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ELEPHANT
(Pers.
p^l,
f^l).
Although
elephants
are
normally
associated
with
the
humid
tropical
regions
of
sub-Saharan
Africa,
India,
and
Southeast
Asia,
in
antiquity
their
natural
habitat
extended
more
widely.
According
to
Assyrian
and
Egyptian
sources,
elephants
lived
wild
on
the
middle
Euphrates
and
it
was
there
that
the
ancient
Babylonians
encountered
the
animal
that
they
called
p^ru
or
pe@ru,
from
which
name
is
derived
the
words
for
"elephant"
in
the
Iranian
languages:
Old
Persian
p^ru-
(attested
only
in
the
meaning
"ivory"),
Middle
and
New
Persian
p^l,
Sogdian
py’,
K¨úa@rizmian
pyz.
The
word
has
also
entered
some
Semitic
languages
(Syr.,
p^la@,
Ar.
f^l)
and
even
languages
of
Northern
Europe
(Old
Norse
and
Icelandic
f^ll,
evidently
borrowed
from
Arabic
or
Persian
by
Viking
raiders
in
Southern
Russia).
In
Southern
and
Southeastern
Asia
elephants
have
from
ancient
times
been
used
as
work
animals,
but
in
the
Near
East
they
have
always
been
known
only
as
sources
of
ivory
and
as
instruments
of
warfare.
By
the
Achaemenid
period
elephants
must
already
have
died
out
in
Syria;
one
of
Darius'
inscriptions
from
Susa
(DSf
43),
while
listing
the
exotic
materials
which
the
king
had
had
imported
from
the
various
provinces
of
his
empire,
mentions
ivory
brought
from
Nubia
(Ku@æa-)
and
Sindh
(Hindu-),
but
also
from
Arachosia
(Harauvati,
modern
Southern
Afghanistan).
The
Achaemenids
must
also
have
made
some
use
of
war
elephants,
for
Greek
authors
mention
their
presence
on
the
Persian
side
during
Alexander's
battle
at
Arbela
in
331
B.C.
The
Seleucids
used
elephants
in
their
wars
against
the
Romans.
Mas¿u@d^
(Moru@j,
ed.
Pellat,
I,
p.
321)
says
that
the
Sasanian
K¨osrow
II
Parve@z
kept
a
thousand
white
elephants,
and
other
Arabic
sources
speak
of
the
Persians'
use
of
elephants
against
the
invading
Arabs
during
the
battle
of
Qa@des^ya
in
14/635.
Zoroastrians,
who
divide
all
animals
into
the
good
creatures
of
Ahura
Mazda
and
the
noxious
creations
of
Ahreman,
put
elephants
in
the
latter
category.
The
Bundahiæn
(tr.
Anklesaria,
chap.
23)
mentions
elephants
and
lions
as
examples
of
those
noxious
creatures
(xrafstar)
which,
unlike
snakes,
lizards
and
the
like,
physically
resemble
the
good
creatures.
A
curious
passage
in
the
Pahlavi
Rivayat
(ed.
Williams,
31b,
2-3)
tells
how
the
demons
(de@wa@n)
offered
to
give
elephants
to
mankind
if
the
latter
agreed
to
"kill
the
cattle"
(i.e.,
presumably,
to
sacrifice
it
to
the
demons),
but
Jamæe@d
stopped
them
from
accepting
the
offer.
Compare
also
Me@no@g
^
xrad
(ed.
Anklesaria,
27.33a;
missing
in
the
P@azand/Sanskrit
version),
which
praises
Jamæe@d
for
the
fact
that
"he
did
not
give
the
cattle
to
the
demons
in
exchange
for
elephants."
However,
the
use
of
war
elephants
and
of
ivory
both
by
the
Achaemenids
and
by
the
Sasanians
suggests
that
religiously
inspired
repugnance
to
elephants
may
not
have
been
universal.
In
the
Islamic
period
it
was
the
Ghaznavids
who
first
and
most
famously
made
extensive
military
use
of
elephants,
imported
from
their
possessions
in
Northern
India,
and
elephants
evidently
played
a
major
role
in
the
Ghaznavid
ideology
as
symbols
of
power
and
authority.
A
thousand
elephants
are
said
to
have
been
kept
in
a
p^l-kòa@na
in
Ghazna,
some
of
which
were
distributed
as
gifts
to
allied
rulers
(Bosworth).
Later
the
Ghurids
also
made
wide
use
of
elephants
in
warfare,
but
after
the
Mongol
conquest
elephants
ceased
to
play
a
significant
role
in
the
military
history
of
Persia.
Elephants
play
an
important
part
in
the
heroic
episodes
of
Ferdows^'s
ˆa@h-na@ma
(which
was
dedicated
to
the
Ghaznavid
Mahámu@d)
and
in
similar
works
by
his
imitators
(see
EPICS),
where
the
heroes
are
often
compared
to
elephants,
especially
"drunken"
(p^l-e
mast)
or
"rampant"
(z/‘anda-p^l)
ones.
"Elephant-bodied"
(p^l-tan)
is
a
common
epithet
of
the
Iranian
heroes,
especially
Rostam.
Bibliography:
C.
E.
Bosworth,
"Ghaznavid
military
organisation,"
Der
Islam
36,
1961,
pp.
27-77,
esp.
61-64.
Idem,
"F^l.
As
Beasts
of
War"
in
EI2
II,
pp.
893-94.
M.
Hilzheimer,
"Elefant"
in
Reallexikon
der
Assyriologie
II,
1933-38,
p.
354.
A.
Tafazzoli,
"Elephant:
A
Demonic
creature
and
a
Symbol
of
Sovereignty,"
Monumentum
H.S.
Nyberg,
Acta
Iranica
5,
Leiden,
Tehran,
and
Lieàge,
1975,
pp.
395-98.
(François
De
Blois)
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