- 5 minutes ago
Alfred visits the ruins of Hassan-i Sabbah's fortress, home to a movement known as Hashshashins, drug smokers and killers who formed the origin of the modern word assassin, the government wishes to develop links between other countries along the illustrious road.
世纪源于伊朗北部的尼查里伊斯玛仪派，以阿拉穆特堡为据点，通过“菲达伊”敢死队实施精准政治刺杀，威慑塞尔柱王朝与十字军，1256 年被蒙古旭烈兀大军彻底剿灭；其名称演变为西方"assassin"一词源头
世纪源于伊朗北部的尼查里伊斯玛仪派，以阿拉穆特堡为据点，通过“菲达伊”敢死队实施精准政治刺杀，威慑塞尔柱王朝与十字军，1256 年被蒙古旭烈兀大军彻底剿灭；其名称演变为西方"assassin"一词源头
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TravelTranscript
00:02as a reporter I've traveled the Middle East for many years it's an area that
00:07has always fascinated me but in my work I've mainly covered its war zones its
00:11crises and its tragedies this journey which takes me down the Silk Road in the
00:15footsteps of Marco Polo gives me the opportunity of exploring the great
00:19historical and cultural significance of this part of the world it's ancient
00:23melting pot of peoples and civilizations that have contributed so much to our own
00:50my journey through Iran takes me next to Kazvin which was once a major stop on
00:55the caravan route a city of 400,000 inhabitants nestled in the foothills
00:59of the spectacular El Boz mountain range Kazvin marks the entrance to the lands
01:04historically associated with Persia in contrast to the Kurdish and Azeri regions
01:09to the west and north of present-day Iran
01:25the more you discover about this country the more you realize that there's an
01:28ongoing conversation between the Iran of today and the Persia of the past so much
01:33so that you sometimes get the feeling that you're actually treading in the footsteps of
01:36the merchants who traveled the Silk Road
01:41Kazvin was easier to defend than Tabriz and it became the capital of the Empire under the
01:45dynasty of the Safavid Shars in the 16th century this was the last century of prosperity for trade on the
01:51Silk Road
02:20before the maritime routes took over
02:22the hot air goes out while the cold air circulates at ground level
02:24in here the temperature is quite pleasant
02:30one of the things that strikes me the most about Iranians is that they have a
02:33deeply ingrained love of culture it's obvious that culture plays a very
02:37important role in their lives and not only among the elite anyone will be happy to
02:41tell you about the great events in Persian history the great poets the great
02:45builders and the journalists at if a Husseini is no exception to the rule she
02:49works for the local newspaper in Kazvin and certainly has a lot to say look out
02:56on the high was a caravanser I actually more like a hotel or a bazaar a group of
03:00shops and I got boutique had both of them together this place was on the Silk Road as
03:07you know and many people stopped here since they needed somewhere to stay there
03:12were places in which they could be housed something like today's hotel rooms but
03:16and at the same time it was useful for the people of Kazvin this place was like a
03:21bazaar like a market for them in other words they could come and sell their
03:25products to the people who are staying here and so it also had an economic
03:28function you're very passionate about the Silk Road but is it something that
03:33interests young Iranians nowadays at the beginning of the 21st century
03:38my interest in the Silk Road comes from my love of Iranian history of the past of
03:43the ancient culture of this country we can't say that all Iranians are
03:47knowledgeable about the history of their country but the number of people for
03:51whom it is important who do research and who have a lot of knowledge about our
03:54history is really quite high the truth is that in most cities in Iran history is
03:59alive and you can't say that those cities don't have any identity this caravanser
04:07eyes like a palace which tells us that Kazvin was once a major capital but now in
04:11comparison to other cities in Iran it's quite small with 500,000 inhabitants so
04:16other a lot of cultural activities for you to cover as a journalist here in this
04:22city there are a lot of people from different backgrounds so you have a whole
04:26variety of cultures here and that gives you a lot to write about that's one of
04:31my favorite subjects and I'd like to delve into it more later on to make social
04:35documentaries the last article I wrote was about women and the economic crisis it
04:40was called living on a mine it was about women who have to beg in the streets and
04:45how to find solutions to help them stop because if it's painful to beg it's even
04:49worse for women without doubt the history of their country matters a lot to
04:55Iranians and in particular the history of jadea abrisham the Silk Road a little
04:59further on as we meander through the bazaar I find out that the city of Kazvin has
05:04even created a special Silk Road office and appointed an international
05:08representative to handle the subject I'm very surprised to see that Iran has an
05:13office dedicated to the Silk Road when did you set it up and why about ten years ago an NGO
05:23called WCO the world citizens organization decided to start up a
05:28discussion in Korea between the mayors of cities located on the Silk Road their
05:36aim was to reconstruct the Silk Road not physically but as a functional and
05:41cultural entity if one considers its origins the Silk Road is a route one
05:48might say a space that connects different cultures and traditions
05:57the 11th summit was held from the 2nd to the 5th of September 2016 in the city of
06:02Kazvin it brought together the mayors of 200 cities in 67 countries around the
06:08world from Southeast Asia to Western Europe
06:11that's the embargo's over shape
06:14love you say that there are 67 countries on the Silk Road committee but what I
06:18don't understand is that from Turkey to China there aren't in fact 67 countries
06:22who are the members of your organization is you I'm all hope you're right there
06:28aren't 67 countries along the Silk Road and even all of the cities in our own
06:33country Iran are not actually on the Silk Road in reality it's become a pretext for
06:37creating a connection between different peoples and different cities and it's
06:41based on mutual respect between the peoples and traditions that exist in all of
06:45these countries
06:48in short this project launched by the WCO or world citizens organization is a
06:52little vague but what is interesting is how proud certain countries especially
06:56Iran and China have become of their historical ties to the Silk Road traveling from
07:01Kazvin one heads into the El Burz Mountains a vast chain of peaks rising to
07:05over 5,671 meters at Mount Damavand north of Tehran for a long time these
07:12mountains were a favorite hideout for bandits and caravan looters but they
07:15weren't the only ones here for several centuries these remote valleys also
07:19provided shelter for a sect known as the Nizaris who in the 10th century broke away
07:23from the Ismailis who themselves were an offshoot of Shia Islam as Muslims they
07:29were thus a minority within a minority a group that was often persecuted
07:57this is an amazing sight it's just spectacular we're over 2,000 meters above sea level it's like an eagle's
08:02nest
08:03this place is called Alamut it's the fortress of the old man on the mountain
08:07Hassan yes about the founder of this smiley sect known as the hashish in you
08:11they were called hashish in because they grew hashish which Hassan Isaba would give
08:16to his young recruits to smoke he'd have to spend a few days in a beautiful garden
08:21meet virgin girls etc yeah he made them believe they were in paradise then he take
08:26the hashish away the guys were in withdrawal they were junkies they need
08:30say go kill one of my enemies for me it might be a Muslim emir or one of the
08:35leaders of the Crusades after you murder him you'll go straight to heaven you'll be
08:39killed right away but you'll go and live in paradise and since the guys wanted to
08:44get their drugs back to return to that heavenly garden be with those girls again
08:47they would go and do it so that's how they got the name hashish in smoker of hashish
08:54which is the word assassin comes from basically Hassan Isaba invented suicide bombing
09:05a wonderful novel by Amin Malouf tells the story of the friendship between the old man on the mountain and
09:11many the prophet of Manichaean dualism and the great mystic poet Omar Khayyam it's
09:16called the gardens of light I read it as a teenager since then I've always
09:20dreamed of visiting Alamut or at least what is left of it
09:34the solitude of the Elburs mountains will soon give way to the noise and crowds
09:38of Tehran the Iranian capital with its skyscrapers and monstrous traffic jams
09:46Tehran is built on the southern slopes of the Elburs mountains at 1300 meters above sea level from the
09:52top of the city you can hop onto a chairlift that will take you straight up to the ski slopes
09:55this
09:57may be the only capital in the world that turns into a ski resort during the winter season Tehran is
10:03a city that has mushroomed in the last 25 years tripling in size to nearly 15 million
10:08people if you look behind me you'll see how spread out it is it's now 50 kilometers wide and 30
10:13kilometers
10:13long hardly the small provincial town that travelers used to come across on the old Silk Road
10:22this flourishing mega city also testifies to the extraordinary flair for business and trade that
10:26the Persians and then the Iranians have always had they dominated the Silk Road very early on and
10:31controlled the routes from India and China to present-day Turkey and Europe
10:38what is perhaps the most surprising thing about Tehran is the contrast between the two Irans
10:43one which is rather hidebound the Islamic Republic with its huge portraits of the Ayatollah Khomeini and its slogans
10:49against America the great Satan and the other a country of young people a capital in full economic boom
10:56impatiently waiting for the sanctions connected with the nuclear conflict to be lifted
11:07Iran is constantly navigating between these paradigms like these women who are playing sports in
11:12sweatsuits while also wearing the mandatory hijab or those couples who are flirting discreetly in spite of
11:20the ban imposed by the religious police this is Lali Park one of the big parks in Central Tehran a
11:27lush oasis in
11:28the midst of this gargantuan metropolis and a favorite hangout for the local chess players
11:47from what I can see they're very good players which is quite logical since this is in fact the
11:52homeland of chess the first historical reference to the game they call chat range which is an Arabic
11:57word I'm was in Iran or rather in Persia in 600 B.C.
12:07There are several theories about where the game comes from nowadays most people agree that it originated in India
12:14it was formalized and popularized in Iran then it was brought to Spain by the Arabs around the 10th century
12:19that's how Europeans were introduced to this game and they developed a passion for it during the Middle Ages
12:28according to the legend in the 6th century an Indian ambassador brought the game of four kings or
12:33chat range to the court of Koshro the first the emperor or Shah of Persia in order to test his
12:38intelligence
12:39in reality the game probably circulated among the nomadic peoples of Central Asia before it arrived in Persia via the
12:46trade routes and the same nomads would
12:48later bring it with them to the Arabian Peninsula in fact Ali was married to Fatima the prophet Mohammed's daughter
12:55was an avid chess player
12:58from Arabia the game traveled by the Arab conquest to Andalusia and from there it spread to the rest of
13:03Europe in the Middle Ages
13:07so the game they play here called chat range is basically the same as the chess that's played in Europe
13:13but the terms they use are either Indian or Iranian so the king is well the king the queen is
13:20not a lady in Iran but the vizier the minister
13:23and it's not the bishop here but rather the elephant beyond that however the way the pieces are moved is
13:29the same as in the western version
13:32in the Arab regions the game of chess was soon banned by purist muslim theologians based on the Quranic precept
13:38that the use of figurines representing the human form is impious the pieces thus took on a form that is
13:45usually abstract
13:46and identifiable via its designs in Persia on the other hand the pieces often kept their figurative shape
13:52such as for example the horse
14:03but my level is uh
14:07he's asking do you know the
14:09the
14:09the
14:09the
14:22the
14:23the
14:23the
14:23the
14:23the
14:29the
14:32the
14:33the
14:33chest belongs to the traditional Indo-Oriental roots of Persia
14:37but the Iran of today is not at all a monolithic block
14:40there's an intermingling of influences from the East as well as from the West
14:43the traditions of the past encounter the new trends embraced by the younger generation
14:48which often yearns for a more modern more open society
14:51slim jeans bandanas an electro remix by Pink Floyd blasting in the background
14:56Iranian youth are thoroughly imbued with American culture
15:00In the end, the Silk Road was just as much about exchanges between cultures as it was
15:05between trade and commerce.
15:06And here in Tehran, we can see that those cultural exchanges are still going on today,
15:10although it's no longer on the backs of Bactrian camels, but on the back of the internet.
15:15For example, around us in a skate park, we can see the influence of American culture.
15:19It may seem a little paradoxical since America officially remains the great Satan in the
15:23eyes of the Shiite clerics who rule the country, but this skate park is perfectly legal.
15:29Hi Mickey, so how old are you and how long have you been skateboarding?
15:33I'm 19 years old and I'm skating for like six years, six years and a half.
15:39How long have people been skateboarding in Iran?
15:42Around 20 years, 15 years.
15:45You know, it's in progress.
15:47People are skating more than ever.
15:50When people began skating 20 years ago, that was when Iran was still very isolated and above
15:55all from the United States.
15:57Skateboarding is totally American, so how do you deal with that contradiction?
16:01You know, skateboarding is not, it's a way of life, you know.
16:05We don't combine together, combine them together, you know.
16:10When you skate, you know, when you skate with an American skater, you don't see, you know,
16:15things in between, you know.
16:17You just call that guy, you know.
16:19You just call that guy your brother.
16:29You know, people always ask us, you know, what's like that to be, you know, skating, you know,
16:47and that's good.
16:48You know, we don't, we don't think where you're from, how you look, you know, we just escape.
16:55You say it's not the look that counts, but from what I can see, the look seems to be a
16:58big thing.
16:58Everyone's wearing slim jeans, bandanas on their heads, hip t-shirts, so what's going on?
17:03You know, it's because of what they listen to in music, you know.
17:07They listen to hip-hop, some of them listen to, like, metal or something like that.
17:13So, it's, I know, I know what you mean, but it's, you know, everybody's, everybody has
17:20a different, you know, style, but then, you know, when we speak, we have, like, the same
17:25thing to talk about, you know, people are more common, you know, kids, you know, like,
17:32eight years old, nine years old, they are skating, you know, it's in progress.
17:38How much time do you spend skateboarding?
17:40What do you like about this sport?
17:41Why are you so hooked on it?
17:43I skate, like, four hours a day, you know, after work, you know, after university.
17:51And, you know, skateboarding is way different than what people think, you know.
17:57They think that it's just a hobby.
17:59But, no, it's like, you know, it changed a lot of things in my life, you know.
18:04My behavior, you know, my attitude, and, you know, the way I dress, the way I, I mean,
18:12you know, clothes on.
18:14It's hard to explain, you know.
18:15It's like you are free when you skate.
18:18You don't have to think about tomorrow, you don't have to think about the past.
18:22You just skate and, you know, you are happy.
18:26You actually are happy, you know what I'm saying.
18:28And that's it.
18:29It's the best thing that ever happened.
18:32It's the best thing.
18:34It's the best thing.
18:39Right next to the skate park is the Tabiat Bridge, the nature bridge in Persian.
18:43The concept is more or less the same, a bold display of modernity with a stamp of approval
18:48from the Iranian authorities.
18:50This suspension bridge right in the heart of Tehran is quite astonishing, especially
18:54since it was designed by a young female architect.
18:56As you walk along this new bridge of size, you'll notice that here in the Iranian capital,
19:01the young women are extremely made up, often to the point of using plastic surgery.
19:06Moreover, they have a very minimalist approach to wearing the headscarf imposed by the regime.
19:10Circumventing social mores is a subtle art practiced by today's young couples,
19:14who indulge in the delights of flirting on this bridge.
19:18The Iranian name for polo is shogun, which means mallet.
19:23According to the legend, Alexander the Great received a ball and a mallet from Darius,
19:27the king of Persia, which basically meant, you're just a kid, keep playing.
19:34Alexander is said to have told him, you see this ball?
19:37Well, it's the earth, and this mallet is me, which shows what he thought of himself.
19:43But in fact, as history would prove, he knew what he wanted and he went after it.
19:50Considered an aristocratic sport, polo was banned by the Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 revolution
19:55that brought about the fall of the Shah Reza Pallavi.
19:58Ten years later, however, polo was rehabilitated because of its significance for the country's cultural history.
20:07Amir Ali Zulfogari is a big fan of polo. How many horses are needed to play in a polo match?
20:12You need at least four ponies, four horses, polo ponies, because you're not supposed to repeat in a match more
20:24than twice,
20:25depending on the number of chakas or periods in a match.
20:29Normally, in the lower levels of polo, with four is enough. As you go to higher level of matches, you
20:38might need up to ten, each player.
20:40Yeah, we need plenty.
20:47I'm not really going to play, huh? It's okay.
20:50So, in fact, polo was invented by the Scythians, a nomadic people who roamed the northern part of Iran.
20:58The emperor of Persia made them his cavalry. And in fact, we can see why, because polo is actually an
21:04excellent way of training.
21:06It was adopted by the cavalry. It's like a way of training for the battle before the real match.
21:30The Chinese believed that these horses came from the Figana Valley, which is now in Uzbekistan.
21:35In fact, the Persian dealers traded for them on farms throughout all of Central Asia and present-day Iran.
21:45The polo ponies nowadays is a mixed race, special race. In the higher level of polo, the thoroughbred, the English
21:53thoroughbred race is used,
21:54the same as a race horse. And we use the Turkmen horse mixed with the thoroughbred.
21:59The Turkmen horse mixed with the Arab or with the Kurdish horse as well. It's used a lot. And they
22:06do very well.
22:09The mare that I rode, Little Bird, is a good example of this. At the slightest pull on the reins,
22:14she twirls around and she can even stop in full gallop.
22:38Now it's time to leave Tehran, this time by train, to get to the city of Kashan.
22:43We'll be crossing a part of Dasht-e-li-Kavir, the big salt desert.
23:12The
23:12The
23:12The
23:13The
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