegland told me that in a town near Shiraz women give away ‘a kind of trail-mix’ in Mushkil Gusha’s name at graveyard visits. Aaron Shepard, ‘The Magic of Mushkil Gusha’, Cricket 25/12 (1998), pp. 18–22 (accessed 12 February 2010). On a hill near Qom a shrine marks the place where Khezr purportedly had stayed in a cave. I do not know of any such particularly marked Khezr-places in Lur areas, but Reinhold Loeffler informed me that in Boir Ahmad the Quranic story of Moses’ questioning Khezr’s seemingly inexplicable deeds as an agent of God is told, even recited in Rumi’s verse, by men interested in theodice and theological arguments about God’s Will (Quran, Sura 18, Verse 65–85). For a comprehensive study of Khezr see Patrick Franke, Begegnung mit Khidr: Quellenstudien zum Imaginären im traditionellen Islam (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000). Near Hızırbeyköy (Lord-KhezrVillage) in southeastern Turkey, a tree marks the point where, according

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15.

16. 17.

18.

19.

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21.

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to a legend, Moses met ‘Saint Hızır’ as he planted his staff near a stream and washed his hands before disappearing after Moses had questioned him. Some pre-Abrahamic pilgrimage places are claimed by Jewish, Christian and Muslim faithful alike: Jens Kreinath, ‘The Seductions of Saint George: Inter-Religious Pilgrimage Worship in Southern Turkey and the Ritual Transformation of Agency’, in Michael A. Di Giovine and David Picard (eds), Astray: The Seductions of Pilgrimage (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Shi‘a Muslims believe that the 12th, the last, Imam disappeared as a child and is in occultation, to reappear on the Day of Judgement as the ‘Lord of the Last Day’. An example for the vernacular handling of this concept is in an interview with the writer S. Parsipur (Persian Heritage 15/49 (2010), pp. 22–24): ‘[My grandmother] was a dervish and a poet, very silent. She was reserved and did not enjoy superficial activities . . . she would stay close to the door at parties and leave after 30 minutes.’ L.R. Dodykhudoeva of the Russian Academy of Sciences kindly provided this information (personal communication, Vienna 2007). In Lorimer it even can be ‘evil’. Here, the lack of the narrator’s actual words poses a difficulty. Most likely, the narrator simply said, ‘bad’, meaning the opposite of ‘good’–‘evil’ is not a popular vernacular word. When talking about such matters, people inevitably brought up the story of the man who, in order to escape a prophecy of being killed by a scorpion (or a spider), takes to the sea, only to be killed by a scorpion (or spider) falling on him out of the sail. It is widespread over the whole Eurasian area. See, for example, Jakob Taube, Welt und Leben in Stickereien und Märchen mittelasiatischer Völker (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993), p. 7. See Marzolph: Typologie des Persischen Volksmärchens, type: Persian 720, no. 5, and Aarne-Thompson motif E613. In Christensen’s version the female narrator let the black foal self-identify as a ‘Pärî’ (Christensen: Persische Märchen, p. 58.) This horse, ‘Qeita¯s’ in Lorimer, ‘Sozalqaba¯’ and ‘Bahri’ in Amanolahi/Thackston, ‘Sia¯hqeitun’ in Friedl, is derived from Persian sabz qaba¯, literally, a dark being (a black foal, korreh sia¯h), a Pegasus, and from Arabic bahri quta¯s, a tailed, four-legged seacreature, a merhorse. The themes ‘water’ and ‘flying’ merge in this horse in the tales. See also Galı¯n Kha¯num, The Wonderful Sea-Horse and Other Persian Tales (London: G. Bres, 1950). Ruck et al.: The Hidden World, in their chapter ‘Wily Bears’, present a wealth of bear-lore within various ethnographic contexts from antiquity that is of relevance here.

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The Philosophy of Everyday Life

1. This is, simplified and compressed into a sentence, how Reinhold Loeffler and I have come to understand ‘culture’ in Boir Ahmad. I thank him for his insights and ideas. See more on this topic in the Introduction. 2. This chapter elaborates Friedl: ‘Tales in Analysis’. 3. Friedl: Folktales from a Persian Tribe. 4. Knowledge, so essential to this everyday philosophy, corresponds to the ‘unveiling of existence’ Mulla Sadra focused on, whereby existence is the basis of ‘meaning and reality’ (Kalin: Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: p. xvf.), and to the Stoic notion ‘of an ability to make choices which are responsive to how things are’, of wise decisions that ‘require insights, knowledge and creativity’ (Michael Frede, A Free Will (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), p. 87f.). 5. For this stoic thinking Albert Ellis’s The Essence of Rational Therapy (New York: Institute for Rational Living, 1975) provides a relevant example: it is unrealistic to expect an alcoholic not to drink. Unsupportable assumptions lead to frustration. Such cognitive framing may amount to self-therapy and should not be confused with so-called fatalism. Richard Sorabji (Emotion and Peace of Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 159–68) discusses the uses of stoic thinking in Chapter 11, ‘The Role of Analytic Philosophy in Stoic Cognitive Therapy’. 6. This term of address and reference for father comes from ba¯ba¯, literally, ‘Grandfather’, a term children in Iran now use for grandfathers and fathers with an aspect of endearment. The traditional bou among Lurs connotes authority. 7. Makhmalbaf, for example, used it in his film Gabbeh (1996). 8. This seemingly ethnocentric conclusion is based on what people in Boir Ahmad – more women than men – say and complain about so often that several government-induced studies of the status of women in Boir Ahmad tried to identify the causes for this problem (Professor M. Safari, Yasuj University, 2004, personal communication). 9. The dictionary translations are, respectively: It is written on the forehead; chance, luck; luck, fortune; God’s wish; time, fortune, opportunity; [one’s] lot, destiny, fortune. Nik (fortunate, auspicious) is used in names and in poetry but not in the tales. See also Chapter 6. 10. Discussing Greek epics and poetry, Eidinow: Luck, Fate and Fortune: p. 4 concludes that ‘. . . across the epics, as well as their strong beliefs in the power of gods and/or fate, individuals reveal their determination to play an active part in creating future events’. In Iran, a lack of the expected ‘fatalism’

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12.

13. 14.

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16.

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astounded the Austrian medical pioneer Polak 150 years ago, when he wrote in a letter from Tehran, ‘Nowhere did I meet the equanimity one ought to expect from the belief in fatum. People here flee an advancing epidemic a lot sooner than in Europe’ (Afsaneh Gächter, ‘Briefe aus Persien. Jacob Eduard Polaks Berichte über sein Wirken in Iran in Wiener medizinischen Zeitschriften’, ms. 2012, p. 14, my translation.) Furthermore, ethnographically speaking, people frequently mention the duty or virtue of emotional calm and quiet endurance. Like ancient texts and Muslim gender philosophy, they too link this ability to reason: women are said to have less reason than men by nature, therefore cannot control their emotions as well as men and must be expected to make noise and erroneous decisions especially in crisis situations – but they do make decisions. Men and women are agents within the frame of their fate and God’s Will. Ferdowsi, in Davis’ translation of the Shahnameh (Ferdowsi and Davis: Shahnameh, p. 583), lets an astrologer tell Shahpur, ‘What is fated will surely happen, and we cannot fight against the turning of the sky’. One of the major jokes in this tale is the scatological component frequently used in tales about Mulla Nasrein and other tricksters, and often eliminated by editors for reasons of propriety. Marzolph’s wonderful and exhaustive compilation of hundreds of Nasreddin-stories (Ulrich Marzolph (ed.), Nasreddin Hodscha. 666 wahre Geschichten, 3rd edn (München: C.H. Beck, 2006)) from antiquity onwards across the Muslim Middle East contains many comparable examples. For a modern ethnographic context of the status of the elderly in Iran see Hegland: ‘Independent Grandmothers in an Iranian Village’. The tales express anti-Semitism rarely, and then only in references like this one. Most urban moneylenders and exploitative merchants that plagued the rural poor were Persian Muslims. For the various Islamic images of issues of death and afterlife see June I. Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection (Albany, NY: SUNY, 1981). The tales make little, if any, use of them. Philosophically, this is a classic compatibilist attitude, based on the principle of alternative possibilities (PAP) within a determinist system. ‘Free will’, however, is not an issue in the tales.

Appendix 1 Four Tales 1. Shir fandin o ga¯ya¯le sa¯f sa¯deq. 2. Ha¯kem va Vezir. A hakim is an exceptionally learned man, a judge, for example, a physician or a ruler.

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3. Ghaffari uses the word gona¯h, which ranges in meaning from ‘error, fault, crime’ to ‘sin’. In this context of punishment without a moral dimension, ‘crime’ fits best. 4. Cˇârcˇaš, ‘four-eyed,’ is a popular expression, meaning especially watchful and alert. 5. In earlier times, passers-by added a rock to a pile, a cairn, made in memory of a dead person, especially an Imamzadeh. See Chapter 6, p. 166 for more information. 6. ‘In the Name of God’. This is a standard formula used to ward off jinn, div and peri. 7. This expression means a fate worse than death: any alcohol is unlawful, haram, in Islam. 8. The ‘very well’ means that the boy has come to a conclusion and decision. 9. Many blessings and oaths in Iran play on the combination of eyes and of life in the sense of ‘dear’. There is no equivalent expression in English. The authors translate the phrase as ‘My darling, I swear by your eyes . . .’. 10. This is an insult similar to ‘son of a bitch’ in English. 11. Matil-e bo¯ va haf dovar. 12. Literally, ‘she had four eyes’. See also note 4. 13. These were velvet caps with gold coins hanging down on the forehead. The more and the larger were the gold coins the richer was the wearer’s father or husband.

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OF

IR AN

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INDEX

1001 Nights, 14 Abbas, Shah, 168 Abduction, 9, 18, 71, 77f, 86, 88, 158, 160, 162 Ablution, 46, 136 Abraham, 129 Address terms, 19, 33, 50, 51, 103, 145, 148, 187f Adultery, 30, 70, 83f, 84, 141, 169, 194 A¯ fsa¯neh, 8 see also, Tales Agency and God’s Will, 140 of people, 37ff, 39, 52, 81, 99f, 120, 153, 171, 172f, 174, 178, 184, 189, 192, 204 Ahura Mazda, 157 Aisha, 189 Akhond, see Cleric Alms, 96, 138, 146, 168, 194, 203 Amulet, 156, 168, 203 Androcentric, 42 Anecdote, 46, 50 Angel fereshte, 156, 161 Gabriel, 167 mala¯kat, maleke, 149, 157, 161 see also, Extra-human beings

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Animals, 15, 84, 101ff, 123, 174, 176, 177, 203 help people, 132, 173ff language of, 84, 178 qualities of, 69, 110, 123f, 125, 175, 185 as transcendental beings, 175, 176 see also, Bear; Bird; Boar; Bug; Cat; Cow; Crow; Div; Dog; Donkey; Dove; Dragon; Duck; Eagle; Fairy; Falcon; Fish; Fowl; Frog; Fox; Goat; Hawk; Hen; Horse; Ibex; Lion; Lizard; Mule; Nightingale; Partridge; Phoenix; Pigeon; Rooster; Salamander; Snake; Sparrow; Wolf; Work Anthropologist, 2, 7, 12 Apotropaic jewelry, 116, 156, 177 Arba¯b, 69 see also, Master Assumptions, 4, 46, 67, 130, 174f, 181, 196 about religion, 127, 138, 142, 177f, 190 about work, 8, 31, 128 see also, Life; Philosophy Audience, 2, 3, 4, 158 see also, Narrator

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264

FOLKTALES

AND

STORYTELLERS

Aunt, 35, 48, 159, 175, 199 Authority, 25, 47, 52, 57, 65, 100, 134f, 186 Baby, 36, 75f, 159, 172, 174, 187, 200, 209 Bakht, see Luck Bakhtiari, 7, 11f, 73, 168 Battles, 14, 34, 204 Bear, 102, 113f, 117ff, 125, 167, 195 see also, Animals Beauty, 28, 51, 70, 81, 87, 89, 141 beautician, 29 is good, 87f and marriage, 81, 99, 141, 160 as power, 88, 99, 143, 153, 157f, 160 as sin, 88, 148 see also, Marriage; Power Beggar, 72, 166, 168, 182, 196 Bibi, 33 Bird, 74, 133, 140, 145, 174, 197, 201 chooses king, 60f, 69, 87, 125, 173 as God’s messenger, 147, 197 soul bird, 150, 173, 185 see also, Animals; Fairy Blessing, 133, 134, 167 bismillah, 156 Blind, 23, 28, 47, 125, 137, 160, 161 Blood, 53f, 118f, 173, 188 Boar, 102, 113f, 167, 195 see also, Animals Boir Ahmad, 2, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 34, 67, 75, 116, 121, 137, 162, 165f, 169 see also, Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad Boir Ahmedi, N., 10, 33, 38, 67, 79 Bou, 187f see also, Father Boy, 27, 102, 150, 172, 191 see also, Son Bride, 28f, 29, 46, 49, 76, 77, 80, 105f, 121, 193 made up, 51 as wolf-cannibal, 77, 172

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OF

IR AN

Brideprice, 19, 49, 61, 76, 122 Brother and brother, 47, 48, 49, 57, 58ff, 60, 61, 65 cooperate, 85, 111 murderous, 60, 141 and sister, 37, 48, 52, 54, 93, 173f, 182 see also, Ka¯ka¯; Siblings Bug, 104, 106, 151 see also, Animals Cairn, 169 Camel, 38, 41, 118, 119, 177 Cannibal, 47, 49, 54f demon as, 51, 75, 77, 131, 134, 143, 163, 181, 187 Caravan, 38, 58, 83 Castle, 29, 71, 88, 91 Cat, 39, 53f, 115, 116, 163, 174, 182, 195 see also, Animals Categories of people, beings, things, 3, 5, 203 Central Asia, 169 Chance, 171, 192, 202 see also, Fate Chedir, 166 see also, Khezr Child(ren), 3, 4, 18, 19, 27, 47, 31, 34, 41, 102, 121, 183, 189 abandoned, 54f, 65, 73, 142, 143 control of, 121, 172 flee, 28, 175, 184 killed, 93, 131, 142, 199, 201 value of, 33, 45f, 73, 74, 177, 183, 189, 196, 201 virgin-born, 189, 191 work, 8, 18, 73f, 76, 80, 101, 131, 166, 177, 201f Choices for actions, 6, 42, 140, 178, 181, 183, 192, 197, 203, 204 Chuk, 169 see also, Death

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INDEX Circumcision, 109 Cleric, 6, 127, 136, 147 see also, Akhond Cleverness, 110, 146, 197, 198, 204 see also, Success Clothes, 37, 68, 78, 87, 94, 97, 108f, 145f, 197, 199 immodest, 52 modest, 88 Common sense, 4, 67, 86, 177 Comparisons cross-regional, 14 daughter/son, 74 good/bad person, 183 housekeeper/lover, 71 jinn/peri, 156 Lur/German tales, 152 male/female, 68f, 74, 99 mother/stepmother, 94 mother-in-law/daughter-in-law, 96 Muslim/heathen, 130 old woman/old man, 95 sins, 143 teachers, 70, 121 Compatibilist attitude, 83 Cosmology, 11, 153, 155, 157, 161, 166 Courtyard, 21, 90 Cousin, 47, 48, 50, 56, 61 and marriage, 77, 81, 91 Cow, 32, 56, 116, 193, 201 cow herd, 19, 60, 105 magic, 73, 174 see also, Animals Cradle, 69, 75f Crow, 53, 106, 109, 125, 147, 173f, 197 see also, Animals Culture, 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 18, 42, 65, 70, 130, 177 cultural heritage institutions, 14 provides choices, 42 Curse, 16, 61, 73, 78, 83, 96, 143, 151, 168 Custody law, 93

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Da’a¯, 70 see also, Prayer Dasta¯n, 8 see also, Tales Daughter, 27, 46, 79, 135, 141, 142, 143 -in-law, 29, 76 kills mother, 70 see also, Father; Girl Day of Judgement, 147 Death, 20, 55, 106 after death, 125, 149, 150f, 167, 202 death ritual, 48, 62, 70, 150, 151, 173 memorial rock pile, 169 see also, Chuk; Grave; Mortuary Deities ancient, 162 Aphrodite, 88 water, 166 Demography, 74 Demon, 9, 48, 54, 56, 74, 125, 169 cannibal, 77, 124, 182 as donor, 48 mother of, 75f, 163 ’s world, 163 see also, Devil; Div; Extra-human beings; Ghoul; Jinn Dervish, 73, 86, 125, 144f, 157f, 166, 168f, 188 see also, Sufi dervishes Destiny, 153, 171f, 189f, 191 see also, Fate; Pishuni neveshte; Qismat; Shans Determinism, 189, 204 Deus otiosus, 152 see also, God Devil, 137, 149, 161, 164, 165, 167 helps poor man, 135f Div, 20, 51, 53, 58, 71, 75, 78 dangerous, 64, 71, 75, 79, 131, 134, 138, 155, 162f, 163, 164, 173 and devil, 137 as servant, donor, 88, 162 see also, Animals; Demon; Extrahuman beings; Ghoul; Jinn

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Divorce, 34, 35, 52, 71, 80, 83, 84, 85, 86, 147, 174, 185 Dog, 35, 75f, 84, 113, 118, 123f, 174 exchanged for human infants, 55 saves master, 85, 124 see also, Animals Doll, 70, 71 Donkey, 35, 51, 75f, 112, 117, 133, 146 and sex, 29, 175, 199 see also, Animals Doshmanziari, 11 Dove, 158, 160, 161 see also, Animals Doxa, 4 Dragon, 20, 35, 37, 38, 161, 184, 203 see also, Animals Dream, 147, 157 Duck, 133, 145 see also, Animals; Fowl Eagle, 107, 125, 174 see also, Animals Economy, 24, 31, 32, 34, 104, 127, 199 cash crop, 124 economic difficulty, 30, 40, 193, 198, 200 farming, 7, 42, 110f, 113, 119, 127 gathering, 74, 115 transhumant pastoralism, 8, 20, 42, 103, 122ff, 127, 176 see also, Herding; Poverty; Wealth; Work Education, 33, 42, 81, 100, 130, 156 university, 34, 100 Elias, 166 Elopement, 52, 77 Empirical inquiry, 203 see also, Pragmatism Endogamy, 19, 122 Eschatology, 128, 129 Ethics, 34, 101, 104, 115, 129, 181, 183 social, 186, 199 ethical-moral principles, 128, 174, 183, 192, 197

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Ethnography 1, 2, 3, 17 as background, 5, 56, 73, 98, 102, 129, 130, 156ff, 165, 166, 168, 183, 190, 199 as context, 1, 5, 48, 50, 74, 76, 81, 82, 86, 88, 94, 95, 103f, 105, 107, 110, 121, 127, 140, 156, 169, 181, 192, 199 ethnographic present, 14, 161 ethnographic setting, 52, 56, 57, 59, 65, 80, 93, 124, 129, 149, 172, 182ff, 204 see also, Tales Ethos, 15, 204 Europe, 128 Evil, 143, 165 eye, 149, 177 person, 138, 143 powers, 178 Exegesis, 130 Existential misery, 202 see also, Poverty Extra-human beings, 9, 125, 129, 155ff, 177f, 178, 179 see also, Angel; Demon; Div; Fairy; Ghoul; Jinn; Power Eye Evil 149, 177 admiration and, 177 -for-an-eye, 152 God’s, 151, 153 Fairy, 4, 9, 92, 125, 127, 149, 155, 158, 159, 161, 195, 203 in animal shape, 140, 157, 158, 160f beauty of, 23, 30, 157 dangerous, 87, 175 and demon, 49, 130 disguised, 69, 160 as donor/helper, 56, 91, 139, 157f, 159, 160, 161 feather, 21, 89 high status, 51, 89, 159, 187 as king, 51, 79, 87

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INDEX overpowered, 157 and snake, 125 on throne, 157 in tree, 157 as wife, 10, 13, 23, 29, 36, 38f, 79, 80, 140, 143, 158, 187, 195 see also, Animals; Bird; Extra-human beings; Jinn; Pigeon Falcon, 69, 125, 173, 208 see also, Animals Family, 4, 19, 45f, 49, 52, 71 conflicts, 45, 48, 49, 50, 93, 107 dynamic, 49, 52, 60, 61, 93 lack of, 33, 40 patrilineal, 7, 93, 95 relationships, 6, 65, 80, 89, 94, 95f, 107, 140, 182, 185, 196 see also, Relatives Fatalism rare in tales, 137, 189 Fate, 24, 54, 104, 171f, 178, 184, 189ff, 203 asleep, 25 unpredictable, 204 see also, Chance; Destiny; Luck; Qismat; Shans Fa¯teha¯, 151 see also, Mortuary Father, 6, 28, 29, 62, 187 and children, 55, 77, 97, 135, 144, 187 and daughter, 27, 84, 89f, 143, 173, 185, 190f, 192 kills daughter, 84 as ghoul, 187 master of family, 42, 62, 94, 135, 187 and son, 57, 173, 201, 202 kills son, 173 see also, Bou; Daughter; Man; Power; Relatives Feminism, 1, 67, 128 Fertility ritual, 71 Fire, 31, 53, 78, 80, 148 see also, Hell

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Fish, 149, 197 see also, Animals Flute, 91, 140 Folklore, 1, 9, 10, 11, 17, 35, 127, 128, 157, 188 Folktales, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and Bible, 129 European, 128f as philosophical texts, 4 projections in, 1, 5, 6 and written texts, 9, 14, 15 see also, Narrator; Tales Food, 23, 27f, 31, 32, 53, 103f, 110, 121 gathering, 71, 74, 115 and health, 27f, 82, 102, 116, 103, 125 items, 25, 32, 53, 64, 71, 72, 103f, 202 and poverty, 29, 31, 33, 36, 64, 121, 144, 198 rich, 27f, 31, 37, 40, 125 and sex, 71, 187f, 194f see also, Plants Fool, 26, 29, 126, 171, 178 Fortune teller, 88, 168, 172 Fowl, 125 see also, Animals; Duck; Hen; Rooster Fox, 108, 110, 126 clever, 174, 176, 184f outwitted, 111, 145 tricky, 108f, 110, 111f, 118, 197, 164 see also, Animals Frame story, 167 Freud, S., 77, 106, 110, 122, 187 Frog, 71, 162 see also, Animals Galen, 103 Garden, 63, 64, 80, 89, 158, 162, 170, 171, 172, 177 Gazelle, 125 Fairy and, 157, 175 Gender expectations, 39, 47, 48, 67, 68, 94, 99 grammatical, 130

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identity, 68 relationships, 67, 69, 70, 128 Generosity, 31, 32, 126, 144 lack of, 113, 193 Ghoul, 46, 69, 77, 78, 79, 131, 155, 162, 163, 164, 168, 187, 194, 196 see also, Div; Extra-human beings Girl abandoned, 74, 142 abducted, 71, 77f agency, 33, 52, 78, 79, 99, 100, 192 beautiful, 41, 55, 116, 153 in danger at home, 74, 79f, 97, 99 demonic, 182 and fate, 81 good, 26, 32, 58, 77, 134 infant, 47 low status, 35, 39, 47, 74, 76, 77 and men, 63, 78, 91, 121 rescued, 74, 78, 79, 194, 196 see also, Daughter; Women Goat, 29, 53, 54, 59, 74, 117, 126 and sheep, 102, 105, 172 tricks bear, 118 see also, Animals God, 9, 28, 59, 96, 116, 121ff, 184 angry, 129, 139, 152 and blessings, 110, 120, 128 creator, 126, 151, 203, 203 demands, 132, 134, 137, 143, 152, 204 and destiny, 171, 172, 203 as donor, 36, 78, 120, 134, 140, 142, 143, 144, 151, 152, 153, 191 eyes of, 151, 153 and humour, 138, 145f, 194 invocations, 118, 131f, 146 justice of, 132, 135ff, 143, 144, 145, 152 and nature, 137, 151 152, 184, 202 order of, 6, 70, 76, 80, 134, 137, 139, 141, 152, 155, 202, 203, 204 and people, 88, 128, 129, 131, 135ff, 138, 139, 141, 144, 145f, 152, 184, 189, 203 remote, 6, 128, 130, 148, 151, 153, 155

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ruler, 79, 130, 134f, 144, 152, 155, 186 and ultimate causes, 170 will of, 120, 132, 134, 137, 138ff, 153, 160, 161, 173, 177, 191, 202 see also, Deus otiosus; Justice; Khoda¯; Lord Gold, 51, 72, 75, 160, 164, 192, 195 buried, 171, 202 coin, 25, 32, 170, 216 egg, 27, 83, 174 Government, 8, 130, 176 see also, Islamic Republic Grave, 62, 93, 150, 169, 173 see also, Death Groom, 46, 61, 77, 191 see also, Suitor Guest, 21, 22, 32 and host, 113, 145, 167, 193, 194 Hair, 46, 88, 160 Hajj, 148 Hardship, 24, 202, 204 Harmony, 45, 183 Hawk, 61, 87 see also, Animals Healer, 97f, 138, 190 dervish as, 168 killed, 89 Health, 46, 103, 200 food and, 22, 23, 82, 125 medicine, 27, 46, 51, 53, 96 humoral, 103 pain, 3, 30, 118f, 167, 190 sickness, 89, 190, 202 toothache, 167 Heathen, 53, 130, 141, 163 Heaven, 148 see also, Paradise Hell, 80, 147, 148, 151, 202 see also, Fire Hen, 31, 82 Magic, 27, 83, 202 Salomon’s, 167, 174 see also, Animals; Fowl

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INDEX Henna, 46, 51, 53 Herding, 19, 113, 114, 124 lifestyle, 42, 176 see also, Economy; Shepherd Hero, 14, 20, 29, 37, 60, 84, 135, 164, 197, 204 animals as, 101ff, 131 anti-hero, 37ff, 61, 120, 162, 163 servant as, 22, 31, 195 underdog as, 37ff, 57f, 59ff, 63f, 110f, 147 women as, 37ff, 82, 94, 95f, 97, 98, 102, 116, 173, 187 see also, Pahleva¯n Hierarchy, 6, 25, 26, 76, 186f, 196, 204 of age, 57, 64, 111 Honesty, 21, 198 Honour, 52 Hoquqi, S., 15ff, 18–33, 35, 40, 41, 42, 84 Horse, 41, 55, 77, 123, 126, 134, 144 magic, 10, 37, 34, 144, 162, 166, 174 see also, Animals Hosein, 139, 168 Hospitality, 26, 32, 78, 82, 113f, 168, 194 Housework, 34, 36, 40, 48, 53f, 71, 83, 92, 98, 112 Humility, 22, 25, 189 Humour, 12, 15f, 19, 26, 27, 29, 35, 36, 38f, 40, 41, 43, 46, 48, 59, 60, 61f, 64, 78, 82, 84, 94, 101, 103, 105, 107, 110, 112, 113f, 119, 132, 133, 134, 138, 139, 142, 150, 158, 163, 167, 175, 177, 199, 201, 202, 204 see also, Mulla Nasrein Hunger, 31, 40, 82, 115, 121, 150, 194, 199f Hunter, 31, 37, 53, 109 hunting, 111, 134, 141, 153, 156, 157, 161, 175, 194, 201 Huri, 156

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Husband, 34, 42, 69, 105, 106, 166 depends on wife, 38, 39 harms wife, 80, 85, 92, 141, 159 kills wife, 81, 83, 85 neglects wife, 98, 140, 141 and wife, 35, 36, 37f, 50, 105, 126, 132, 158, 160, 161, 184 see also, Man Ibex, 31, 106, 160 see also, Animals Identity, 1, 14, 181 Illiterate, 9, 18, 33 Imam Ali, 58, 151, 167 Hidden, 165f, 196, 203 (Ima¯mza¯deh), 169 see also, Pir; Shrine Incest, 50f Income, 33, 39, 105, 199 tips, 21, 31, 38, 41 Infanticide, 6, 74, 93, 187 Inheritance, 46, 49f, 57, 59, 111 ultimogeniture, 96 Invocations, 131, 133ff, 152, 167, 190 Islam, 7, 34, 86, 127, 129f, 181, 196 pre-, 127, 130, 149, 166, 169, 178 see also, Muslim; Shi‘i Islamic Republic, 69, 129, 130, 135, 147, 152, 153, 156, 189 see also, Government Jealousy, 24, 55, 58, 86, 88 Jesus, 129, 168 Jew, 27, 145f, 198 Jinn, 9, 110, 116, 127, 155 in animal form, 9, 160 dwell, 156, 161 qualities, 156, 161, 196 in Qur’an, 156, 161 see also, Demon; Div; Extra-human beings; Fairy

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STORYTELLERS

Jobs, 19, 25, 27f, 134, 139, 141, 148, 150, 200, 203 in bathhouse, 19, 21, 31 barber, 19 beautician, 29 skills, 19, 33, 70f smith, 102, 104, 116 see also, Maid; Musician; Servant; Teacher; Trader; Vocation Judge, 73 corrupt, 135, 136, 147, 165 Judgement, 4, 42, 60, 87, 126, 146, 147, 153, 183, 197, 204 Jung, C.G., 128 Justice, 24f, 60, 132, 136, 148, 152, 166 forgiveness as, 28, 29f, 31f, 77, 84 injustice, 22, 24, 25, 73, 132, 135, 143, 147, 165, 199 revenge as, 143, 173, 183, 187, 197, 199 in this world, 147 see also, God; Retribution Ka¯ka¯ as black slave, 41, 50 as brother, 50 as father-brother’s son and lover, 50 see also, Brother Kerbela, 133, 189 see also, Pilgrimage Khezr (Khizr), 71, 157, 165, 166f, 178 and Mushkil Gusha, 165 see also, Chedir; Well Khoda¯, 131, 138, 189 see also, God King, 6, 14, 23, 58, 75, 146 bird chooses, 60f, 69, 87, 125, 173 fairy and, 51, 79, 87, 174 good, 31, 60f, 139, 166, 174 and justice, 73, 88, 143, 148, 166 and women, 27, 30, 51, 75, 87, 171 see also, Lord; Man; Power; Shah

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Knowledge, 96, 100, 125f, 153, 177, 184, 204 Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad, 7 see also, Boir Ahmad Lie, 7, 9, 74, 131, 166, 183, 191, 194 as strategy, 121, 153, 197 tales as, 9, 10, 196 Life attitude towards, 4, 8 -cycle and women, 68 everyday, 4, 5, 30, 32, 43, 96, 101, 140, 152, 182, 194, 199, 202 -force, 173 good, 31, 202, 204 livelihood, 25, 142, 166 -style, 42, 176 see also, Assumption; Philosophy Liminal, 100 Lion, 35, 37f, 104, 108f, 110, 111f, 137, 175, 205f see also, Animals Lizard, 37, 139, 143 see also, Animals Logic, 104, 153, 177, 181, 183, 189 of cause and effect 155 Lord God as, 134f, 155 of Last Day (Hidden Imam), 165f, 196, 203 see also, God; King Love, 27, 90, 125 and death, 122, 141, 167, 192, 197 falling in, 27, 37, 81, 86, 89, 90, 91, 122, 140, 199 lover, 50, 71, 83, 84, 122, 132, 174 -sick, 21, 23, 29, 86f, 88, 92, 132, 143, 149, 157, 175 -wife, 50, 81, 107, 158 Loyalty, 21, 24, 39, 41, 42, 81, 99, 130, 137, 159, 186 Luck good and bad, 20, 22, 29, 32, 38, 71, 153, 189, 191, 202

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INDEX personified, 24, 169f, 171 see also, Bakht; Fate Lur, 10, 114, 167, areas, 49, 70 Baharvand Lurs, 169 cosmology, 155 Luristan Province, 7, 11, 12 society, 115 sexuality, 87 Luri language, 2, 7, 10, 11, 16, 95, 113, 119, 138, 169 transcribed with Latin alphabet, 11, 12, 13 Madness, 88f, 159 Magic, 15, 70, 73, 89, 161, 173, 192, 200, 202 black, 81, 131 Maid, 22f, 33, 37, 69, 80, 99 see also, Jobs; Servant Man, 103, 114, 116, 119, 157, 188, 193 foolish, 29, 153, 151 turns into animal, 114 and woman, 61, 71, 81, 85, 86, 100, 158, 188 and work, 71, 94, 95 see also, Father; Husband; King Marriage, 4, 23, 26, 34, 37f, 40, 47, 49, 51, 56, 74, 90f arranged, 19, 35, 81, 107, 139, 172 as destiny, 76, 77, 78, 89, 105, 171, 191 selection of spouse, 81, 90, 104, 106, 140 of sister, 27, 52, 55, 69, 75 and social status, 81, 89, 90f, 107f, 140, 158f temporary, 141 see also, Beauty; Suitor Master outwitted, 39, 41, 199 and servant, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 125 see also, Arba¯b Matil, 8 see also, Tales

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Metaphysics, 181 Methodology, 3ff, 5, 9, 17 primary data, 11, 13 Miracle, 139 Misogyny, 26, 56, 83, 100, 189 Modernity, 8, 10, 20, 93, 101, 103, 156f, 199 postmodern issues, 1 Money, 28, 29, 32, 40, 200, 202 -lender, 124, 195 Toman, 21, 25, 31, 86, 91, 145f, 150, 160, 198, 200 Moral(ity), 26, 126, 153, 196, 204 contextualized, 183, 204 good and bad, 112, 126, 183, 204 limits of, 140, 183f and weakness, 28, 83 see also, Women Mortuary customs, 16, 71, 85, 106f, 127, 150, 169, 175 prayer, 151 see also, Death; Fa¯teha¯ Mosque, 92, 148 Mother, 28, 48, 72f, 93ff, 128, 185 of animals, 101ff, 123f -brother, 1 and children, 90, 93, 99, 116, 126, 139, 156, 199 death of, 94, 174, 185 of demon, 75f, 163 duties of, 93, 94, 174 good/bad, 10, 27, 94, 104 grandmother, 27 -in-law, 96 kills children, 93, 131, 142, 201 stepmother, 93f, 99f, 153, 190 death of stepmother, 94, 162, 173, 185f without husband, 72, 73, 94, 159, 166 see also, Old Woman; Relatives; Widow; Women Motifs, 5, 17, 18, 165 variations in, 3, 9, 11, 15, 102f

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FOLKTALES

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STORYTELLERS

Mountains, 24, 122f, 140, 142, 156, 158 Mouse, 39, 50, 101, 105, 116, 126, 174 Mule, 80, 97, 106, 136, 165 see also, Animals Mulla, 33, 134 Nasrein, 145f and tricks, 145, 146, 149, 193, 197 kills creditors, 150 teacher, 70 see also, Humor Mushkil Gusha, 165ff Musicians, vii, 41, 121, 122 see also, Jobs Muslim, 78, 114, 120, 127, 130, 145, 149, 152, 163, 173, 196 see also, Islam; Shi‘a Narrator, 3, 5, 12, 13, 17, 18, 32, 39, 42, 54, 56, 79, 94, 100, 101, 103, 106f, 110, 122, 125, 162, 168, 169, 182 and assumptions, 186, 188, 189, 191 and audience, 39, 56, 106, 110, 125, 127, 137, 190, 198, 201 circumstances of, 11, 17, 18, 31, 33, 42, 43, 110, 130f, 153, 157, 175, 181, 196 comments by, 92, 97, 98, 99, 100, 104, 116, 123, 125, 129, 131, 140, 144, 152, 172, 177, 199 gender of, 12, 13, 68, 69, 79, 96 and interpretation, 5, 9, 15, 50, 79, 101 and motifs, 9, 50, 79 repertoire of, 5, 17, 18 see also, Audience; Folktales; Storyteller Nature of things, 116, 122, 183, 192 natural needs, 116 natural order, 115, 155, 191, 203 see also, Philosophy Nightingale, 173 see also, Animals Noah, 35, 139, 203

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Oath, 53, 140, 148 Old Man, 106, 116, 166f as pauper, 118, 184, 196ff, 200 Old Woman, 30f, 75f, 95f, 119, 126, attributes of, 33, 95ff, 99, 100, demonic, 98, 125, 140, 163 helps, 95, 97, 100, 142, 195, 198 intrigues of, 95, 97f, 142 poor, 95ff, 100, 115f, 116, 121, 147, 166, 195f, 200, 201, 202 punished, 96, 97, 142, 151 tricky, 55f, 97, 98, 120ff, 141, 198 see also, Mother; Widow; Woman; Women Other world, 148, 149, 162 as underworld 54f, 177 see also, Paradise Pahleva¯n, 20, 64, 134 see also, Hero Paradise, 145, 148, 158, 202 see also, Heaven; Otherworld Partridge, 111, 133, 142, 185, 201, 215 see also, Animals Passion, 29, 165, 202, 203 see also, Sex Patience, 25, 39 and fatalism, 137 Patrilineal, 45, 65, 74, 93, 95, 99 Peace, 29, 32, 97 Peri, 9, 125, 155, 158 see also, Fairy Performance, 2, 3, 5, 13, 17, 18, 95, 103 Persian, 10, 12, 13 autobiography, 45 fiction, 45 Pharmacopoeia, 81, 97, 125, 160 Philosophy Greek, 189 of life, 5, 17, 101, 125f., 153, 171, 176, 177, 181, 204 philosophical insight, 110, 116 philosophical principles, 1, 3, 7, 8, 15, 17, 129, 182

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INDEX philosophical roots, 7, 204 philosophical systems, 153 see also, Assumption; Life; Nature; Value System Phoenix, 133, 174 see also, Animals Piety, 120, 129, 178 fake, 120, 133, 168, 169, 199 Pigeon, 140, 174 see also, Animals; Fairy Pilgrimage, 133, 147, 148, 169, 185, 189, 203 see also, Kerbela; Shrine Pir, 186f see also, Ima¯mzadeh; Saint Pishuni neveshte, 171, 189f see also, Destiny Plants apple, 58 artichoke, 114f henna, 51 pea, 93, 201 pomegranate, 71, 96, 101f, 118. vegetables, 115 walnut, 103 see also, Food; Tree Play, 70, 71 Politeness, 111f, 120, 199 Polygyny, 91f, 107 Popular culture, 14, 177 literature, 107 philosophy, 171 psychology, 185 Poverty, 8, 18, 19, 22, 28, 30ff, 42, 49, 83, 91, 124, 126, 135, 166, 193, 200 and hunger, 28, 37, 40, 55, 72, 73, 82, 93f, 196, 200 and luck, fate, 170, 171, 172, 196, 204 and work, 19, 136f, 170f, 198, 200 see also, Economy; Existential misery; Work

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Power, 7, 49, 60, 98, 125 abuse of, 135, 187, 188f inherent, 132, 167 spiritual, 168 see also, Beauty; Extra-human beings; Father; King Pragmatism, 185, 147, 192 see also, Empirical inquiry; Realism Prayer fa¯teha¯, 151 heja¯t, 132, 203 nama¯z, 70, 86, 118, 131, 132, 148, 167, 168, 169 see also, Da’a¯ Prince, 4, 10, 21, 29, 46, 79, 81, 88, 90, 143 Princess, 26, 29, 69, 71, 89, 91, 137 immoral, 6, 23 and suitors, 91, 96, 97f Prophet Mohamad, 113f, 139, 151, 167f, 168f, 190, 199, 203 resurrects dead, 151, 167 Proverb, 124, 125, 128, 149 Psychology, 1, 5 projection, 5, 6 Punishment, 23, 29, 30, 87, 93, 126, 139, 141, 143 for ancestor’s sin, 143 of women vs. men, 56, 73, 83f, 85 in this world, 147, 173, 203 Qashqa’i, 168 Qismat, 171, 189, 191 see also, Destiny; Fate Qur’an (Quran), 148, 153, 156 school, 70 Sur’a, 72, 156 Qur’anic law, 49 see also, Qismat Reader Response Theory, 128, 131, 132 Realism, 182f, 188, 203 see also, Pragmatism

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STORYTELLERS

Relatives, 47f, 73, 115 see also, Family; Father; Mother; Siblings Religious authorities, 167f, 203 choices and religion, 203 discourse, 88, 89, 101, 147, 164 faith, 137 merit, 147 religion as resource, 152 rituals, 148 Responsibility, 192, 204 as duty, 23, 25, 70, 123, 134 as fate, 104 see also, Vasife Retribution, 28, 192, 199 see also, Justice Rewards, 22, 26, 32, 74, 117, 125, 134f, 149, 192, 202 in this world, 149 Riddle, 48, 60, 77, 200 Ring, 157, 160, 167 Rooster, 58, 63, 84, 133, 147, 174, 182 see also, Animals; Fowl Rug, 71, 75f Salomon’s, 167 Ruzega¯r, 171, 189, 192 see also, Time Saint, 180, 183, 190, 196, 199, 202 Abbas, 167f David, 144 efficacy, 151, 152 hazrat, 167 see also, Khezr; Pir Salamander, 162 see also, Animals Salomon, 84, 91, 131, 132, 167, 178 Schema, 3, 5, 26, 106 cultural, 15, 45, 83, 128 see also, Tales School, 19, 81, 119 school boy, 10, 12, 82, 121 Qur’an, 70 Teacher, 33, 83, 148

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see also, Teacher Self defense, 20 reference of narrator, 21 reflection, 6, 143 Sensibility, 4, 14 Servant, 18, 19, 20, 23, 33, 40f, 46 animals as, 11, 124 dangerous, 24, 41, 69 ideal, 21, 26, 31, 33, 132, 137, 151, 190, 195, 198, 204 mistreated, 20, 125, 162 wife as, 30, 34, 69, 99 see also, Jobs; Maid; Work Sex, 23, 29, 80, 92, 98 denied, 84, 97 in family, 50, 52, flirtation and, 51, 52, 71 and intimacy, 46 sexual aggression, 35, 41, 50, 83, 86f, 89, 125 sexual impotence, 86 sexual impropriety, 71, 168f sexual powers, 30, 49 see also, Passion Shah, 23, 37f, 69, 112f, 195, 200 sultan, 22, 24, 25 wife of, 112 see also, King Shahnameh, 8, 13, 14 Shans, 171, 189 see also, Destiny; Fate Shari’a, 67 Sheep, 110, 123, 136, 168, 193 Shepherd, 24f, 63, 75, 91, 118, 124, 135, 140 as husband, 105, 140, 158 tricked, 145, 193f see also, Herding Shi‘i, 129 cosmology, 156, 166 identity, 34, 127 see also, Islamic; Muslim Shrine, 147, 169, 203 see also, Ima¯mzadeh; Pilgrimage

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INDEX Siblings, 45ff, 65, 121 see also, Brother; Relatives; Sister Simpleton, 141, 193, 198, 199 Sin, 120, 133, 140, 147, 148, 165, 173, 202, 203 Sisakht, 8, 18, 20, 40, 42, 94, 127, 173, 199 Sister, 36, 46, 52, 184 address term, 32, 160 ally of brother, 47f ambiguous, 55, 47, 49 blind, 5 demonic, 48, 133, 182 jealous, 55 see also, Siblings Skepticism, 149 Skull, 171, 190 Slave, 84, 91 assault by, 35, 41, 50 black, 41, 50, 87, 188 girl, 23, 69, 132, 170 Smith, 68, 102, 103, 104, 116 Snake, 116f, 125, 161, 172 king of, 174 tricked, 197 see also, Animals; Dragon Snow, 102, 114, 122, 192 Social constructs, 3 disgrace, 77 life, 204 memory, 4 proper relations, 186 scientists, 45 structure, 95 Social status, 39f, 42, 55, 62, 126, 139 high, 114, 187, 202 and marriage, 81, 89, 90f, 107f, 140, 158f obligations, 134f, 186f, 194 unequal, 25, 33, 89, 115, 122, 153, 171, 195 Son, 28, 29, 148, 199, 204 and daughter, 45, 46, 195

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killed, 23, 173 -in-law, 38 see also, Boy Sophism, 120 Soul, 52, 148, 165, 173 -bird, 150, 173, 185 Sparrow, 69, 112, 116f, 120 song of, vii, 121f see also, Animals Step brother, 64 Step mother, 35, 36, 56, 70, 71, 89 Stoic attitude, 153, 189 philosophy, 189, 204 Storyteller, 2, 5, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 34, 42, 121 professional, 8 see also, Narrator Strategy, 10, 179, 204 deception, 167 dissimulation, 197 ingratiation, 174 lie, 121, 153 persuasion, 197 piety, 120, 168, 169, 178 politeness, 112, 120, 199 promises, 203 tricks, 197 see also, Success; Value system String tale, 106, 116, 117, 121, 186 Success, 28, 64f, 79, 112, 126, 153, 197, 199, 203, 204 key to, 62, 184 lack of, 89, 153, 198, 204 strategy for, 65, 120, 161, 199ff see also, Cleverness; Strategy; Zereng Sufi dervish, 169 see also, Dervish Suicide, 29, 35, 40, 71, 85, 86, 106, 107, 140, 173, 185, 190 Suitor, 54, 69, 75f, 85, 87, 90, 91, 195 and fate, 104, 107f, 172, 191 see also, Groom; Marriage Sword, 24, 37, 60, 84, 135, 191 Syncretism, 127, 178

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AND

STORYTELLERS

Tales assumptions in, 5, 45, 7, 80, 130 comment on culture, 6, 13, 17, 43, 101f, 111, 204 entertainment, 4, 20, 35, 41 function of, 14, 20, 35, 67, 104, 126 messages in, 3, 15, 18, 43, 101f, 111, 115, 118, 120 philosophy in, 7, 181, 204 and reality, 9, 14, 15, 43, 101f, 111, 184, 196 recording of, 2, 9, 10, 12, 17, 67 structure, 10, 15, 17, 20, 77, 79 themes in, 17, 20 tropes in, 5 variants of, 11, 13 see also, A¯ fsa¯neh; Dasta¯n; Ethnography; Folktales; Matil; Schema Teacher, 10, 13, 31, 33f, 55, 70, 121, 127, 147, 148, 205 see also, Jobs; School Teleology, 172, 203 Television, 93, 101, 103 Theft, 73, 36, 120f, 141, 197 Theology, 7, 33, 67, 130, 140, 152, 155 Things, 203 attributes of, 183, 184, 185, 186 order of, 171, 186, 191 Time, 192 as circle, wheel 115, 135 see also, Ruzega¯r Trader, 25, 27, 31, 148f, 150, 198, 202 see also, Jobs Translation 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 181 Tree, 38, 61, 87, 116, 117, 122, 172 almond, 122 crabapple, 74 and fairy, 158, 159, 161 of life, 173 plane, 87, 116 willow, 157 see also, Plants Tribe, 7, 15, 20, 33, 204

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OF

IR AN

tribal chiefs, 7, 8, 33, 40 tribal folklore collectors, 10, 12, 13, 34 Trickster, 20, 132, 145, 199 Turtle, 35, 110f, 139, 143, 147 Uncle, 198 father-brother (ta¯ta¯) 103 mother-brother (halu) 19, 199 Value system contradictory, 198 see also, Philosophy; Strategy Vasife, 23, 25, 70, 123, 134 see also, Responsibility Virginity, 23, 125, 156, 162 virgin birth, 190 Vizier, 6, 23f, 24, 166, 200 qualities of, 37f, 135 treatment of, 41, 91, 112 Vocation, 33, 39, 133, 185 see also, Job Vow, 166, 167 Walnut, 102, 116, 202 Water, 71, 88, 105, 116, 132, 136, 156, 165, 181, 182, 188 bag, 164 and demon, 162 and fairy, 158 spring, 116, 166, 201 Wealth rich div, 58 rich people, 22, 40, 48, 56, 91, 139, 199, 159f, 198, 202 see also, Economy Well, 162, 167 Fellow in the, 165 see also, Khezr Widow, 30, 52, 71, 85, 161, 166 see also, Old Woman, Mother, Women Wife, 18, 19, 27, 30, 60, 75, 76 bad, 79, 80ff, 86, 132, 139, 161 as co-wife, 80, 86, 91, 107, 140, 158 disguised as man, 37, 197

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INDEX duty of, 92, 94 good, 80, 81, 92, 94, 99, 143, 159 punished/killed, 55f, 81., 85, 139 saves husband, 69, 71 unfaithful, 70, 83, 89 as victim, 57, 60, 76, 80, 85, 86, 140 see also, Women Winter, 122f Witch, 98, 141 Witchcraft, 98 Wolf, 15, 102f, 104, 125, 126, 184 hungry, 111, 170 metaphor for men, 188 woman as, 36, 46f, 77, 99, 140, 160, 171, 173, 182 see also, Animals Woman bad, 27, 28, 35, 47, 70 childless, 58, 63, 75, 131, 142, 168, 201 disguised as man, 37f, 68, 78, 87, 197 good, 26, 35, 39, 88, 95, 153 killed, 84, 125 as king, 68, 69, 171 poor, 52, 71, 82, 144 proposes men, 79, 105f, 151, 171 punished, 29, 35, 36, 84, 188f, 199 tricky, 82, 86 see also, Girl; Old Woman; Wife Women agency of, 37ff, 39, 53, 54, 77, 79, 86, 99, 196 attributes of, 37, 62, 68, 79, 82, 85, 153, 188, 189 bad, 22, 71, 83, 85

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277

dangerous, 42, 70, 98 dependent on men, 78, 79, 196 and education, 68, 100 generic, 26, 189 independent, 39, 53, 54, 77, 86f status, 19, 26, 33, 42, 113 successful, 77, 79, 153, 204 as theme, 18, 26, 35, 61, 67ff, 74 vulnerable, 73, 105, 196 work, 35f, 68, 70, 71, 80f, 94, 104, 112, 113, 115 see also, Old Woman; Moral; Mother; Widow; Work World good, 26 other world, 54f, 148, 149, 177 rough, 94, 125 this-worldly orientation, 125, 153 unidimensional, 130 worldview, 4, 5, 181, 192 Work, 8, 18, 21, 22, 31, 36, 120, 128, 199 of animals, 124 and God, 120, 128 low value of, 22, 71, 73, 136, 198, 200 and success, 104, 136, 153, 170f see also, Animals; Economy; Servant; Women Zagros, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 101, 148, 175 Zereng, 197ff, 204 see also, Success Zoroastrianism customs, 7 roots, 156, 170

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