The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 1 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 1 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
There was a city called the royal abode or _saráí_, facing which were
seven temples. On each day of the week, in the dress appropriated to
each planet, the king exhibited himself from an elevated _tabsar_ or
window, fronting the temple of the planet, whilst the people, in due
order and arrangement, offered up their prayers. For example, on
Sunday or _Yakshambah_, he shewed himself clad in a yellow kabá or
tunic of gold tissue, wearing a crown of the same metal, set with
rubies and diamonds, covered with many ornaments of gold from the
tabsar, the circumference of which was embossed with similar stones:
under this window, the several ranks of the military were drawn out in
due gradation, until the last line took post in the _kashúdzár_ or
ample area, in which were posted soldiers of the lowest order. When
the king issued forth, like the sun, from the orient of the tabsar,
all the people prostrated themselves in adoration, and the monarch
devoted himself to the concerns of mankind. The _Tábsár_ is a place of
observation in a lofty pavilion, which the princes of Hindustan call a
_jahrokah_ or lattice window: on the other days, the king appeared
with similar brilliancy from the other Tábsárs. In like manner the
king, on their great festivals, went in choice garments to the temples
of the several images: and on his return seated himself in the Tábsár,
facing the image of the planet, or, having gone to the _Rózistán_ or
_Dádistán_, devoted himself to the affairs of state. This Rozistan was
a place which had no tábsár, where the king seated himself on the
throne, his ministers standing around in due gradation.――The
_Dádistán_ was the hall of justice, where, when the king was seated,
no one was prevented from having access to him: so that the king first
came to the Tábsár, then to the rózistán, and lastly to the Dádistán.
Also on whatever day a planet moved out of one celestial house to
another, and on all great festival days, the king went to the temple
appropriate to the occasion. Each of the planetary forms had also its
peculiar Tábsár, in the same manner as we have before stated
concerning the royal Tábsár; and on a happy day, or festival, they
brought the image to its Tábsár, The king went first and offered up
prayer, standing in the Tábsár of the image, the nobles placed around
according to their gradations, whilst the people were assembled in
great multitudes in the _Kashúdzár_, offering up prayers to the
planet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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