Mystery of the Magi
The identities of the Three Magi or Three Wise Men have been disputed for centuries, writes Lucien de Guise
PRESIDENT Rouhani of Iran wouldn’t be the first person expected to deliver a Christmas message, but this is indeed part of his mission. Being less common than the Yuletide greetings from the Pope or Queen Elizabeth doesn’t make them any less exciting.
The surprise omission from the Islamic Republic is any reference to the strongest link between his nation and the Christian Nativity story. Most Iranians are unaware that they provided some of the first nonJewish converts to Christianity. Whether the Three Wise Men continued their adoration of Jesus is not known, but it is fairly sure that the home they took their wondrous tidings back to was Persia.
The identities of the Magi have been disputed for centuries. Saint Matthew in the Bible is specific about “the East”, and Persia is the most likely contender. It also appears that having journeyed from the East, this is where they returned to, and died. Iranian tradition maintains that their bodies are interred in the wind-blasted town of Saveh, southwest of Tehran.
Saveh is now a city with an industrial zone. This hasn’t changed the lack of interest its people have traditionally taken in their Biblical heritage. In the Western world, the source of this information is Marco Polo.
Never the most reliable of roving historians, he sounds confident about his discovery: “In Persia is the city called Saveh, from which the three Magi set out when they came to worship Jesus Christ. Here, too, they lie buried in three sepulchres of great size and beauty. Above each sepulchre is a square building with a domed roof of very fine workmanship. The one is just beside the other. Their bodies are still whole, and they have hair and beards. One was named Beltasar, the second Gaspar, and the third Melchior.”
IndIfference to the MagI
In Saveh, which could be earning good tourist money to match its industrial enterprise, neither the travels of Marco Polo nor the remains of the Magi have excited local commercial instincts or imagination. This contrasts with the German city of Cologne, whose cathedral attracted huge numbers of pilgrims after acquiring wouldbe relics of the Magi in the 12th century.
Some of the indifference to the Wise Men comes from the distinctly dissimilar Muslim version of the Nativity. Mariam features prominently in the Quran; she is
the only female to have a whole chapter in her name. The mother of the Muslim Jesus has much in common with her Christian counterpart, but if the Christian Nativity seems uncomfortable, then the birth of the Muslim Jesus is both harrowing and lonely.
There are no choirs of angels, kings, shepherds or sheep. When the time for giving birth to her immaculately conceived son approached, Mariam retreated to the desert. The Quran relates that: “The pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: ‘Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight’!”
As Muslims have such a different impression of the first days of their Prophet Isa (Jesus) (PBUH), it is no surprise that the Nativity does not work quite the same magic. Although Christian imagery is occasionally transposed into Islamic art, the only reworking of the Nativity that I can
recall is a 14th century manuscript showing the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The setting is remarkably similar to a standard Christian depiction of the birth of Jesus. There are angels, and to one side a group that looks like the Magi but has defied stereotyping by becoming the Three Wise Women.
More Mystery
This is a very different look from the Magi in traditional Western art. They are always men, and usually with distinctively assigned ages and ethnicities. The youngest is Balthasar, representing Africa. Next is Caspar, from Asia, and the oldest is the European or Arab, Melchior. The gifts they bring are as confused by artists as the givers.
The Greek word magus used by St Matthew is less specific and is taken from old Persian. The priestly caste of Magi had