Friday, May 27, 2011

Who Was the Princess of Oroumieh?

See earlier post - about Oroumieh Lake dying a not-so-slow death due to the short-sighted policies of the totally incompetent regime currently ruling in Iran.

According to information in the article, there is a legend that says that the lake formed on the spot where, 1000 years ago, a Princess of Oroumieh was killed while trying to warn the locals of an invasion.

I was not able to find any information on this Princess (of) Oroumieh in the Encyclopedia Iranica online or in a general google search.  No similar name (at least, with the spelling beginning with the letter "O") was found in Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.

So - who was this princess?  I'm wondering if the dating might not be a little off - say by some 400 years or so?  Herstory tells us that hordes of Muslims invaded Iran in the 630s-640's CE and eventually succeeded in deposing the Sassinid Dynasty from the rule of formerly mighty and civilized Persia.  Was the Princess killed while warning the city of a Muslim invasion? Because of the location of the lake, I'm also wondering if the Princess might not have been a Christian - perhaps of an Armenian family. 

In the green and beautiful city of Oroumieh, famous for peaceful coexistence between Azeri people, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians as well as Muslims and Christians, talk about the fate of the lake is common among ordinary people in teahouses and on the streets.  This inter-religious and inter-racial harmony, alone, is certainly reason enough for the current Iranian regime to want to kill the city of Oroumieh!

Beyond the debates by national and local authorities some folks here suggest another way Oroumieh could be saved.



A local legend says wild purple gladiolas have had a miraculous role in doing just that. The flowers have grown every year for a thousand years in the spot where a princess of Oroumieh was killed as she warned the people of the city about an invading enemy. As a recent sunset turned the lake golden, Kamal the boatman tried to find some hope in the returning blossoms.


"You see, still wild purple gladiolas are appearing in the spring," he said. "The city and its lake can eventually survive."  How the Revolutionary Guard and the Ayatollah and his cohorts must be gnashing their teeth that such legends still survive from the Grand Days of the Persian Empire, before its descent into the Maws of Islamic Hell.  It must particularly irk them that the this still-living legend features a non-Muslim WOMAN!  Morever, it is a legend featuring a woman and a city that still embodies traces of harmony and peace from the long by-gone eon when the Goddess ruled supreme in the world and humankind invented beer and wine-making, tamed animals, invented weaving and the making of cloth, learned bee-keeping, the art of medicine, and invented agriculture. 

Will the Princess of Oroumieh come back once again and save the people of the city, before it is too late? 

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