Aziz art march 2017

Aziz Art March 2017

Richard Serra

ZAHRAH ALGHAMDI

Farhad Moshiri

Muqarnas

competition Norooz Festival

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

Richard Serra

1

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,

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

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.

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.

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

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,,

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.

10

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

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.

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

14

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

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

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

Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran

Muqarnas

18

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. .

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

Sheikh lotfollah mosque

Norooz Festival

22

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).

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

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.

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).

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.

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,

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.

http://www.aziz_anzabi.com