Fateme Mehri
Abstract
Although the rhino has never been a native animal of Iran, Iranians have long been familiar with it due to their proximity to India and their connections to China and North Africa, ...
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Although the rhino has never been a native animal of Iran, Iranians have long been familiar with it due to their proximity to India and their connections to China and North Africa, which were the main habitats of the animal. Signs of this familiarity can be found in various texts, including geographical and zoological texts as well as Persian poetry. However, due to the small number of rhinos, the distance of its habitats and the few direct observations of the animal, we are faced with different narratives about rhinos in different sources. This diversity sometimes causes the figure of the animal to be drawn as if we are dealing with a creature other than a rhino. Variety in denominations has also been associated with and reinforced this multiplicity. In this article, we try to examine the depiction of this animal through ancient scientific and Persianate literature. One of our main findings is that, as evidenced by several texts and images, some Iranians in some eras considered rhinos to be huge birds. We have tried to demonstrate the process of formation this belief according to the biological characteristics attributed to the rhino to show which ideas played a role in the emergence of this belief. For this purpose, in addition to Persian sources, we have also used texts written in Arabic but in the field of Iranian culture. We have also pointed out that some of the literary depictions of rhino in ancient Persian poetry, such as its fight with elephant, are not made by the creators’ imaginations, but are taken from animal-related sources in ancient cultures, and by searching these sources, one can retrieve the background of such depictions and show their antiquity. It can also be shown to what extent ancient zoological ideas have been the result of a combination of texts with different origins and scientific and cultural exchanges among previous civilizations
