Shahmaran

For the village in Iran, see Shahmaran, Iran.

Şahmaran

Shahmaran (Persian: شاهماران, Kurdish: Şahmaran, Şamaran; Turkish: Şahmeran, Tatar: Şahmara / Шаһмара / شاهمار, literally, shah (king) of the snakes.) is a mythical creature from the folklore of the Kurdish and The Turkish people in Eastern Turkey, today's Southern, Central and Eastern Anatolia, Iran and Iraq. The name of Shahmaran comes from words "Shah" and "Maran". "Shah" is the Iranic title for a king, primarily the leader of the Iranians and their land and "Mar" means snake in Kurdish and Persian language . In plural "Mar-an" means snakes. Shahmaran is known as the queen of the serpents.

Mythology

Form and function

The Shahmaran is often depicted as a wise and benign woman, having female features above the waist and those of a serpent below. She is held to be queen of the snakes. When the Shahmaran dies, it is said that her spirit will pass to her daughter. The legend is as follows: Once there existed a woman, "Shahmaran", who loved a man named "Tasmasp. He was in love with her and would listen to her stories, but when she had no more to tell he went back to his country, taking Shahmaran with him. . When Tasmasp came back to his land, the king there became very ill and one of the king's helpers told him that the only way to get better was to eat Shahmaran. They took people, one by one, into the hamam to see if snake scales would come up, and when Tasmsp went, he was forced to tell where Shahmaran was hiding. When they found her, she said, "Whomsoever takes a bite from my snake scales will gain the secrets of the world, but whomever takes a bite of my head will die instantly." Tasmasp took a bite of the head and the evil helper took a bite of the scales, but the helper died, and Tasmasp was not affected at all. Shahmaran had helped her lover while simutaneously killing her enemy. ^[1]^[2]

In Turkey, Shahmaran is believed to live in the Mediterranean town of Tarsus. A similar legend is told in the Mardin region. In this region she is depicted with famous Shahmaran pictures.

Legend

Thousands of years ago, there were snakes living in the underground. Their names in Persian are maran and they were all wise and caring. They lived in peace. The queen of marans is called Shahmaran. She is a young and beautiful lady. According to legend, Cemshab is the first human being to have seen them. He sells wood for a living. One day he and his friend explored a cave with full of honey; but his friends are badly persons so they leave him in cave so they can take more honey. After Cemshab see a hole in cave there is light. He enlarged it he encounter a garden that is magnificent. He enters the garden. There are flowers and snakes. One of them is coloured milk-white, and is the most beautiful. He gain her trust, he live for long years there. After years he insisted to go for seeing his family. So Shahmaran let him go providing that he won't tell anyone where she is. He keep his word for long time. But one day sultan of land get sick, vizier says that only cure is eating meat of Shahmaran and Cemshab shows the way. She says to şehmab "make me boil in earthenware dish.let the sultan eat my meat and make vizier drink my boiled water". When it happens vizier died, sultan keep living. Cemshab become vizier. According to legend snakes don't know Shahmaran is dead. One day snakes will occupy Tarsus when they learn it.

Popular culture

In the novel Zariel's Doom (2014) by Joseph Robert Lewis, the character of Marana is a woman with the lower body of a snake who lives alone in the wilderness and offers help to the heroes. She reveals that she was once in love, was betrayed, and was nearly eaten by her betrayer.

A 1944 fairy tale book called The Ring of Shah Maran, A Story from the Mountains of Kurdistan by Raphael Emmanuel tells the folk story of a boy that shares bread with animals and earns the respect of Shahmaran.^[3]

References