The Eloquent Carpet by Bahram Beyzai is the third episode of Persian Carpet (2008) exploring the motif of Waq Waq Tree (Wakwak Tree) in Persian carpet through Shahnameh.
The movie begins with a quotation from the filmmaker
A Rare, woven painting, Hanged and used as a mat long before. It originates from an amazing tree, Shah-Nameh has called it the “Speaking-Tree”. Its archaic name is Vaque (or rather Vagh). It’s the ancient Goddess of Speech!
Bahram Beyzai
The Eloquent Carpet begins with a face of Khorshid Khanoum (Female Sun is popular motif in Persian art depicting a round face woman with an arch-like unibrow over languished eyes). Next, camera shows a series of still shots of different illustrations of heroic figures and battles in Shahnameh on a large carpet.
In the following sequence, while the camera is tilting down on a Persian Miniature of Eskandar (Alexander the Great) contemplates the Talking Tree, a female voice (Mozhdeh Shamsai) narrates the same story from Shahnameh. In this part (Sekandar Sees the Speaking Tree), Ferdowsi writes the story of Alexander and his encounter with the strange speaking tree,
“Victorious king, there is a marvel here, a tree that has two separate trunks together, one of which is female and the other male, and these splendid tree limbs can speak. At night the female trunk becomes sweet smelling and speaks, and when the daylight comes, the male speaks.”
Ferdowsi (Shahnameh: The Epic of the Kings)
As the narrative goes on, we see various Persian carpets with “speaking tree” elements in panning, titling and close-ups.
Persian Miniature – Timurid: Shiraz, c.1430
In the next scene, the camera shows a woman, wearing a nomadic colorful dress, from behind weaving carpet on a medium size vertical carpet loom while we hear a series of indistinguishable words, like whispering prayers. What comes next are the series of common animal images on Persian carpet accompanied with their natural sound. The animals are animated in the process of creation. Although we see them in still fixed close-ups, they are alive. Once again we hear the female narrator reciting Persian verses prophesying the death of Sekandar (Alexander). As she speaks, we hear thunderbolts accompanied by rotation of fully-made carpets.
Do not puff yourself up with greed; why torment your soul in this way? … You have seen many things that no man ever saw, but now it’s time to draw rein…Death will come soon: you’ll die. In a strange land, with strangers standing by. The stars and crown and throne and worldly glory, are sated with Sekandar and his story.
Ferdowsi (Shahnameh: The Epic of the Kings)
The eloquent tree episode ends with series of tilting up on Persian carpets. Last but not least, the Persian miniature of Eskandar (Alexander the Great) contemplates the Talking Tree is shown as the final shot.
Beyzai Perspective
The Eloquent Carpet or Speaking Carpet by Bahram Beyzai, as always, takes a historical mythological perspective. One of the recurrent and crucial element in world mythology is a “Tree”. We all heard about the story of Adam and Eve and the Tree of knowledge from holy books. As a mythologist, however, Beyzai dips into ancient strange eloquent tree way before emergence of Islam in the Middle East. A unisex speaking tree with the power of prophesy, an oracle in figure of a tree . One that warns Alexander, the Great, and he proudly paid no heed. Accordingly, Alexander story finds a way into Persian Literature. Take Nizami’s Eskandar-Nameh or The Romance of Alexander the Great as a shining example. And the eloquent tree appears as one of the important features of Persian Carpet. So, Bahram Beyzai once more explores and shows the roots of Persian art in Persian history and mythology, despite Islamization of Iran.
Pard-e Khane by Bahram Beyzai is a play about the miserable life of Sultan’s wives in harem who plot to assassinate him. At the royal playhouse inside the heavily guarded royal harem, a number of women, also wives of Sultan, are responsible for entertaining the sultan with play-acting. They are prisoners who know different art and above all art of acting.
Pard-e Khane in Sultan’s Harem
Pard-e
Khane: The deaf, the dumb and the blind
Pard-e Khane
begins with a story of arresting three men at night in a bazaar. Happy to
capture the thieves, sheriff surprises to find them disabled; a deaf, a blind
and a dumb. After telling what miseries they have endured, the sheriff asks for
the godless wrongdoer. The blind replies,
The killer you are seeking is, Less than a God, but above the people; A head upper than the heads and a master of masters; His power is from gold and his gold from power; He who destroyed our village brick by brick; His simple brick layers are now under the brick.
Sheriff says
that “these words are only fit for the conqueror of the epoch, whom I am his
lest servant”. It is better no to let him, Sultan, to hear these bunch of lies.
All of a sudden a curtain is drawn and the head of eunuch, Sandal, with
is heavy large stick appears and asks to stop the play.
Sadgis is
Leaving Pard-e Khane
Sandal
breaks the news that, Sadgis should wrap of her stuff for she is swapped with a
fourteen-year-old girl, Nosal, of Sultan’s former enemy and today’s friend.
Upon hearing the news, her health begins deteriorating and as a result she
passes out. In the meantime, Sandal also reveals that three men breach into the
Sultan palace with the intention of murdering him. They are about to be killed.
The wives insist on killing them instead of the eunuchs from the sultan and
sultan agrees.
Nosal and
Rika Jan
Nosal, the soon-be-bride of the sultan appears pale, agitated and scared. She quickly recognizes the three men; his father, brother and fiancé, Rika Jan. In an improvised act, she picks up the dagger and plunges it into Rika Jan’s heart so he could not see her misery. They are buried outside in the yard. Later on Goltan washes her body and soul from the illness and the haunting dream of her fiancé’s death.
Nosal in white dress in Goltan’s arms
Sultan’s Secret Letter and Assassination Plot
Goltan gather pard-e Khane members to tell them a bitter truth.
In a royal sealed letter, the sultan commands to kill all the wives provided
that he loses the battle and killed. Stunned to hear that, the members of Pard-e
Khane decide to hatch an assassination plot against sultan. The plot is this:
since the new bride does not undergo a body search upon her wedding night,
Nosal could carry a dagger beneath her cloth and kill the sultan as he killed
his fiancé. All agree to swear upon it except Nosal. She is too frightened to
murder the sultan.
Death of Sogol, Kafor and Shadi
The eyes of sultan inform that a stranger from outside has entered the harem. He finds his way inside in disguise; wearing woman’s cloth. As Sandal was describing the punishment waiting for the lawbreaker, Kafor the eunuch grows pale and Sogol passes out. The former is beheaded and later is killed. Sultan sends a Narenj, bitter orange, to Shadi as a sign of call up to sultan’s chamber. She refuses to go because of her monthly menstruation. However, Sandal proves it wrong as he writes down the date. Sultan orders to put her in a fire and demands that women wash themselves in the water heated by the burning of the body of her. No one did it but Goltan.
Last act: Conquering Sultan
The sultan asks the member of Pard-e Khane to play the conquering
act of Sultan up on a wedding night within fourteen days. However, he changes his
mind and one night appears in harem and demands the play. Goltan demands real
sword, spear and archer to enhance the believability of the play and sultan
agrees. She further asks the sultan to participate in a play by pretending to
die to see the real and unreal servants. The king accepts and the women stab
him one by one. After revealing the Sultan’s letter to all, Goltan urges the harem
members to spread the word that the Sultan dies of natural death. They are free
to leave the harem. “Beyond these wall is a road, even in darkness.
Pard-e Khane Playhouse Members
Goltan: formerly known as Bidokht (Daughter of God) is an orphan whose mother died in Harem when she was only five. Although, Goltan is the chief trainer of royal wives, she has never seen anything beyond the walls. She is the master of musical instruments, calligraphy, dancing, polo, archery, poetry and astrology. She has a four-year-old kid who she has never seen. Sultan names her Goltan (To have a body like flower).
Nosal: is called Ghazal. She is fourteen-year-old girl whom the enemy of the
Sultan, Ghanom Khan, bestows to Sultan as a peace offering. She kills his
beloved, Rika Jan, with a dagger. Since she is young and new, she is named
Nosal.
Sadgis: formerly known as Gisou Khanoum (A lady with longhair) sent to the
Sultan’s ex-enemy as a peace gift. She was the wife of a castle keeper in
borderline. Sultan sent her husband into a war. In the middle of battle, sultan
sent a letter to either step down from your position or divorce your wife. He chooses
to keep his position.
Reyhan: formerly known as Taban Khanoum (Shinning lady) was a princess. The
sultan attacked their castle and took her a present.
Nargol: formerly known as Golnar (Flower of fire) was a Zoroastrian who was
given by mobeds to Sultan to stop harassing and killing them. The Sultan inverse
her name from Golnar to Nargol.
Loli: formerly known as Tavous (Peacock) was taken to harem by accident. While she was stealthily peeking at the sultan’s army over the wall, she was noticed by the guard. They took her to marry the Sultan. Once she felt blue, she began to sing. So, the sultan named her Loli, singer.
Asal: formerly known as Kheir Banoo (Blessing Lady), she was married
and had a kid. While they were guest in a village, some guards approached and asked
his husband who has enjoyed the prima nocta, droit du seigneur. They took her
as a wife to the sultan. Her nuptial night sweetened the sultan, so she was
named Asal, sweet honey.
Tatar Khanoum: formerly known as Yakhma Khanoum confessed that she herself
wanted to be sultan’s wife. She told herself that the musketeers of Circassian
would sell me one day, so it was better to live where there are foods and
blessing. In order to do so, he tricked the guards by showing herself instead of
her sister.
Shadi (literally means happiness): formerly known as Chagal Banoo (Beautiful Lady) was deceived by an old haggard. An old lady appeared on her door and praised her beauty. She was supposed to marry to a Pahlavan. But, she was wrong. The man, the doorman of the sultan’s palace, sold her for a piece of fabric. Thanks to Sultan’s happiness, she was named Shadi.
Ilnaz: formerly known as Khonbas Khanoum (Bloodshed stopper) was a woman who
stopped the bloodshed between the nomadic tribes. The nomadic tribes rebel against
the Sultan, but they failed. His bother, the chief of the tribe gave her as a
present to stop the war. He named her Ilnaz, beauty of tribe.
Sanam: formerly known as Tondar Khanoum (Tornado Lady) was a Christian princess who was taken as a hostage to stop Georgians from attacking the sultan kingdom. She knew how to use sword and horse. She was agile and sportive. Now, the fire of her heart is gone out, so she turned into a statue, an idol.
Pard-e Khane Play Review
Pard-e Khane, like most works of Bahram Beyzai, centers around women and their miserable position in male-centered society of Iran. They play according to the given role. In here, women are not only victim of oppressive power of Sultan, but also prisoners of a theater play. Interior world of Pard-e Khane is a world where women are just passing players from one show to another, or from one harem to another one. In fact, the acting and playing never ends. Pard-e Khane, in Foucauldian discourse, is a panopticon where wives are constantly watched and controlled by eunuchs in order not to think about the outside world let alone to escape. However, this very act of playing could be used as a useful tool shifting power. This is what Bidokht did successfully. The liberation of women, in this play, is achieved through the art, the art of acting. Through acting, an unreal representation of real world, the wives kill the “Less than a God, but above the people” to liberate themselves from the panopticon-like harem to enter the real world outside.
Senmar Sacrificing Session, written by Bahram Beyzai in 1998, is a play narrating the tragic story of Persian- Roman architect who built Khawarnaq.
Building Khowarnaq by Kamal ud din Behzad, kept in British Museum, London
The play starts with some black-worn men bumping into a corpse. They surprisingly realize that the corpse belongs to Senmar. The renowned Persian-Roman Architecture who was assigned by the sultanate of al-Hirah, al-Nu’man I ibn Imru’ al-Qays, to build a palace in a desert. While they were talking to each other disparaging the wisdom and knowledge, Senmar rose and began telling his story.
I, Senmar, rise to recount
my fall
As I was falling, I
was close to Heaven rather than earth
In that unbelievable
instance, Between Heaven and Earth-
To the air stripping
away beneath me
And the world that
opens his mouth under my feet
Yes, between the two
worlds, I was counting the bricks
That I pieced them
together with my hands
And each brick
thousand times
In terror ask with
wide open mouth: Why? Why? Why?
The ruler of al-Hirah ordered to fall Senmar from the palace
he himself built. Al-Nu’man, who has been ruling the al-Hirah for some times,
thinks to build a palace for himself. Tired of being sultanate of sands, he
dreams of having a palace paralleled with the Sassanid Persian King, Yazdegerd
I in Ctesiphon. He confessed his inability of architectural knowledge, while he
boasted his craftsmanship in weaving tents made of Camel’s hair.
The arrival of the Persian King in the upcoming winter
propelled Al-Nu’man to hide his inferiority and show his glory.
Are we less than
Persia?
They are the Lords of
the world and proud of it
Lest they look at us
as inferiors!
Illustration of Senmar by Baran Sedighian
Senmar promised Al-Nu’man to build better palace than Persian
kings, called “Khawarnaq”. Senmar demands golds for the palace, but Al-Nu’man
could not bring himself to pay such a large amount of golds and workers. Seeing
the sultan’s stinginess, he asked people help. Each who cuts a Cedar could keep
the branches. Each who makes hundred bricks can take ten for himself. Infuriated
by his shrewdness, Al-Nu’man accused Senmar of wasting and dedicating his
resources to peasants.
He asks Senmar’s reward for building Khawarnaq that reputation
has already spread throughout the realm. He replied “nothing”. He offers his
own camel, his best horse, seventy of his best goats and above all his youngest
daughter to Senmar. However, it was in vain. He refused all.
Senmar: I build this
building for the sake of building.
One day Al-Nu’man dashed into the working place like wild cow seeing red withering with pain of his last dream. He dreamt that his father appeared in his palace asking to show the vast desert and the cedars which were used for making the palace. He felt humiliated by his father’s reproachful eyes for losing his long kept heritage. Senmar proposed stop working on Khawarnaq; however, Al-Nu’man’s eyes couldn’t let go of this magnificent palace. the situation went ugly when the elders of the tribes and courtiers reproached him for choosing a stranger over his own tribe member and warning him against Senmar’s popularity over himself. Khawarnaq belongs to Senmar who won people hearts, not Al-Nu’man. Meanwhile, Senmar fell in love with his youngest daughter at a first sight and now Khawarnaq was an excuse for staying close to her, despite her absence.
Senmar felling in love with Al Nu’man’s youngest daughter
Once he tried to leave al-Hirah to visit his sick father,
but Al-Nu’man broke his legs out of fear of losing him forever. With broken
legs he couldn’t ride a horse to Rome. The next group who couldn’t tolerate
Senmar’s progress and success were al-Hirah’s local architectures. They openly
criticized the sultan’s decision, choosing Senmar as the architect, as belittling
Arabs before the Persians. After all, he has no Arab blood in his body. They
even warned him of building more magnificent palace than Khawarnaq for someone
else after finishing his task in here. Maybe for Persian king.
Oscillating between keeping his heritage or seeking new palace, he finally ordered to kill Senmar by throwing him off his own building. After his death, Al-Nu’man slowly came to himself and realized his mistake. He stood against the elders to defend Senmar’s endeavor to make seven-domed palace out of this barren land. Al-Nu’man accused them of laziness and idleness.
Human cannot stop
thinking and working
Khawarnaq is our
endeavor fulfilled
Is it not better to know us by endeavor rather than idleness?
Senmar’s Sacrificing Session illustration by Baran Sedighian
Khawarnaq shows what
could have been built before
But we didn’t.
You hold a mirror
before our idleness
In this mirror, we
are only braggers
Who haven’t moved an
inch for a century!
Senmar draws Al-Nu’man’s attention to the pictures on the walls of Khawarnaq where a man is depicted under an elephant’s feet. He prophesied that a sultan of your sons will pay for my blood in future. The play ends with arrival of King of Persia and Al-Nu’man hearing of the elephants’ trumpet.
Seljuk
Station is a screenplay written by Bahram Beyzai in 2000. In this screenplay Beyzai
focuses on the life a French woman searching for fertility.
Where is
Seljuk Station?
Seljuk
Station is an gas station in an ancient city of Ephesus, three kilometres
southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. The city used to be
one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Greek era, but later
on after invasion of Seljuk Turks in 12th century, its name changed
into Seljuk. Seljuk city is one of the top tourist attractions of turkey filled
with archeological sites particularly Temple of Artemis.
Who is Cybele?
Cybele or Artemis was the goddess of fertility in ancient Greek. The Cybele Statue in Ephesus Museum is a small statue in a sarcophagus-like shape with two animals (Stags) next to her feet. Her multi breasts emphasize her fertility and potency of giving birth.
Cybele Statue in Ephesus Museum
Seljuk Station Plot
Isabel and
Francois were travelling to Ephesus to adopt a child in a war-stricken village
of Turkey on Isabel demand, since she is infertile. On the way to Istanbul, in
the early morning, on a gas station in Seljuk district, Isabel got off the bus
to use the toilet, while Francois was asleep in the bus. Two young boys teased
her by occupying the toilet before her. When she left the toilet, her eyes
caught the glimpse of the store next to gas station and stepped toward it. All
of the sudden, she realized that the bus was moving. She ran after the bus, but
it was in vain.
Left alone
in gas station, she tried to get help from the locals. However, no one
understood her. No one spoke French. She tried English and luckily, one spoke
back. One tried to give her a ride in his car but the local warned her against
it. He was notorious for being womanizer. Wrapped in blanket giving by the
owner of the local shop, she sat on the ancient plinth close to
the station, hopelessly.
While she
was alone, she began to think about her husband behaviors and attitude toward
her resolution: adopting a child. The situation began to go awry as her fears
turned into nightmares. Her emotion became over her so much that she even
blamed her husband for being left alone. Suppressed voices of unconscious
welled up and made her had a second thought about her life.
Meanwhile,
her husband, François, attempted to back for her with all difficulties. Isabel
constantly dreamt Francois was coming back with a child, but it was a pipe
dream. When finally, he came back, Isabel made up her mind and got on another
bus and left him. She could not bear the situation anymore. The modern East
where all the magic was gone disillusioned her. Along with that, she realized
that her husband has prevented her to achieve her goal.
Seljuk Station Review
Bahram Beyzai , as usual, uses a historical place or historic moment as a jumping board for his narrative. In “Seljuk Station”, Beyzai excavates into the life of French couple visiting the magical East to adopt a child. According to Francois, he is not going to adopt a child from a Germany, Italy and Russia because they are the child of Nazism, Fascism a Communism, respectively. He was against the Turks or Kurds too; however, Isabel talked him into it.
Isabel was
desperate to have a child. She taught that East was the same thing she had read
in books and stories. But once, she was there, it became dawn on her that she
was wrong. The modern East has lost its charmed taste. This disillusionment was
paralleled with reevaluation of her husband and her life with him. Her
nightmares were nothing but her wishes and fears. Wishes for a child. Fear of
being raped. Dreaming of uniting with her husband plus a child captured her
body and soul to the verge of nervous breakdown.
Similar to
all other Beyzaie’s screenplays or plays, the female protagonist made an
important decision that is rebelling against the status quo and made her free
of all the masculine shackles.
Quick Facts
about Seljuk Station
Full Title: Seljuk Station
Author: Bahram Beyzai
Type of Work: Screenplay
Genre: Drama
Language: Farsi (Some English Sentences)
Time and Place Written: 2000
Date of First Publication: 2000
Publisher: Roshangaran Publication
Point Of View: Third Person
Tone: Straightforward
Setting (Time): Circa the publication
Setting (Place): Ephesus, Turkey
Protagonist: Isabel
Major Conflict: Isabel attempts to adopt a child in Turkey
Rising Action: Isabel missed the Bus to Istanbul
Climax: Isabel got on the bus alone and left her husband
Themes: knowing the truth about her life; Pregnancy is impossible; Huge gap between her and her husband, The magical East is gone
