Shirin and Farhad

Sue,

Khosro was a Persian king and the husband of Shirin.  Farhad who was a mountain digger fell in love with the king's wife.  Noticing that Farhad will never give up his love by any means or threats, Khosro askes him to dig through a huge mountain called Bistoon to obtain Shirin.  Bistoon was made of hard rocks, but Khosro was asured that even if the mountain had been made of soft mud Farhad would have been unable to complete the task.  Farhad was so resolute and so much in love with Shirin that after a short time Khosro realized that he was sure to cut through the mountain and steal his wife away from him.  He tried to discourage Farhad in many ways, but nothing seemed to work.  In the end his advisors told him that the only way to discourage this ardent lover was to tell him that the beloved Shirin no longer existed.  The king does this.  He sends an old woman to Farhand, asking her to pretend that she is a passerby.  In the conversation that happens between them, the woman tells Farhad that the beloved for whom he is cutting through the mountain is no longer alive.  Upon hearing the news of Shirin's death, instead of hitting the ax on the mountain, Farhad brings the final blow of his ax on his own head and dies.

I have a picture of Bistoon which shows the rememnats of Farhad's ax.  Unfortunately, I could not attach it to this post.  I'll ask Faranak to do this. People visit Bistoon like a holy shrine in Iran.   If you ever visit Iran this is one of the places we will visit.

One of my nieces is called Shirin.  It is a very common name in Iran.

Ali from the land of lovers