Simple Cloths & Grand Stories Areez Katki’s Bildungsroman
A little-known Parsi legend relates that an ancient textile fragment torn from a girl’s dress, and found centuries later embedded in the crevice of a mountainside in the Iranian province of Yazd, belonged to Banu Pars, daughter of the last Sassanian King of Persia, who was separated from her family during the Islamic invasion of 651 AD. Banu Pars fled, alone and on foot, disguised in the clothes of a commoner. Without food or water, and certain that she would perish, the Princess prayed for help, and her prayers were answered, not by Dadar Ahura Mazda, the supreme God of Zoroastrianism, but by Anahita, the goddess of fertility, who conjured a stream from the young girl’s tears to quench her thirst and parted the barren mountainside to reveal a verdant valley where she might find shelter, sustenance and safety.
The mountain closed behind Banu Pars, and the torn piece of fabric is believed to be the one tangible remnant testifying to her deliverance.
Auckland textile artist Areez Katki shared the legend of Banu Pars with the capacity crowd gathered in the auditorium of UXBRIDGE Arts & Culture in Howick on a sunny Sunday morning in February. We were there to.
