TEHRAN -- The dotar, literally means “two strings” in Persian, is a mean for oral literature. It conveys the folk stories and anecdotes of past generations.

It comes from a family of long-necked lutes and can be found throughout Central Asia, the Middle East and as far as the North East of China in Xinjiang too.

In Iran, the dotar is played mainly in the north and the east of Khorasan as well as among the Turkmen of Gorgan and Gonbad.

Stories of Shah Esmaeil, Taher and Zohreh, Kur Oglu, Gharib and Shah-Sanam, Gol-Afruz and Dust Mohammad are amongst the fables narrated with dotar playing.

------------- Taher and Zohreh: A love story

“Taher and Zohreh” is a love story in Turkmen folklore, which is comparable with the famous Persian love story Leila and Majnun adopted by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209).

The story is well-known amongst Turkic peoples in central Asia, Azerbaijan and Anatolia as well as in the Turkic Uyghur folk music under the title of “Tohir and Zuhra”.

There are six or seven versions of the story; all of them concentrate on the borderless power of love.

The Turkmen poets Sayeed Mohammad Sayedi and Mullanepes adopted the folk story and versified the fiction.

The story is about a padshah (king) and vizier (minister) who don’t have any children. A gardener hears about their problem and gives them two apples.

He asks them to share the apples with their wives to have children. However they promise if they have a son and a daughter, they marry to each other.

The king fathers a baby girl named Zohreh and the vizier has a son named Taher but he never got to see it as he died before his wife gave birth to his child.

Zohreh and Taher go to the same school and they gradually fall in love with each other, which angers the king.

He orders to put Taher in a box and throw it at sea but Zohreh asks the carpenter to seal it so that the water does not sink the box.

The king of Rome then takes the box and asks Taher to marry one of his daughters, and he is obliged to accept it, meanwhile Zohreh was also forced to marry another man.

However she desperately searches for Taher who is eventually found by a caravan and returned back to his homeland, but the king orders his execution.

Zohreh goes to visit his grave and in desperation kills herself with a sword but her husband refuses to bury her beside Taher. Her husband then kills himself and lies to rest between Zoreh and Taher.

A thorn grows out of her husband´s grave and two flowers grow out of Zohreh and Taher’s tombs. As a sign of their unconditional love, those two flowers grow up and join together above the thorn.

----------- Taher and Zohreh memorial complex in Uzbekistan

A memorial complex was established in the Guzar District, Qashqadaryo Province in Uzbekistan.

According to a legend, Taher and Zohreh, tragic lovers whom painfully echoed in the hearts of Turkic peoples, were buried there.

The burial place of the loving couple is located in a picturesque park where newlyweds come with hope to have a lasting wedlock. Here one can also see the box into which by order of a shah, Taher was locked in and thrown into a river.

PHOTO: A scene from Turkmen rituals during a wedding ceremony (Photo: Mohammadreza Afraz)
SB/
END