History of art(west and middle east)- contemporary art

1. Aziz Art March
2017
Richard Serra
ZAHRAH ALGHAMDI
Farhad Moshiri
Muqarnas
competition
Norooz Festival

2. Director: Aziz Anzabi
Editor : Nafiseh Yaghoubi
Translator : Asra Yaghoubi
Research: Zohreh Nazari
http://www.aziz_anzabi.com
1- Richard Serra
10- Competition
11-Zahra Al-Ghamdi
14-Competition
15-Farhad Moshiri
18-Muqarnas
22-Norooz Festival

3. Richard Serra
1

4. Richard Serra
(born November 2, 1938) is an
American minimalist sculptor and
video artist known for working with
large-scale assemblies of sheet
metal.Serra was involved in the
Process Art Movement. He lives
and works in Tribeca, New York,
and on Cape Breton Island in Nova
Scotia
Early life and education
Serra was born on November 2,
1938, in San Francisco as the
second of three sons. His father,
Tony, was a Spanish native of
Mallorca who worked as candy
factory foreman. His mother,
Gladys Feinberg, was a
Los Angeles-born Russian Jewish
immigrant from Odessa (she
committed suicide in 1979). He
went on to study English literature
at the University of California,
Berkeley in 1957 before
transferring to the University of
California, Santa Barbara,
graduating with a B.A. in
1961.[9][10] While at Santa
Barbara, he studied art with
Howard Warshaw and Rico Lebrun.
On the West Coast, he helped
support himself by working in steel
mills, which was to have a strong
influence on his later work. Serra
discussed his early life and
influences in an interview in 1993.
He described the San Francisco
shipyard where his father worked
as a pipe-fitter as another
important influence to his work,
saying of his early memory: “All the
raw material that I needed is
contained in the reserve of this
memory which has become a
reoccurring dream.”
Serra studied painting in the M.F.A.
program at the Yale University
School of Art and Architecture
between 1961 and 1964. Fellow
Yale Art and Architecture alumni of
the 1960s include the painters,
photographers, and sculptors Brice
Marden, Chuck Close, Nancy
Graves, Gary Hudson and Robert
Mangold. He claims to have taken
most of his inspiration from the
artists who taught there, most
notably Philip Guston and the
experimental composer Morton
Feldman, as well as designer Josef
Albers. With Albers, he worked on
his book Interaction of Color
(1963).He continued his training
abroad, spending a year each in
Florence and Paris. In 1964,

5. he was awarded a Fulbright
Scholarship for Rome,where he
lived and worked with his first
wife, sculptor Nancy Graves. Since
then, he has lived in New York,
where he first used rubber
in 1966 and began applying his
characteristic work material lead in
1968. In New York, his circle of
friends included Carl Andre,
Walter De Maria, Eva Hesse, Sol
LeWitt, and Robert Smithson. At
one point, to fund his art, Serra
started a furniture-removals
business, Low-Rate Movers,and
employed Chuck Close,
Philip Glass, Spalding Gray, and
others.
Personal life
Serra's older brother is the famed
San Francisco trial attorney Tony
Serra.They have been estranged
for almost 40 years, since their
mother committed suicide by
walking into the Pacific Ocean.
Serra was married to
Nancy Graves from 1965 to
1970.He then married art historian
Clara Weyergraf in 1981. Since
1977, Serra and Weyergraf have
resided on several floors of a
former manufacturing building at
173 Duane Street in Tribeca. In
2011, the couple purchased the
third floor of 173 Duane Street.
Since the late 1970s, they have
spent part of the year in an 18th-
century farmhouse on a hill above
the Northumberland Strait in
Inverness County, Nova Scotia.
According to the Federal Election
Commission (FEC), Serra donated
$28,000 to the presidential
campaign of Hillary Clinton in
September 2016.
Collections
Serra's work can be found in many
international public and private
collections, including the Museum
of Modern Art and the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in New York,
the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art,and the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art. Since the early
1970s, Serra has completed many
private commissions, most of them
funded by European patrons

6. Private commissions in the United
States include sculptures for Eli
Broad (No Problem, 1995),Jeffrey
Brotman, Peggy and Ralph Burnet
(To Whom It May Concern, 1995),
Gil Freisen, Alan Gibbs
(Te Tuhirangi Contour, 1999-2001),
Ivan Reitman, Steven H. Oliver
(Snake Eyes and Boxcar, 1990–
93),Leonard Riggio, Agnes Gund
(Iron Mountain Run, 2002) and
Mitchell Rales.
In 2006, Colby College acquired
150 works on paper by Serra,
making it the second largest
collection of Serra's work
outside of the Museum of
Modern Art in New York.
Large steel sculptures
Around 1970, Serra shifted his
activities outdoors and became a
pioneer of large-scale site-specific
sculpture. Serra often constructs
site-specific installations,
frequently on a scale that dwarfs
the observer. His site-specific
works challenge viewers’
perception of their bodies in
relation to interior spaces and
landscapes, and his work often
encourages movement in and
around his sculptures.
Most famous is the "Torqued
Ellipse" series, which began in 1996
as single elliptical forms inspired by
the soaring space of the early 17th
century Baroque church San Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane in Rome.
Made of huge steel plates bent into
circular sculptures with open tops,
they rotate upward as they lean in
or out
Serra usually begins a sculpture by
making a small maquette (or
model) from flat plates at an inch-
to-foot ratio: a 40-foot piece will
start as a 40-inch model.He often
makes these models in lead as it is
"very malleable and easy to rework
continuously"; Torqued Ellipses,
however, began as wooden models.
He then consults a structural
engineer, who specifies how the
piece should be made to retain its
balance and stability.The steel
pieces are fabricated in Germany
and installed by Long Island rigging
company Budco Enterprises, with
whom he has worked with for most
of his career.The weathering steel
he uses takes about 8-10 years to
develop its characteristic dark, even
patina of rust. Once the surface is
fully oxidized, the color will remain
relatively stable over the piece's
life.

7. Serra's first larger commissions
were mostly realized outside the
United States. Shift (1970–72)
consists of six walls of concrete
zigzag across a grassy hillside in
King City, Ontario. Spin Out (1972–
73), a trio of steel plates facing one
another, is situated on the grounds
of the Kröller-Müller Museum in
Otterlo, the
Netherlands.(Schunnemunk Fork
(1991), a work similar to that of
his in the Netherlands can be
found in Storm King Art Center in
Upstate New York.) Part of a series
works involving round steelplates,
Elevation Circles: In and Out
(1972–77) was installed at
Schlosspark Haus Weitmar in
Bochum, Germany.
For documenta VI (1977), Serra
designed Terminal,
four 41-foot-tall trapezoids that
form a tower, situated in front of
the main exhibition venue. After
long negotiations, accompanied by
violent protests, Terminal was
purchased by the city of Bochum
and finally installed at the city's
train station in 1979.Carnegie
(1984–85), a 39-foot-high vertical
shaft outside the Carnegie
Museum of Art in Pittsburgh,
received high praise. Similar
sculptures, like Fulcrum (1987), Axis
(1989), and Torque (1992), were
later installed in London's
Broadgate, at Kunsthalle Bielefeld,
and at Saarland University,
respectively. Initially located in the
French town of Puteaux, Slat (1985)
consists of five steel plates - four
trapezoidal and one rectangular -
each one roughly 12 feet wide and
40 feet tall, that lean on one
another to form a tall, angular
tepee. Already in 1989 vandalism
and graffiti prompted that town’s
mayor to remove it, and only in
December 2008, after almost 20
years in storage, Slat was re-
anchored in La Défense. Because of
its weight, officials chose to ground
it in a traffic island behind the
Grande Arche.
In 1981, Serra installed Tilted Arc, a
gently curved, 3.5 meter high arc of
rusting mild steel in the Federal
Plaza in New York City. There was
controversy over the installation
from day one, largely from workers
in the buildings surrounding the
plaza who complained that the
steel wall obstructed passage
through the plaza.

9. A public hearing in 1985 voted
that the work should be moved,
but Serra argued the sculpture
was site specific and could not be
placed anywhere else.
Serra famously issued an often-
quoted statement regarding the
nature of site-specific art when he
said, "To remove the work is to
destroy it.
" Eventually on March 15, 1989,
the sculpture was dismantled by
federal workers and taken for scrap.
In May 1989 the work was cut
into three parts and consigned to a
New York warehouse, and in 1999
they were moved to a storage
space in Maryland.William Gaddis
satirized these events in his 1994
novel A Frolic of His Own.
Serra continues to produce large-
scale steel structures for sites
throughout the world, and has
become particularly renowned for
his monumental arcs, spirals, and
ellipses, which engage the viewer
in an altered experience of space.
In particular, he has explored the
effects of torqued forms in a series
of single and double-torqued
ellipses. He was invited to create a
number of artworks in France:
Philibert et Marguerite in the
cloister of the Musée de Brou at
Bourg-en-Bresse (1985); Threats of
Hell (1990) at the CAPC (Centre
d'arts plastiques contemporains de
Bordeaux) in Bordeaux; Octagon for
Saint Eloi (1991) in the village of
Chagny in Burgundy; and Elevations
for L'Allée de la Mormaire in
Grosrouvre (1993). Alongside those
works, Serra designed a series of
forged pieces including Two Forged
Rounds for Buster Keaton (1991);
Snake Eyes and Boxcars (1990-
1993), six pairs of forged hyper-
dense Cor-Ten steel blocks;, Ali-
Frazier (2001), two forged blocks of
weatherproof steel; and Santa Fe
Depot (2006).
In 2000 he installed Charlie Brown,
a 60-foot-tall sculpture in atrium of
the new Gap Inc. headquarters in
San Francisco. To encourage
oxidation, or rust, sprinklers were
initially directed toward the four
German-made slabs of steel that
make up the work . Working with
spheroid and toroid sections for the
first time, Betwixt the Torus and the
Sphere (2001) and Union of the
Torus and the Sphere (2001)
introduced entirely new shapes
into Serra's sculptural

10. vocabulary.Wake (2003) was
installed at the Olympic Sculpture
Park in Seattle, with its five pairs of
locked toroid forms measuring 14
feet high, 48 feet long and six feet
wide apiece.Each of these five
closed volumes is composed of two
toruses, with the profile of a solid,
vertically flattened S.
Named for the late Joseph Pulitzer,
Jr. (1913-1993), the rolled-steel
elliptical sculpture Joe (2000) is the
first in Serra's series of "Torqued
Spirals".It is, The 42.5-ton piece
T.E.U.C.L.A., another part of the
"Torqued Ellipse" series and Serra's
first public sculpture in Southern
California, was installed in 2006 in
the plaza of UCLA's Eli and Edythe
Broad Art Center.That same year,
the Segerstrom Center for the Arts
in Costa Mesa installed Serra's
Connector, a 66-foot-tall towering
sculpture on a pentagonal base, on
its plaza.
Another famous work of Serra's is
the mammoth sculpture Snake, a
trio of sinuous steel sheets
creating a curving path,
permanently located in the largest
gallery of the Guggenheim Museum
Bilbao. In 2005, the museum
mounted an exhibition of more
of Serra's work, incorporating
Snake into a collection entitled The
Matter of Time. The whole work
consists of eight sculptures
measuring between 12 and 14 feet
in height and weighing from 44 to
276 tons. Already in 1982-84, he
had installed the permanent work
La palmera in the Plaça de la
Palmera in Barcelona. He has not
always fared so well in Spain,
however; also in 2005, the Centro
de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid
announced that the 38-tonne
sculpture Equal-Parallel/Guernica-
Bengasi (1986) had been
"mislaid".In 2008, a duplicate copy
was made by the artist and
displayed in Madrid.
In spring 2005, Serra returned to
San Francisco to install his first
public work, Ballast (2004), in that
city (previous negotiations for a
commission fell through) – two 50-
foot steel blades in the main open
space of the new University of
California, San Francisco (UCSF)
campus. Weighing 160 tons, placing
the work in its Mission Bay location
posed serious challenges, since it is,
like many parts of San Francisco,
built on landfill.
In 2008,,

11. Serra showed his installation
Promenade, a series of five
colossal steel sheets placed at
100-foot intervals through in the
Grand Palais as part of the
Monumenta exhibition; each
sheet weighed 75 tonnes and was
17 meters in height. Serra was the
second artistafter Anselm Kiefer,
to be invited to fill the 13,500 m²
nave of the Grand Palais with
works created specially for the
event.
Birmingham City Council is
currently considering a proposal
for an outdoor installation by
Serra in front of their new Library
of Birmingham to replace the
destroyed Forward sculpture by
Raymond Mason in Centenary
Square.
In December 2011, Serra unveiled
his sculpture 7 in Doha, Qatar.
The sculpture, located at an
artificial plaza in Doha harbour, is
composed of seven steel sheets
and is 80-foot high. The sculpture
was commissioned by the Qatar
Museums Authority and took one
year to be built.[43] In March 2014,
Serra’s East-West/West-East, a site-
specific sculpture located at a
remote desert location stretching
more than a half-mile through
Qatar's Ras Brouq nature reserve,
was unveiled. In 2015, the
sculptor's monumental work Equal,
composed of eight blocks of steel
and exhibited that year at David
Zwirner in New York, was acquired
by The Museum of Modern Art.
In the past Serra has dedicated
work to Charlie Chaplin, Greta
Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Buster
Keaton, the German filmmaker
Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the
art critic David Sylvester.

12. 10

13. Saudi Arabian artist Zahra Al-
Ghamdi
A visual artist in which her art
works reflect the memory of past
traditional architecture from
south Western KSA to explore the
memory with emphasis on the
poetics"
ZAHRA The entire idea behind her
work is a fascination with the
earth as a concept. Dr. Zahra grew
up in the South-western region of
Saudi Arabia surrounded by
traditional domestic architecture.
The culturally-rich background of
her childhood played a key role in
developing her artistic and
conceptual direction. By creating an
echo of the past, she brings the
past into contact with the present,
to demonstrate changes of style
and architecture: from traditional
techniques and materials to
necessary resources. She uses her
memories of places that are related
to her childhood; drawing on an
idea of ‘embodied memory’
through particular gestures which
allows the viewer to be a part of
her past and the present.
11

14. Assistant professor at the Faculty of Art and Design - King Abdulaziz
university.
Education:
Bachelor of Islamic Arts with an educational
preparation Course at King Abdulaziz University,
with first class honors, 1422 - (2003).
Masters degree (Contemporary Craft) from
Coventry University in the UK with honors in 2009.
PhD. in Design and Visual Arts at Coventry
University in Britain.
Major Contributions:
New Designer Gallery - London, January,2009.
Herbert Gallery - Coventry, UK, 2010.
Meter Room Gallery – Coventry, UK, 2011.
Exhibition at the University of Warwick (Conference) - UK, 2011.
Lanchester Gallery at Coventry University - UK, 2011.
Tasami Gallery – Jeddah at Serafi Mall on January 29, 2015.
Ather Gallary Gallery – Jeddah at Serafi Mall on January 25, 2016.
The Gold Moor Gallery – Jeddah on February 18, 2016.
Alserkal Avenue – Dubai on March 6, 2016.
Dubai Art Gallary -Dubai on March 19, 2016.
Ather Gallary – Jeddah at Serafi Mall on October 12, 2016.
Certificates of Appreciation:
A certificate of thanks and appreciation for giving a gift (artwork) to the
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz in a
graduation ceremony (1420) at King Abdulaziz University.
A certificate of thanks and appreciation fgiving an artwork as a gift to
Her Highness the wife of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques campus
(1421) at King Abdulaziz University.
A certificate of thanks and appreciation for giving an artwork to
princess Hissa AlShaalan ,
wife of the Crown Prince at King Abdulaziz University, 1421 H.

15. A certificate of thanks and appreciation for giving an artwork as a gift to
the Rector Prof. Dr. Ghazi Obaid Madani – Rector of Abdulaziz
University - 1422 H.
scholarship to the University of Coventry worth 5,000 pounds.
Symposiums and Conferences:
Art in a cold climate ‘A Turning Point West Midlands event in
partnership with Birmingham City University and the University of
Warwick’ (conference 9 November 2011).
Coventry University School of Art and Design
(research student symposium11 May 2011).
Second Academic Forum for Saudi Female Students in the UK and
Ireland in University of
Warwick (conference 21 May 2011).
Research Symposium in Coventry University on June 30th , 2011 .
Birmingham Institute of Art and Design:
Collaborative Symposium on November 30th , 2010.
Cutting Edge Symposium on November 9th ,2010: Lasers and creativity.
Loughborough University School of Art and Design.
FACETS ( the first Facets talk of the season on
Thursday November10th with artist John Stezaker in GS22 (Graham
Sutherland Lecture Theatre

16. 14

17. Farhad Moshiri
born 1963 in Shiraz is an Iranian artist currently based in Tehran. His art
work is rooted in Pop art dialect with a subtle, subversion socio-political
commentary.
Biography
Moshiri studied fine arts at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia,
California, in the 1980s, where he first started experimenting with
installations, video art and painting. He received his MFA from
California Institute of the Arts in 1984, before moving back to Tehran in
1991. He subsequently became well known for his ironic interpretations
of hybrids between traditional Iranian forms and those of the
consumerist and globalized popular culture widespread in his country.
15

18. His painted jars, which form a trademark of his production, look like
three-dimensional objects, bursting with popular foods, drinks and
desserts, with popular scripts elegantly written on their body.Other
significant works include Stereo Surround Sofa (2004), Silver Portrait on
Red (2004), Diamond Brain (2004-5) and A Dream in Tehran (2007).
His work is held in several public collections, including the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, the Farjam Collection, Dubai, and the
British Museum, London.
He is represented by The Third Line gallery in Dubai, Galerie Emmanuel
Perrotin,Rodolphe Janssen in Brussels, and Thaddeus Ropac in Salzburg.
1984
MFA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, USA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2017
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA ( October 2017)
2014
"Float", Galerie Perrotin, New York, USA
2013
Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong
Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2012
The Fire of Joy, Galerie Perrotin, Paris
2011
Shukran, The Third Line, Dubai
Louis Vuitton commissioned works, Louis Vuitton UAE Stores, Dubai,
UAE
2010
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
2009
Galerie Perrotin, Paris

19. 2008
Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Galerie Perrotin, Art Basel Miami, USA
2007
Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, Chelsea NY
CANDY STORE, The Third Line Gallery, Dubai
2006
Threshold of Hap, e x t r a s p a z i o, Rome
Albareh Gallery, Bahrain
Operation Supermarket, with Shirin Aliabadi, The Counter Gallery,
London Operation Supermarket, with Shirin Aliabadi, Kolding Design
School, Copenhagen
The Third Line Gallery, Dubai
2004
e x t r a s p a z i o, Rome
Art Space Gallery, curated by Isabelle Van Den Eynde De Rivieren, Dubai
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
2003
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Geneva
Leighton House Museum, curated by Rose Issa, London
2002
13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran
2001
Heaven,13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran
2000
13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran
1992 Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

20. Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran
Muqarnas
18

21. Muqarnas
is a form of architectural
ornamented vaulting, the
"geometric subdivision of a
squinch, or cupola, or corbel,
into a large number of miniature
squinches, producing a sort of
cellular structure", sometimes also
called a "honeycomb" vault. It is
used for domes, and especially
half-domes in entrances, iwans
and apses, mostly in traditional
Islamic and Persian architecture.
Where some elements project
downwards, the style may be
called mocárabe;these are
reminiscent of stalactites, and are
sometimes called "stalactite
vaults".
Muqarnas developed around the
middle of the 10th century in
northeastern Iran and almost
simultaneously — but apparently
independently — in North Africa.
Examples can be found across
Morocco and by extension, the
Alhambra in Granada, Spain, the
Abbasid Palace in Baghdad, Iraq,
and the mausoleum of Sultan
Qaitbay, Cairo, Egypt. Large
rectangular roofs in wood with
muqarnas-style decoration adorn
the 12th century Cappella Palatina
in Palermo, Sicily,
and other important buildings in
Norman Sicily. Muqarnas is also
found in Armenian architecture.
Structure
Muqarnas is typically applied to the
undersides of domes, pendentives,
cornices, squinches, arches and
vaults. Muqarnas is a downward-
facing shape; that is, a vertical line
can be traced from the floor to any
point on a muqarnas surface. It is
also arranged in horizontal courses,
as in a corbelled vault, with the
horizontal joint surface having a
different shape at each level. The
edges of these surfaces can all be
traced on a single plan view;
architects can thus plan out
muqarnas geometrically, as the
image illustrates.
Muqarnas does not have a
significant structural role.
Muqarnas need not be carved into
the structural blocks of a corbelled
vault; it can be hung from a
structural roof as a purely
decorative surface. Muqarnas may
be made of brick, stone, stucco, or
wood, and clad with tiles or plaster.
The individual cells may be called
alveoles.
.

22. Some modern muqarnas elements have been designed, if not built,
with upwards-facing cells;see also the Indian capitals above.

23. Sheikh lotfollah mosque

24. Norooz Festival
22

25. Nowruz
( "New Day") is the name of the
Iranian New Year,
also known as the Persian and
Kurdish New Year, is celebrated by
Iranian peoples worldwide as the
beginning of the new year. It has
been celebrated for over 3,000
years in the Balkans, the Black Sea
Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia,
and the Middle East.It marks the
first day of the month of Farvardin
in the Iranian calendar.
Nowruz is the day of the
astronomical vernal equinox (or
northward equinox), which marks
the beginning of the spring in the
northern hemisphere and usually
occurs on March 21 or the
previous/following day depending
on where it is observed. The
moment the sun crosses the
celestial equator and equalizes
night and day is calculated exactly
every year and families gather
together to observe the rituals.
Although having Persian and
religious Zoroastrian origins,
Nowruz has been celebrated by
people from diverse ethnic
communities and religious
backgrounds for thousands of
years. It is a secular holiday for
most celebrants that is enjoyed by
people of several different faiths,
but remains a holy day for
Zoroastrians.
Origin
Nowruz is partly rooted in the
religious tradition of Iranian
religions such as Zoroastrianism or
even older in tradition of Mitraism
because in Mitraism festivals had a
deep linkage with the sun light. The
Persian festivals of Yalda (longest
night) and Mehregan (autumnal
equinox) and Tiregān (longest day)
also had an origin in the Sun god
(Surya). Among other ideas,
Zoroastrianism is the first
monotheistic religion that
emphasizes broad concepts such as
the corresponding work of good
and evil in the world, and the
connection of humans to nature.
Zoroastrian practices were
dominant for much of the history of
ancient Persia (modern day Iran &
Western Afghanistan).

26. Nowruz is believed to have been
invented by Zoroaster himself in
Balkh (modern-day Afghanistan),
although there is no clear date of
origin. Since the Achaemenid era
the official year has begun with the
New Day when the Sun leaves the
zodiac of Pisces and enters the
zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the
Spring Equinox. Nowruz is also a
holy day for Sufi Muslims,
Bektashis, Ismailis, Alawites,Alevis,
Babis and adherents of the Bahá'í
Faith.
The term Nowruz in writing first
appeared in historical Persian
records in the 2nd century CE, but
it was also an important day during
the time of the Achaemenids (c.
550–330 BCE), where kings from
different nations under the Persian
Empire used to bring gifts to the
Emperor, also called King of Kings
(Shahanshah), of Persia on Nowruz.
The significance of Nowruz in the
Achaemenid Empire was such that
the great Persian king
Cambyses II's appointment as the
king of Babylon was legitimized
only after his participation in the
New Year festival
History and tradition
The celebration has its roots in
Ancient Iran. Due to its antiquity,
there exist various foundation
myths for Nowruz in Iranian
mythology. In the Zoroastrian
tradition, the seven most important
Zoroastrian festivals are the
Gahambars and Nowruz, which
occurs at the spring equinox.
According to Mary Boyce,
“It seems a reasonable surmise that
Nowruz, the holiest of them all,
with deep doctrinal significance,
was founded by Zoroaster
himself.Between sunset on the day
of the 6th Gahanbar and sunrise of
Nowruz, Hamaspathmaedaya (later
known, in its extended form, as
Frawardinegan) was celebrated.
This and the Gahanbar are the only
festivals named in the surviving text
of the Avesta.
The Shahnameh dates Nowruz as
far back to the reign of Jamshid,
who in Zoroastrian texts saved
mankind from a killer winter that
was destined to kill every living
creature. The mythical Persian King
Jamshid (Yima or Yama of the Indo-
Iranian lore) perhaps symbolizes
the transition of the Indo-Iranians
from animal hunting to animal
husbandry and a more settled life
in human history

27. In the Shahnameh and Iranian
mythology, he is credited with the
foundation of Nowruz. In the
Shahnama, Jamshid constructed a
throne studded with gems. He had
demons raise him above the earth
into the heavens; there he sat on
his throne like the sun shining in
the sky. The world's creatures
gathered in wonder about him
and scattered jewels around him,
and called this day the New Day or
No/Now-Ruz. This was the first day
of the month of Farvardin (the first
month of the Persian calendar).
The Persian scholar Abu Rayhan
Biruni of the 10th century CE, in his
Persian work "Kitab al-Tafhim li
Awa'il Sina'at al-Tanjim" provides a
description of the calendar of
various nations. Besides
the Persian calendar, various
festivals of Arabs, Jews, Sabians,
Greeks and other nations are
mentioned in this book. In the
section on the Persian calendar ,
he mentions Nowruz, Sadeh,
Tiregan, Mehregan, the six
Gahanbar, Parvardegaan,
Bahmanja, Isfandarmazh and
several other festivals.
According to him: It is the belief of
the Persians that Nowruz marks the
first day when the universe started
its motion.The Persian historian
Abu Saʿīd Gardēzī in his work titled
Zayn al-Akhbār under the section of
the Zoroastrians festivals mentions
Nowruz (among other festivals) and
specifically points out that
Zoroaster highly emphasized the
celebration of Nowruz and
Mehregan.
History
Nowruz in Persia
Persepolis all nations staircase.
Notice the people from across the
Achaemenid Persian Empire
bringing gifts. Some scholars have
associated the occasion to be
either Mehregan or Nowruz.
Shah Tahmasp I and Humayun
celebrating Nowvruz festival, 16th
century, Isfahan, Persia
Although it is not clear whether
proto-Indo-Iranians celebrated a
feast as the first day of the
calendar, there are indications that
both Iranians and Indians may have
observed the beginning of both
autumn and spring, related to the
harvest and the sowing of seeds,
respectively, for the celebration of
new year.

28. Boyce and Grenet explain the
traditions for seasonal festivals
and comment: "It is possible that
the splendor of the Babylonian
festivities at this season led the
Persians to develop their own
spring festival into an established
new year feast, with the name
Navasarda 'New Year' (a name
which, though first attested
through Middle Persian
derivatives, is attributed to the
Achaemenian period). Since the
communal observations of the
ancient Iranians appear in general
to have been a seasonal ones, and
related to agriculture, it is
probable, that they traditionally
held festivals in both autumn and
spring, to mark the major turning
points of the natural year".
We have reasons to believe that
the celebration is much older than
that date and was surely
celebrated by the people and
royalty during the Achaemenid
times (555–330 BC). It was,
therefore, a highly auspicious
occasion for the ancient Iranian
peoples. It has been suggested
that the famous Persepolis
complex, or at least the palace of
Apadana and the Hundred Columns
Hall,
were built for the specific purpose
of celebrating Nowruz. Although
there may be no mention of
Nowruz in recorded Achaemenid
inscriptions (see picture),there is a
detailed account by Xenophon of a
Nowruz celebration taking place in
Persepolis and the continuity of this
festival in the Achaemenid
tradition.in 539 BC the Jews came
under Persian rule thus exposing
both groups to each other's
customs. According to
Encyclopædia Britannica, the story
of Purim as told in the Book of
Esther is adapted from a Persian
novella about the shrewdness of
harem queens suggesting that
Purim may be a transformation of
the Persian New Year. A specific
novella is not identified and
Encyclopædia Britannica itself
notes that "no Jewish texts of this
genre from the Persian period are
extant, so these new elements can
be recognized only inferentially".
The Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics notes that the Purim holiday
is based on a lunar calendar while
Nowruz occurs at the spring
equinox (solar calendar).

29. The two holidays are therefore
celebrated on different dates but
within a few weeks of each other,
depending on the year. Both
holidays are joyous celebrations.
Given their temporal associations,
it is possible that the Jews and
Persians of the time may have
shared or adopted similar customs
for these holidays. The story of
Purim as told in the Book of Esther
has been dated anywhere from
625–465 BC (although the story
takes place with the Jews under
the rule of the Achaemenid
Empire and the Jews had come
under Persian rule in 539 BC),
while Nowruz is thought to have
first been celebrated between
555–330 BC. It remains unclear
which holiday was established
first.
Nowruz was the holiday of
Arsacid/Parthian dynastic Empires
who ruled Iran (248 BC-224 CE)
and the other areas ruled by the
Arsacid dynasties outside Parthia
(such as the Arsacid dynasty of
Armenia and Iberia). There are
specific references to the
celebration of Nowruz during the
reign of Vologases I (51–78 CE), but
these include no details.Before
Sassanids established their power
in West Asia around 300 CE,
Parthians celebrated Nowruz in
Autumn and 1st of Farvardin began
at the Autumn Equinox. During
Parthian dynasty the Spring Festival
was Mehragan, a Zoroastrian and
Iranian festival celebrated in honor
of Mithra.
Extensive records on the
celebration of Nowruz appear
following the accession of Ardashir
I of Persia, the founder of the
Sassanid dynasty (224–651 CE).
Under the Sassanid Emperors,
Nowruz was celebrated as the most
important day of the year. Most
royal traditions of Nowruz such as
royal audiences with the public,
cash gifts, and the pardoning of
prisoners, were established during
the Sassanian era and persisted
unchanged until modern times.
Nowruz, along with Sadeh
(celebrated in mid-winter), survived
in society following the
introduction of Islam in 650 CE.
Other celebrations such Gahanbar
and Mehragan were eventually
side-lined or were only followed by
the Zoroastrians, who carried them.
It was adopted as the main royal
holiday during the Abbasid period.

30. In the book Nowruznama
("Book of the New Year", which is
attributed to Omar Khayyam,
a well known Persian poet and
mathematician),
a vivid description of the
celebration in the courts of the
Kings of Persia is provided:
“From the era of Kai Khusraw till
the days of Yazdegard, last of the
pre-Islamic kings of Persia, the
royal custom was thus: on the
first day of the New Year,
Now Ruz, the King's first visitor
was the High Mobad of the
Zoroastrians, who brought with
him as gifts a golden goblet full of
wine, a ring, some gold coins, a
fistful of green sprigs of wheat, a
sword, and a bow. In the language
of Persia he would then glorify God
and praise the monarch. This was
the address of the High Mobad to
the king : "O Majesty, on this feast
of the Equinox, first day of the first
month of the year, seeing that thou
hast freely chosen God and the
Faith of the Ancient ones; may
Surush, the Angel-messenger,
grant thee wisdom and insight
and sagacity in thy affairs.
Live long in praise, be happy and
fortunate upon thy golden throne,
drink immortality from the Cup of
Jamshid; and keep in solemn trust
the customs of our ancestors, their
noble aspirations, fair gestures and
the exercise of justice and
righteousness. May thy soul
flourish; may thy youth be as the
new-grown grain; may thy horse be
puissant, victorious; thy sword
bright and deadly against foes; thy
hawk swift against its prey; thy
every act straight as the arrow's
shaft. Go forth from thy rich
throne, conquer new lands. Honor
the craftsman and the sage in equal
degree; disdain the acquisition of
wealth. May thy house prosper and
thy life be long!"
Following the demise of the
Caliphate and the subsequent re-
emergence of Persian dynasties
such as the Samanids and Buyids,
Nowruz was elevated to an even
more important event. The Buyids
revived the ancient traditions of
Sassanian times and restored many
smaller celebrations that had been
eliminated by the Caliphate.
According to the Syrian historian
Yaqut al-Hamawi, the Iranian Buyid
ruler ʿAżod-od-Dawla (r. 949-83)
customarily welcomed Nowruz in a
majestic hall,

31. wherein servants had placed gold and silver plates and vases full of fruit
and colorful flowers.The King would sit on the royal throne (masnad),
and the court astronomer came forward, kissed the ground, and
congratulated him on the arrival of the New Year. The king would then
summon
musicians and singers, and invited his boon companions. They would
gather in their assigned places and enjoy a great festive occasion.
Even the Turkic and Mongol invaders did not attempt to abolish Nowruz
in favor of any other celebration. Thus, Nowruz remained as the main
celebration in the Persian lands by both the officials and the people.

32. http://www.aziz_anzabi.com