Originally published in Shahrvand English (N° 4) – October 26, 2004
Some time ago, a non-Iranian friend of mine and I were talking about the days of the week and I was teaching her the Persian words for the days-of-the-week. Shanbeh, Yek-Shanbeh, Do-Shanbeh, and so on. She already knew the Persian numbers up to ten, so I told her you simply have to learn the word Shanbeh, and then add the number to the front of it.
Then she asked me, what does the word ‘Shanbeh’ mean? I was surprised at the question and more so at the fact that I had no satisfactory answer to it. At first I had thought that it could mean ‘day’, but I wasn’t sure.
At the first chance, I looked up the word ‘Shanbeh’ in the Mo’een Persian Encyclopaedia. The answer that I found shocked me for two reasons: first that I hadn’t recognized the root from the beginning and secondly at the implications of it.
The word ‘Shanbeh‘ is derived from the Semitic word ‘Sabbath,’ which is described as ‘the first day of the week for Muslims and Jews’. This makes it no coincidence that ‘Shanbeh’ is Saturday, which is the Jewish day of Sabbath. The implication of ‘Shanbeh’s etymology is that the name for this day of the week must have been instituted after the Arabic Invasion of Iran. Our days of the week, as we call them now, are from the post-Islamic Era. This naturally begs the question, what were the names of the days of the week before the Arab Invasion?
The answer is in fact non-existent, because there is no answer to this question. In the pre-invasion times, the Persians had no week! The story goes as such. Each year had twelve months, and each month had exactly thirty days. As we know, our months don’t all have thirty days, therefore by the Old Persian calendar there would be five extra days each year. These five days were a period of festivity and celebration at the end of each year.
Much like the name of the months, each day of the month had its own name. Twelve of the day-names were the same as the month-names. When the day-name and the month name corresponded would be a holiday and a day of celebration. In fact two of the biggest celebrations of Old Iran were Mehregan and Tiragan. The former was celebrated on 16th day of the month of Mehr, which was called Mehr-rooz; and the latter was celebrated on 4th day of the month of Tir, which was called Tir-rooz.
Not surprisingly, these names have their roots in Zoroastrianism. The Zoroastrians at the time used a ‘Mesopotamian Calendar’ which consisted of twelve months, with thirty days each (they would add a month every six years to get back in line with the solar calendar), and the beginning of the New Year always fell on the Spring Equinox. During the 5th century B.C. – at the time of the Achamaenians – they decided to ‘personalize’ their calendar. The first month was named after the Guardian angel, six of the remaining months were named after the Archangels (the Amesh Spentas) and the remaining months were named after five of the angels (the Yazatas). The names were as follows:
Pahlavi Name | Modern Name |
Fravashis | Farvardin |
Ardwahisht | Ordibehesht |
Hordad | Khordaad |
Tir | Tir |
Amurdad | (A)mordaad |
Shahrewar | Shahrivar |
Mihr | Mehr |
Aban | Aabaan |
Adar | Aazar |
Dae | Dey |
Vohuman | Bahman |
Spandarmad | Esfand |
The day-names of the old calendar also came from the Yazatas, and were: Ohrmazd, Bahman, Ordibehest, Shahrivar, Esfand, Khordaad, Amordaad, Dey-be-Aazar, Aazar, Abaan, Khor, Mah, Tir, Gosh, Dey-be-Mehr, Mehr, Soroush, Rashan, Farvardin, Bahraam, Raam, Baad, Dey-be-Din, Din, Arad, Ashtad, Asman, Zamyaad, Mahrespandaan, Aniraan.
During the time of the Sassanid King, Ardeshir, Zoroastrianism was installed as the religion of the State; and it was during his reign that it was decided that the five extra days be added to the end of the year after the last month, and they were named after the five Gathas: Ahunavad, Ustavad, Spentomad, Vohuxsathra, Vahistoist.
So why and when did this all change? And why does the world operate on a weekly basis? One must keep in mind the dominance of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which are all Semitic religions. All cultures that came in touch with these religions, over time, changed to the system of the seven-day week.
The Romans, for example, had a notion of the week, but it was not a seven-day week (their month had three special days, and all other days were referenced with respect to these three days of the month). However after the arrival of Christianity, they changed into the seven-day week. It should be noted that such a method of incorporation is not entirely uncommon. Some subscribe to the theory that the reason we have a 12/24 hour day, is because the modern clock was first constructed in the Middle Ages, under the dominant rule of Christianity, and the choice of twelve is supposed to correspond to the number of Apostles in Christianity.
The final question then is, why seven days? The answer is simple and is in fact given in the first page of the Old Testament: God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rested, the Jewish Sabbath, or to Iranians, Shanbeh!