BĀDĀVARD

 

BĀDĀVARD (windfall), the name of one of the seven treasures of Ḵosrow Parvēz in the Šāh-nāma (Moscow ed., IX, p. 236 vv. 3790f.). The treasures of Ḵosrow Parvēz, including the bādāvard, are also mentioned by Ṯaʿālebī (Ḡorar, pp. 700f.), Gardīzī (ed. Ḥabībī, p. 36), and the Mojmal (p. 81). As for the origin of the bādāvard, according to Ṯaʿālebī when Ḵosrow Parvēz learned that the East Romans had rebelled against his father-in-law Mauricius and installed another emperor, he sent his general Šahrbarāz to the aid of Mauricius. Šahrbarāz based himself at Alexandria and prepared to attack Constantinople. Fear of an attack by Šahrbarāz daunted the new emperor so much that he had all the valuables in the Roman treasure-stores laden on a ship and then fled, but the wind drove the ship to Alexandria and all the valuables fell into the hands of Šahrbarāz, who took them with him to Iran. Ḵosrow Parvēz thanked God for sending the favorable wind and named the treasure bādāvard (lit., brought by the wind). This story, which is also given by Jāḥeẓ (Ketāb al-tāj, ed. A. Zéki Pacha, Cairo, 1914, pp. 180ff.) and Masʿūdī (Morūj, ed. Pellat, I, p. 311) and repeated by Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfī (Tārīḵ-egozīda, ed. ʿA. Navāʾī, Tehran, 1339 Š./1960, p. 122) and Ḵᵛāndamīr (Ḥabīb al-sīar, lithograph, Tehran, 1271/1855, p. 122), is a fiction invented to explain the name bādāvard. In the Šāh-nāma (V, p. 400 vv. 2796f.), Ḵosrow Parvēz’s treasures are said to have previously belonged to the past kings of Iran, and some of them, including the bādāvard, are said to have been first acquired by Kay Ḵosrow. The mentions of royal treasures, like those of exploits such as dragon-slaying, of occurrences of miracles, and of possession of divine fortune (farr) and distinctive bodily marks, must all be seen as arguments for the legitimacy of rulers. In the ideology of Iranian kingship, this was a matter of great importance (see Khaleghi-Motlagh, “Farāmarz-nāma,” Īrān-nāma 1/1, 1361 Š./1982, p. 43 n. 23).

The names of Ḵosrow Parvēz’s treasures were also applied to musical modes and melodies. One of the melodies ascribed to Bārbad, the chief minstrel in Ḵosrow Parvēz’s reign, bore the name bādāvard and is mentioned by several poets, among others by Neẓāmī Ganjavī (Ḵosrow o Šīrīn, Baku, 1960, p. 332, v. 4) and Manūčehrī (Dīvān, ed. Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1338 Š./1959, p. 19, v. 281).

 

Bibliography:

See also Mehrī Bāqerī, “Afdīhā-ye haždahgāna-ye Ḵosrow-e Parvīz,” NDA Tabrīz, 1357 Š./1978, no. 125, pp. 91-115.

Search terms:

 باد آورد badaward  badavard baadaaward
baadaavard baad aaward bad avard bad award

 

(Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh)

Originally Published: December 15, 1988

Last Updated: August 19, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 4, pp. 365-366