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Ancient Persians and Wine
(by Tirdâd
, Last update April 2004)

There are many evidences that Persia (Iran)  was the oldest wine-maker land in the world. Residue on a potsherd dating to the time of  the first permanent settlements in the Middle East suggests that wine-making  began 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. The sherd, ca. 7,000 years old, came from one of six two-and-one-half-gallon jars excavated two decades ago from the kitchen area of a mud-brick building in Hajji Firuz Tepe, a Neolithic village in Iran's northern Zagros Mountains. Using infrared spectrometry,  liquid chromatography, and a wet chemical test, Patrick E. McGovern and a  team from the University of Pennsylvania   Museum found calcium salt from tartaric acid, which occurs naturally in  large amounts only in grapes. Resin from the terebinth tree was also present,  presumably used as a preservative, indicating that the wine was deliberately  made and did not result from the unintentional fermentation of grape juice.             
Analysis of the Hajji Firuz Tepe sherd comes in the wake of two other recent  discoveries of early wine-making in this region where grapes grow in the wild. Residue from a jar from Godin Tepe, in the nearby middle Zagros Mountains,  was dated to 5,100 years ago, the earliest evidence of wine-making. Different evidences show that wine from the Zagros Mountains were traded as far as Cuprus and Egypt.


Vessel, Hajji Firuz Tepe, Iran
kneeling prince offering his cup of wine, 19th cent.
Lion rhyton, 500 BC
Found at a Neolithic village site in Iran, this jar was one of six vessels containing the remains of 7,000-year-old wine.
Kneeling prince offering his cup 
of wine
Lion rhyton, 550-450 B.C.
         
Wine Among the Ancient Persians
(author: J. Jamshedji Modi, 1888)
Now When the Abkari system of the Government of India is a topic of much discussion here and in England, the subject of my lecture this evening will, I hope, be interesting to you, especially to my Parsee hearers. The subject of temperance and total abstinence has drawn the attention of many well-wishers of our British Army, and among them of no less a personage than General Sir Frederick Roberts, our distinguished Commander-in-Chief, who, on account of his very celebrated march in the land of our fore-fathers, from the Kaboulistan and Zaboulistan of old to the town of Kandhar-and, on account of his equally-celebrated victory at the latter place, which reminded ns of the ancient Roman hero saying, on a similar occasion, " I came, I saw, and I conquered," was very aptly compared with the national hero of Iran, the Jehân Pehelvân Rustam, who had, as described by the great epic poet, Firdousi, performed the celebrated marches of the Haftekhâns, or Seven Stages. The object of my lecture today is to trace out a short history of the use of wine among the ancient Persians, from remote historic times up to the time of cur emigration to India- an emigration that has, after several great and important political changes, placed us under the fostering care of the benign British rule, whose kind shelter reminds us el the auspicious shadow of the fabulous Persian bird, Homâe, whose splendour reminds us of our Cyrus the Great, and whose justice reminds us of our Noshirvan the Just.
In all nations, and at all times, we find eminent men either singing the  praise of wine, or magnifying its evi1. If we have the excellent Koran preaching  against wine, we have the Divân of one of its disciples, Hafiz, praising  its virtue. If we have a Sir Walter Raleigh, or a great divine, to run down  the use of wine, we have a Martin Luther to extol it.
For example, the following two short lines of Martin Luther sum up, as it were, a few of the gazals of Hafiz: -
“Wer nicht liebt Wein. Weib und Gesang
Der bleibt ein Narrr sein Lebenlang."
(i.e. ) He who does not like wine, song, and wife,
Remains a fool for the whole of his life,
Compare with this the following lines of Hafiz: -
“Ishkbâzi, wa jawâni, wa sharb-i-lal fâm
Majlis-i-uns, wa harif-i-hamdam, wa sharb-i-modâm
Har ke in majlls bejuyad khush deli bar wal halâl
Wa ân ke in ashrat ne kbâbad zindagi bar wai harâm."
{i.e.) Love, youth, and ruby-coloured wine,
A friendly meeting, a congenial companion and
constant drinking.
He who is desirous of this number of pleasure is
Deserving of cheerfulness;
He who does not like these pleasures, may curse
be on his life.
Wine among Persians
On the other hand, this short definition of wine that " Wine is a turn-coat,  first a friend, and then an enemy" finds itself amplified in the following  denunciation of Sir Walter Raleigh, which says that, " Take especial care  that thou delight not ill wine, for there never was any man that came to honour or preferment that loved it; for it transformeth a man into a beast, decayeth the health, poisoneth the breath, destroyeth natural heat, brings a man's stomach to an artificial heat, deformeth the face, rotteth the teeth, and to conclude, maketh a man contemptible, soon old, and despised of all wise and worthy men, hated in thy servants, ill thyself and companions, for it is a bewitching and infectious vice."
Now, then, if we are asked what does the ancient Iranian literature teach? Does it run down its use or sing its praise? We would say that it does neither the one nor the other. The Iranian literature preaches temperance in the strictest sense of the word, but not ill the sense of " total abstinence," in which it is generally understood by the temperance societies. It does not totally prohibit the use of wine. The wine used by the Persians of very early times was the innocent juice of grapes. It was very sweet and nourishing. The fermented juice of grapes was used very rarely, and that as a medicine.

King Jamsheed (the Yima Khushaeta of the Avesta,  and Yama of the Vedas), the fourth monarch of the Peshdâdyan Dynasty  of Persia, was the first monarch in whose reign wine was discovered and used  as a medicine. Many incidents of the life of King Jamsheed are similar to  those of Noah as described in Genesis (VI.-VIII.). Jamsheed lived for 1,000  years. Noah, for 950. Both cultivated land. As Noah was asked to build an  arc to save himself from the Deluge, so was Jamsheed asked to build a vara  (enclosure). Both took therein the choicest specimens of plants and animals.  As Noah built an altar unto the Lord as a mark of thanksgiving for his safety,  so Jamsheed established a sacred fire, named Atar Farobâ. Lastly, as  Noah was the first man to plant vineyards and to drink wine, so was Jamsheed  first to discover wine.

Persian Wine Cup 1250-1150 BC

Prince Jalâl-ood-din Mirzâ Kâjar thus describes the incident of the discovery of wine in his History of Persia:-.”King Jamsheed was very fond of grapes which grew only in summer. He once ordered a large quantity to be deposited in a jar for his use in winter when they were very rare. On sending for the jar after some time, he found the juice of grapes fermenting. Thinking that it was turning into a poisonous liquid be got the flask marked `poison,' and ordered it to be placed in an out-of-the-way corner of the royal store-room, so as to be beyond the reach of anybody.

A maidservant, of the royal household; happened to know this. As she was suffering from a very bad headache, she thought of committing suicide in order to get rid of the pain. She stealthily went into the royal storeroom, and took a dose Out of that flask of wine, and to her surprise found that the drink, instead of killing her, lulled her to sleep and restored her to health. She then communicated the matter to King Jamsheed, who was greatly pleased with the discovery. The king and his courtiers began to use it on occasions of joy and merriment. The wine was known as the ´shâh daroo,' i. e., the royal wine, from the fact of its being discovered by the shâh, i.e., the king." It is said that in Persia even now wine is sometimes called the " zeher-i-khoosh," i.e., pleasant poison, from the fact of its first being considered a poison by King Jamsheed. Coming to the time of Avesta,  we find that the wine then used was the innocent juice of the grapes.

That it was a sweet, nourishing, and health-giving drink appears from several facts: -(l.) The very Avestic word for Wine shows that it was a drink as sweet as honey. This Avestic word is madhô, which corresponds to the Sanscrit, madhû, Latin, mel, and 'Frech, miel. (2.) The root of the word shows its medicinal virtue. It comes from an old Aryan root, mad or 'madh,=Latin medêri, meaning, to make a 'remedy, from which comes our English word medicine. " Dâru," the later Persian word for wine, Which is now commonly used in Gujerati, also bas the etymological meaning of medicine.

Wine among Persians
Davâ-dâru is a colloquial phrase for medical treatment. It comes from an old Aryan root " dru," Sanskrit, “dhru," meaning to be strong, to be healthy. (3.) It was prescribed as nourishment to ladies in their accouchement. (Vend. V.52.) (4.) Being a nourishing and innocent drink its use was permitted even among the priesthood. (Vend. XIV. 1'7.) (5.) In one of the later scriptures the Afrin-i-Gâhambâr, where they speak abo1lt the six Gâhambârs, which are the season festivals and thanksgiving occasions corresponding to the six days of the Creation in the Christian Scriptures, it is said that the merit of celebrating the last season festival of the year, the Hamaspathmaedem Gâhambâr, in honour of the (creation of Man, is just the same as that of feeding the poor and the pious. In the food referred to here, wine is spoken of as a part of the diet. This accounts for why wine is used together with milk and water in some of the Parsee religious ceremonies. At one time it was thought very meritorious to taste a little of the Wine used in the religious ceremonies of the Gâhambâr festival. (6.) An allusion to wine in the recital of blessings at the marriage ceremony, known as the Asirvâd ceremony, shows that the wine spoken of in the old Parsee books was not the wine that intoxicated. The officiating priests in the recital of a long list of blessings that are invoked upon the marrying couple wish the brine and the brine-groom to be as sparkling and cheerful as Wine.
After the eminences of the Avesta, which refer to the later times of the Kyânian dynasty, we come to
the Greek and Roman historians, who speak of the Achymenian and Sâssânian dynasties.
According to Herodotus, the rather or History,  in the time or Cyrus, " the Annointed of the Lord " (Isaiah, XIV), the Persians  din not make a general use of the nourishing wine. Sandanis, a wise man of  Lydia, dissuades his Lydian King Croesus from going to war with a nation that din not indulge in Wine, but simply lived on water. He says, " Thou art about, oh! King, to make war against men who wear leathern trousers, and have all their other garments of leather; who feed not on what they like, but on what they can get from a soil that is sterile and unkindly; who do not indulge in wine, but drink water; who possess no figs nor anything else that is good to eat. If, then, thou conquerest them, what canst thou get from them, seeing that they have nothing at all? But if they conquer thee, consider how much that is precious thou wilt lose, if they once get a taste of our pleasant things, they will keep such hold of them that we shall never be able to make them loose their grasp." (Herod. I. 71.) Again Cyrus, in order to persuade his Persians to go to fight against the Medians under his maternal grandfather Astyges, gives them a Median feast and therein-wine also-a luxury with which they were not familiar. According to Herodotus (I.126): "He (Cyrus) collected together all his father's flocks, both sheep and goats, and all his oxen, and slaughtered them, and made ready to give an entertainment to the entire Persian army. Wine, too, and bread of the choicest kinds were prepared for the occasion. When the morrow came and the Persians appeared, he hade them recline upon the grass and enjoy themselves. After the feast was over, he requested them to tell him ' which they liked best, to-day's work or yesterday's?' They answered that ' the contrast was, indeed, strong; yesterday brought them nothing but what was bad, to-day every- thing that was good.' Cyrus instantly seized on their reply and lain bare his purpose in these words, ' Ye men of Persia! thus do matters stand with you. If you choose to hearken to my words, you may enjoy these and ten thousand similar delights, and never condescend to any slavish toil; but if you will not hearken, prepare yourselves for unnumbered toils as hard as yesterday's.` "
These evidences from Herodotus show that wine was not so generally used by the Persians of the time of Cyrus. It was after the conquests of Lydia and Media that the Persians began to possess the luxury of wine. Herodotus says on this point that "before the conquest of Lydia the Persians possessed none of the luxuries or delights of life." (I. 75.) According to Xenophon, who also speaks of the time of Cyrus, the Persian kings of that time were familiar with Wine, but they made a very moderate use of it. This appears from the following conversation which young Cyrus had with his Median grandfather, Astyges. (Cyropedia, I. 3.) Cyrus says to Astyges: " When you feasted your friends on your birthday, I plainly found that he (the cupbearer) had poured you all poison." " And how child, " said Astyges, " din you know this." " Truly, " said he, " because I saw you all disordered in body and mind; for, first what you do not allow us boys to do, that you did yourselves; for you all bawled together, and could learn nothing of each other; then you fell to singing very ridiculously; and without attending to the singer, you swore he sung admirably; then every one told stories of his own strength; you rose up and fell to dancing, but without all rule or measure, for you could not so much as keep yourselves upright; then yon all entirely forgot yourselves ; you, that you were king, and they, that you were their governor ; and then for the first time I discovered that you were celebrating a festival, where all were allowed to talk with equal liberty, for you never ceased talking." Astyges then said: " Does your father, child, never drink till be gets drunk?"
" No, truly," said he. " What does he then? " " Why, he quenches his thirst  and gets no further harm."

When we come to the reign of Cambyses, the successor of Cyrus, we find from Herodotus that the Persians made a more general use of Wine. The wine which they used was very nourishing and health-giving. This appears very clearly from the following episode: -When Cambyses sent to the King of Ethiopia a flask of wine as a present, the latter was greatly delighted with its taste and its excellent nourishing quality, and said that the longest life of eighty years which the Persians lived must be solely due to that nourishing wine, more especially so, as the wheat they used was of a very inferior quality. 

engraved Sassanid vessel
We quote Herodotus. " Last of all he came to the wine, and having learnt their way of making it, he drank a draught, which greatly delighted him; whereupon he asked what the Persian king was wont to eat, and to what age the longest lived of the Persians had been known to attain. They told him that the king ate bread, and described the nature of wheat, adding that eighty years was the longest term of man's life among the Persians. Hereat he remarked: It din not surprise him if they fed on dirt that they died so soon; indeed, he was sure they never would have lived so long as eighty years, except for the refreshment they got from that drink (meaning the wine), wherein he confessed the Persians surpassed the Ethiopians." (Herod. III. 22.)
This luxury which the Persians began to possess after the conquest of Lydia seemed to be on an increase in the reigns of the successors of Cambyses. In the reign of Darius we find a few Persians of high rank playing an indecent mischief, under the influence of wine, in the royal court of the Macedonian Amyntas, the great grandfather of Alexander the Great, (the cursed Alexander of the Pehelvi works). According to Herodotus, Megabazus, the Persian General of Darius, sent an embassy to Macedonia to demand from its king, Amyntas, " water and earth " as symbols of submission. Amyntas din not only give these, but called them to a dinner in his palace. After dinner some of the Persians, under the influence of drink, behaved themselves disgracefully and insulted the Macedonian ladies, who were specially sent for at their request. This drunken frolic ended in he massacre of the whole of the Persian embassy. The son of Amyntas, who was a youth of fiery spirit, determined to avenge this insult to the fair sex of his country. The next day he again called to dinner the members of the embassy. They were made to Bit each by the sine of a handsome Macedonian youth, dressed as a young lady. The Persians, on heir again at tempting to repeat their drunken frolic of the previous day were pierced with daggers which the Macedonian youths carried beneath their dress.
After Darius, when we come to later times, we find Herodotus speaking of the Persians of his own time that " they are fond of wine and drink it in large quantities." This increasing propensity to drink they further imitated from the Greeks. ' " There is no nation," says Herodotus, " which so readily adopts foreign customs as the Persians. As soon as they hear of any luxury they instantly make it their own."
Xenophon, praising the moderation of the Persians at the time of their first institution under Cyrus, says of the Persians of his own time that " beginning their meal very early they continue eating and drinking till the latest sitters-up go to bed. It was likewise an institution among them not to bring large bottles to their banquets; evidently thinking that, by not drinking to excess, they should neither weaken their bodies nor impair their understanding. And that custom, too, continues of not bringing such bottles; but they drink to such excess, that instead of bringing in they are carried oat themselves, not being able to walk without help." (Cyrop. VIII. 8.)
Plato, on the other hand, writing of the same time as Xenophon, represents  the Persians as taking moderate potations. In his discourse on Temperance  (Laws 1.636) the Athenian stranger, speaking on the subject of drink, says  to Megillus, the Lacedemonian, that " the Persians, again, are much given  to other practices of luxury which you reject, but they have more moderation  in them than the Thracians and Scythians."
Wine jar, pottery, Godin Tepe, western Iran, 3000 BC.

After Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plato, the next Greek historian of importance is Strabo; who flourished in the beginning of the Christian Era. Saying that the Persians as " nation are moderate, heat tributes whatever there be of immoderation to the kings. He says, " Their habits are in general temperate, but their kings, from the great wealth which they possessed, degenerated into a luxurious way of life." (XV. C III. 22.)

The unlicensed luxury and licentiousness of some of the Persians kings of the Achymenian dynasty have brought an unjust odium upon the whole Persians nation. The hard drinking of the kings and their grandees is one instance of this kind.
The marrying of many wives and keeping of a large number of concubines furnish another instance. The marriage with their nearest of kins as sister is a third instance.  These instances of unlicensed luxury and licentiousness were confined to the class of kings and their grandees, but were not common in the whole nation. As Herodotus himself says, the ancient Persians laws did in no way sanction such acts; but the kings of the Achymenian dynasty thought themselves to be “above the law,” and indulging in them brought an odium upon the whole nation.
The next Greek historian of importance, who speaks on this subject, is Duris, of Samos, who flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. His statement that once a year at the feast of Mithras, the King of Persia was bound to be drunk has driven two learned scholars of Europe to two opposite conclusions. Professor George Rawlinson of England infers from this that the Persians at the time were addicted to drinking. Professor Rapp of Germany, on the other hand, says that drunkenness, as a rule, was avoided.
The fact that the king intoxicated himself only once during a year showed  that as a rule there was no drunkenness. We are inclined to sine with Professor  Rapp when we refer to Firdousi for an account of this Mithraic festival. His account refers to the practice of drinking on this gala day, but does not speak of any immoderate use of wine, either by the king or by the populace.  This feast of Mithras is known among the Parsees of India and their co-religionists  of Persia by the name of Jashan-i-Mehergân. It occurs on the 16th day  (Meher) of the 7th month (Meher) of a Farsee year. Firdousi says that it occurred on the first of the seventh month. Irrespective of the historic event, with which it was associated, this day was a great festival day like the other twelve festival days of a Parsee year  which occur on the day which bears the name of a Parsee month. Again it occurred about, the time of the autumnal equinox, which was observed as a season festival. Lastly, that which gave a great importance to this day was an historical event. It celebrated the anniversary of the accession of King Faridun on the throne of Persia. The great novelist, Sir Walter Scott, has familiarized to us, in his " Talisman," the well-known episode of Faridun and Zohâk.
King Jamsheed was overthrown and killed by one Zohâk (the Azidehâka of the Avesta), who was an usurper and a tyrant. The whole of Persia groaned under the foreign away of this great tyrant, who came from Syria. King Faridun, having freed his country from the yoke of this tyrant, ascended the throne of Persia on the auspicious day of the above named Mithraic feast, when his accession was hailed with delight and joy by the whole of Persia. King Faridun celebrated the day as a great holiday, and feasted the grandees. Ever since that time the anniversary of that day was celebrated as a great festival in Persia under the name of Jashan-i-Mehergân.
Wine bowl 15-16 cent.
Firdousi, who lived about 1,000 years ago, said that it was celebrated even at his time. Some of the Parsees of Bombay, though they have forgotten its historic origin, celebrate it on a small scale, and it is said that their few co-religionists in Iran still celebrate it with its historic associations. Firdousi thus describes this festival in his Shahnameh, and refers to the practice of drinking wine on that gala day: " Faridun, when he found himself to be the fortunate master of the world, and when he knew no other ruler but himself, prepared the throne and the crown in the imperial palace according to the usage of the kings. On an auspicious day, which was the beginning of the month of Meher, he placed over his head the royal diadem. The world was relieved of the fear of evil; everybody followed the way of God. They put off quarrels from their hearts and solemnly celebrated a festival. The grandees sat with a joyous heart, each bolding a ruby-coloured cup of wine in his hand. The wine and the face of the new monarch shone brilliantly. The world was fun of justice, and it was a new month's day. He ordered a fire to be kindled and to burn amber and saffron over it. It is he who has instituted the feast of the Mehergân. The custom of taking rest on, and enjoying that day comes from him. The month of Meher still bears his memory. Try and be jolly." Thus it is that Firdousi describes this great festival which, as he says, was observed even at his time, and which he in his last line advises all to observe.
Now it is natural that the Persian monarchs celebrated with great eclat and joy this celebrated festival which was not only a religious and season festival, but withal a historic festival, and drank to their hearts' content or even more; but this does not betray a propensity of very hard drinking among the nation. This custom of the Persian king drinking too much on the Mithraic festival reminds us of the practice which is said to prevail among the illiterate class of Jews, who think it a pious duty to be drunk on the day of their feast of Purim, which fans on the 14th and 15th of their 12th month Adar, and which celebrates the massacre of the Persians by the Jews. It also reminds us of a similar practice which is said to prevail among the lower classes of the Irish people, who think it a pious duty to be drunk on St. Patrick's Day.
Among the Roman writers who have spoken about this subject, we find Ammian who had accompanied the Emperor Julian in his campaign against the Persians, under Shapur in A. D.363. He says of the Persians of his time from his own experience that they avoided drinking as one would avoid the pest. Wealth and conquests had made the Persians of the Achymenian times luxurious and slothful. They had lost the moderation of the early times and of the time of Cyrus. But alter the fan of the Achymenian power reaction set in again, and they began to learn moderation once more. As Professor George Rawlinson says, “ Their fall from power, their loss of wealth and of dominion did indeed advantage them in one way; it put an end to that continually advancing sloth and luxury which had sapped the virtue of the nation, depriving it of energy, endurance and almost every manly excellence. It dashed the Persians back upon the ground whence they had sprung, and whence, Antæus-like, they proceeded to derive fresh vigour and vital force. In their ' scant and rugged ' fatherland, the people of Cyrus once more recovered to a great extent their ancient prowess and hardihood-their habits became simplified, their old patriotism revived, their self-respect grew greater." (VII. Orien Mon. p. 25.) Thus it is that we see them avoiding drunkenness as Ammian says, “ like the pest.”

Coming to the time of the Pehelvi literature of the Parsees, which flourished during the period of the Sâssânian dynasty, we find Pehelvi writers permitting the use of Wine and preaching moderation. Adarbâd Mârespand, in his Pandnameh, or Book of Advice, thus admonishes his son: " Make a moderate use of Wine, because he who makes an immoderate use, committeth various sinful acts." Dâdistân-i-dini (oh. XL., XLI.) allows the use of Wine and admonishes every man to exert moral control over himself, To the robust and intelligent who can do without wine it recommends abstinence. To others it recommends moderation. A person who gives another a drink is deemed as guilty as the drinker, if the latter does any mischief either to himself or to others through the influence of that drink. Only that man is justified to take Wine, who can thereby do some good to himself, or at least can do no harm to himself. If his humata, hukhta and hvarshta, i.e., his good thoughts, good words, and good deeds are in the least perverted by drink, he must abstain from it. The book advises a man to determine for himself once for all what moderate quantity he can digest without doing any harm. Having once determined that quantity he is never to exceed it. The most that a man should take is three glasses (Anaseme) of diluted wine. If be exceed that quantity there is a likelihood of his good thoughts, words, and deeds being perverted, This reminds us of a Parsee Gujerati saying:-
Gujrati text
(i. e,,) The first cup is a medicinal drink,
The second an allowable thing;
The third is a luxury,
  The fourth brings on misery.
On the subject of the trade of wine-sellers, the Dâdistân-i-dini says that not only is a man who makes an improper and immoderate use of wine guilty, hut also a wine-seller who knowingly sells wine to those who make an improper use of it.
It was deemed improper and unlawful for a  wine-seller to continue to sell Wine, for the sake of his pocket, to a customer  who was the worse for liquor. He is to make it a point to sell wine to those  only who can do some good to themselves by that drink, or at least no harm  either to themselves or to others.
We find from Mahomedan writers that after the downfall of the Persian monarchy the Zoroastrian Persians were the only persons who carried on the business of wine-sellers. The " Peer-i-Moghân," often alluded to by the celebrated Persian poet, Hafiz, in his well-known Divan, is the Parsee wine-seller. Wine being altogether prohibited in the Mahomedan scriptures, no Mahomedan could carry on this business. So it fell to a Parsee's lot to do so. In India also, and especially in Guzerat, a Parsee liquor.-seller was for the same reason up to recently a wan-known figure in the villages.

We will now speak of some of the usages and customs observed by the Persians when drinking wine. It was generally their custom to drink wine after dinner. The cup bearer went round in the assembly when it met in the hall after dinner. This appears from Herodotus and from Firdousi. The latter in his Dâstân of Bejan and Manijeh thus speaks of the party that had assembled in the royal palace of Kaikhusro to participate in the rejoicings for the release of Bejan from the captivity of Afrâsiâb. " Khusro ordered a table to be spread and invited high-minded noblemen to dinner- When they got up from the royal table, they prepared a sitting-place for drinking wine." It was at one of such assemblies that Afrâsiâb, the Turânian enemy of Persia, through the instrumentality of one Susan Râmashgar, an excellent songstress, made the different brigadiers-general of the Persian army of Kaikhosru prisoners. An intoxicating powder was stealthily put in the wineglasses of these generals which immediately lulled them to sleep.


In these after-dinner assemblies the old Persians deliberated on affairs of importance under the influence of drink. "It is also their general practice," says Herodotus, " to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk I and then on the morrow, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then approved of they act on it; if not they set it aside.
Sometimes, however, they are   sober  at their first deliberation, but in this case they always reconsider   the matter under the influence of wine," (I. 134.) Strabo, who wrote about   five centuries after Herodotus, says on the same subject : " Their consultations    on the most important affairs are carried on while they are drinking, and    they consider the resolutions made at that time more to be depended upon   than those made when sober. (XV, ch. 3) According to Prof. George Rawlinson   Tacitns refers to a similar custom among the ancient Germans, who deliberated   upon questions of peace and war in their banquets and reconsidered them the  next day.
Persian jug 13 cent.
“They deliberated," says Tacitus, "on  peace and war generally during the banquets, as if at no other time was their  mind able to conceive higher ideas. People who are not cunning and too sharp  always open the secrets of their heart in free jokes. Thus the opened and  revealed thoughts of all are again considered the next day. They take into  consideration the affair of both times. They deliberate when the yare not  able to deceive. They resolve when they are not able to err." The reason for this practice, as given by Tacitus, is this, that in banquets, under a partial influence of wine, all the members of the assembly feel themselves to be on an equal footing, and so without any fear or favour give out their own independent opinions, which enable the mover of the question to come to a proper conclusion. We learn the same thing from the Shahnameh of Firdousi,  who represents Persian kings and heroes deliberating carefully on questions  of war and peace in their after-dinner gatherings, when the cup-bearer (Sâki)  was circulating the wine. This custom of the old Persians reminds us of the  after-dinner speeches of modern times, wherein Cabinet Ministers and Councillors  while proposing toasts of one kind or another discuss political questions  of great importance to the State. These after-dinner Persian assemblies are  the" banquets of wine" spoken about in the Old Testament (Esther, v. 6). It was at such a banquet that the Persian King Ahasuerus, whose identity with any particular Persian monarch is not yet determined, sent for his queen Vashti (which seems to be the Avestic word, vahishti, i. e., the best), in order " to shew the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on," and divorced her for not having obeyed the royal mandate. It was at such a banquet of wine that later on Esther, the Jewish queen of the same  Persian King, Won the royal favour and secured permission to put to death  an those Persians  who hated the Jews (Esther, ix. 5).
Firdousi speaks of another custom. When toasts were proposed and drunk in honour of great persons, as the King, the assembly prostrated themselves on the ground after drinking wine and kissed the earth. Speaking of such an assembly, at which Rustam presided, Firdousi says, " They first remembered the name of their king (Kâus), then drank wine, and then prostrating themselves on the ground kissed it." Just as modern nations show their respect to their ruling sovereigns by drinking to their health while standing; so the ancients pain their homage by prostrating themselves and kissing the ground. Prostrating oneself upon the ground was, according to Herodotus, the usual way of paying respect to the great." When they met each other in the streets," says Herodotus," you may know if the persons meeting are of equal rank by the following token: if they are, instead of speaking they kiss each other on the lips; in the case where one is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek; where the difference of rank is great, the inferior prostrates himself upon the ground."
  Old wine was held in very high esteem in Ancient Persia. Adarbâd,  speaking of friendship, compares an old friend o old wine. He says, " An old friend is like old wine. The more it grows old, the more it is fit for kings." It was believed that wine improved by time. We read the same thing in the Bible, " No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new for he seeth the old is better" (Luke, v. 89).
It seems that latterly two sorts of wine were common in Persia. In the remote Avestic times it was only made from grapes. But latterly it was also made from dates, the fruit of palm-trees.
                  
Xenophon, in his account of the expedition of Cyrus, wherein be played a very prominent part as the leader of " The Retreat of the Ten Thousand," thus speaks from his own experience:-"At last coming to the villages where the guides told them they might supply themselves with provisions, they found plenty of corn, and Wine made of the fruit of the palm-tree, and also vinegar drawn by boiling from the same fruit.
These dates such as we have in Greece, they  give to their domestics; but those which are reserved for the masters are  chosen fruit and worthy of admiration, both for their beauty and size, having  in an respects the appearance of amber, and so delicious that they are frequently  dried for sweetmeats. The wine that was made of it was sweet to the taste  but apt to give the headache. ( II. 3.)
Nurturing Wine
Source:
Wine Among the Ancient Persians
Links:
Wit & Wine
The origin and ancient history of Wine
A New Look at Ancient Iranian...
Neolithic Period “Chateau Hajji Firuz” in Iran.