See also: Legendary Kings: Esfandiyar; Zal
Further Reading
Ferdowsi. Shahnameh. Edited by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh. New York: Mazda Publishers, 1997.
Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal. “Farāmarz.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1999, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/faramarz.
Pahlavi Texts, Part I: The Bundahishn. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Pahlavi Texts, Part III: Dina-i Mainog-i Khirad. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Shahbazi, A. Shapur, and Simone Cristoforetti. “Zāl.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2009, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zal.
The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yashts and Nyayish. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Siyavash
Siyavash (Siavash), meaning “the possessor of black horses/stallions,” is a prince and a hero in the legendary history of Greater Iran during the reign of the Kayanian dynasty. In the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, he appears as Siyavarshana (Siyavakhsh), the son of Kavi Usa (Kay Kavus) and the father of Husrava (Khosrow) or Kavi Husrava (Kay Khosrow). He is killed by “the Turanian murderer, Frangrasyan [Afrasiyab],” and is avenged by his son Kavi Husrava, who captures and kills Frangrasyan and his brother Keresavazda (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Gosh Yasht, 18; Zamyad Yasht, 77). In Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh [Book of Kings], Siyavakhsh appears as Siyavash, the son and designated successor of the Iranian king Kay Kavus, the second monarch of the Kayanian dynasty. Siyavash is described as a tall, handsome, brave, and highly educated young man. He is raised and educated in the art of war by Rostam, the legendary hero of Greater Iran.
After years of being trained by Rostam, Siyavash returns to his father’s court, where he is declared the crown prince. The relationship between the king and his crown prince deteriorates, however, after Sudabeh, the queen of Iran, wife of Kay Kavus and stepmother of Siyavash, falls in love with Siyavash and attempts to seduce the young prince by inviting him to her private chamber. When Siyavash rejects her sexual advances, Sudabeh becomes enraged and accuses him of raping her. Outraged by his queen’s accusation, the king orders Siyavash to undergo the test of demonstrating his innocence, which requires the accused to ride a horse through a large bonfire created by setting alight an enormous mountain of firewood and timber. Ancient Iranian tradition maintained that if the accused was innocent, he would emerge out of the fire unscathed. If he was guilty, however, the fire would consume him as he rode through it. Confident of his innocence, Siyavash accepts the challenge. He mounts his horse, rides through the bonfire, and survives the ordeal unharmed. Recognizing the falseness of the queen’s allegations, the king orders her to present herself and be questioned. The desperate and embarrassed queen appears before the throne and once again slanders Siyavash to save her own life. Her accusations outrage the king, who orders his henchmen to execute her. At this critical juncture, Siyavash intercedes and begs his father to forgive the queen. The king, who passionately loves his wife, allows her to live. Thus, peace and tranquility are restored to the imperial court.
Though he has established his innocence, Siyavash cannot regain and confidence of his father. When Afrasiyab, the king of Turan and the sworn enemy of the Kayanian dynasty, invades Iran, Siyavash requests that his father assign him to command the Iranian forces. His father consents to the request. Siyavash leads an Iranian army, which includes the hero Rostam, against the Turanians and defeats them. Despite his impressive victory, Siyavash rejects the idea of humiliating the enemy and agrees to negotiate a peace treaty with the Turanians. To ensure the long-term preservation of the treaty, Siyavash demands that the Turanians send 100 hostages, all relatives of their king Afrasiyab, to the Iranian court. The Turanians agree to the terms of the treaty and send a group of hostages to Iran. When he receives the news that his son has concluded a peace agreement with Iran’s greatest enemy, the Kayanian monarch, Kay Kavus, is enraged. He sends a message to Siyavash ordering him to execute all the Turanian hostages who have been sent to his camp and to continue the successful military campaign until the king of Turan, Afrasiyab, has been captured and killed. Siyavash realizes that his father is opposed to any form of peace and reconciliation and can only be satisfied by bloodshed and vengeance. The honorable prince is caught in a dilemma. If he follows his father’s orders, he has to break the truce he has negotiated and betray the promises he has made to the Turanians, but if he refuses his father’s demands, he has no other choice but to leave the country and abandon his bright future as the crown prince of Iran. As a man of principle, Siyavash refuses to violate the treaty he has signed and chooses instead to leave Iran. He travels to Turan, the historical enemy of Iran, where he seeks the protection of its ruler, Afrasiyab, whom he had recently defeated.
At first, Afrasiyab welcomes Siyavash and showers him with honors and gifts. Afrasiyab also arranges a marriage between his daughter, Farangis, and Siyavash. Thus, the exiled Kayanian prince is converted into the son-in-law of the Turanian king. To demonstrate his confidence and love for his new son-in-law, Afrasiyab offers Siyavash a kingdom within his empire. As the ruler of this kingdom, Siyavash builds a new and beautiful city called Kangdizh (Kangdijh). The cordial relationship between Siyavash and Afrasiyab deteriorates, however, as a result of intrigues by jealous courtiers and members of Afrasiyab’s own family, particularly the Turanian king’s brother, Garsivaz, who had commanded the Turanian army that Siyavash and his Iranian forces had earlier defeated. After visiting Siyavash, Garsivaz tells his brother, King Afrasiyab, that the Iranian prince is an ambitious and dangerous man because he maintains secret contact with his father, the Iranian king Kay Kavus, and because he covets the Turanian throne for himself. Afrasiyab sends an army against Siyavash, who surrenders without a fight. The Iranian prince is then brought in bondage to the royal court of Turan, where he is beheaded by order of Afrasiyab. Meanwhile, Siyavash’s wife, Farangis, gives birth to a boy who is named Kay Khosrow. Farangis and her newly born son manage to escape to Iran, where Kay Khosrow grows up and subsequently emerges as the king and successor to his grandfather, Kay Kavus. To avenge his father’s death, Kay Khosrow raises an army and marches against his maternal grandfather, Afrasiyab, whom he defeats and kills after several fierce battles between the Iranian and Turanian armies.
See also: Legendary Kings: Afrasiyab; Farangis; Kay Kavus; Kay Khosrow; Rostam
Further Reading
Curtis, Sarkhosh Vesta. Persian Myths. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.
Davey, William G. Persian Mythology. Amazon Digital Services, 2006.
Ferdowsi. Shahnameh. Edited by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh. New York: Mazda Publishers, 1997.
Pahlavi Texts, Part I: The Bundahishn. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Pahlavi Texts, Part III: Dina-i Mainog-i Khirad. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. “Kayāniān VI: Siiāuuaršan, Siyāwaxš, Siāvaš.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2013, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kayanian-vi.
Yarshater, Ehsan. “Iranian National History.” In Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3(I), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 359–480. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
The Zend-Avesta, Part I: The Vendidad. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yashts and Nyayish. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
The Zend-Avesta, Part III: The Yasna, Visparad, Āfrīnagān, Gāhs, and Miscellaneous Fragments. Translated by L. H. Mills. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Tahmures
A king of the legendary Pishdadian dynasty of Greater Iran. In the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, Tahmures appears as the “well-armed” Takhma Urupa who ruled the seven regions of the world and was king to the daevas (demons) and men as well as all the yatus (wizards) and pairikas (witches) (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Zamyad
Yasht, 28). He rides Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit who is “turned into the shape of a horse, all around the earth from one end to the other” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Zamyad Yasht, 29). In the Pahlavi text Bundahishn, Takhma Urupa appears as Takhmorup Spitur, the son of Vivangahu and a great-grandson of Hoshang (Hoshyang), the second king of the legendary Pishdadian dynasty (Pahlavi Texts, Part I: Bundahishn, 31.2). In another Pahlavi text, Dinkard, he is presented as the “well-armed” king during whose reign “the demon and evil mankind, the wizard and witch, were smitten” (Pahlavi Texts, Part V: Dinkard, 7.19). He also cast out idolatry and propagated “the reverence and service of the creator,” converting the evil spirit “into the shape of a horse” who carried him “for thirty years” (Pahlavi Texts, Part V: Dinkard, 7.19). He rules for 30 years and is eventually killed and devoured by Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit (Pahlavi Texts, Part I: Bundahishn, 34.4). Tahmures is succeeded on the throne by his brother Yima, who appears as Jamshid in the legendary history of Iran.
In the writings of the Persian historians of the Islamic era, Tahmures received the title “Divband” (Demon Binder). During the Islamic era, a number of mythological events were attributed to Tahmures. For example, the scholar Abu Rayhan Biruni relates that Tahmurath (Tahmures) “on receiving the warning of the Deluge—231 years before the Deluge—ordered his people to select a place of good air and soil in his realm,” and they could not find “a place that answered better to this description than Ispahan [Isfahan]” (Biruni: 28, 11). Having identified Isfahan as a place of best air and soil, Tahmures orders “all scientific books to be preserved for posterity, and to be buried in a part of that place, least exposed to obnoxious influences” (Biruni: 28, 11).
In Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, he appears as Tahmures, the son of Hushang, the king of the Pishdadian dynasty. Upon ascending the throne, Tahmures declares that he will dedicate his reign to cleansing the world of evil. In pursuing this goal, he raises an army, attacks the demons, kills two-thirds of them, and captures and imprisons the remaining one-third. His victory over the demons earns him the title “Divband” (Demon Binder). Humbled by Tahmures, the demons attempt to reach a compromise with him: they promise that if he keeps them alive, they will be willing to teach him some of their secrets. Tahmures agrees, and the demons teach him how to write in 30 languages. Tahmures also introduces the technique of breeding new animals and teaches people the art of spinning and weaving wool. Thus, he is credited with inventing clothes and draperies. He tames hawks, and he also trains falcons and cheetahs to assist humans in hunting wild animals, while at the same time bringing cocks and hens to crow at drumbeat. After ruling for 30 years, Tahmures dies and is succeeded by his son, Jamshid.
See also: Legendary Kings: Gayomard; Hushang; Jamshid
Further Reading
Biruni, Abu Rayhan. Athar ul-Baqiya. Translated by C. Edward Sachau as The Chronology of Ancient Nations. London: W. H. Allen, 1879.
Bundahishn. Edited by Mehrdad Bahar. Tehran: Tus Publications, 1991.
Bundahishn-e Hendi. Translated and edited by Roqiyeh Behzadi. Tehran: Moasese-ye Motaleat va Tahqiqat-e Farhangi, 1990.
Ferdowsi, Abulqasem. Shahnameh. Translated by Dick Davis. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
Pahlavi Texts, Part I: Bundahishn. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Pahlavi Texts, Part V: Marvels of Zoroastrianism; Dinkard. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yashts, and Nyayish. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
Zab/Zav
A king of the legendary Pishdadian dynasty. In the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, Zab (Zav) appears as the holy Uzava, the son of Tumaspa (New Persian: Tahmasp) (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Farvardin Yasht, 131). In the Zoroastrian text Bundahishn appears as Auzobo who finds a child abandoned in a waist cloth on a river. The child is frozen and trembling on a doorsill (Pahlavi Texts, Part I: Bundahishn, 31.24). Auzobo takes in the frozen child and adopts him as his own son (Pahlavi Texts, Part I: Bundahishn, 31.24). This child is named Kavata (Kavad; New Persian: Qobad) and emerges later as the first king of the Kayanian dynasty.
In Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, Uzava appears as Zab. Upon the death of the king of Iran, Manuchehr, his son Nowzar ascends the throne of Iran. Weak, self-indulgent, greedy, gluttonous, and incompetent, Nowzar alienates his commanders and government officials as well as the ordinary people from the throne. Despite repeated warnings from his dignitaries, the king fails to address the growing weakness and chaos in his kingdom. With Iran in shambles, the shrewd and opportunistic ruler of Turan, Afrasiyab, marches his army against Nowzar. Despite their heroic performance on the battlefield, the Iranians are defeated, and Nowzar is captured by the enemy. The humbled and disgraced Iranian monarch is brought to Afrasiyab, who decapitates the deposed king with his own sword. Though Nowzar has two sons, the Iranian dignitaries refuse to allow them to ascend the throne, as they are believed to lack sufficient training and qualities to rule. With the royal line of Nowzar coming to a sudden end, the court dignitaries select an old and wise member of the Iranian nobility, Zab or Zav (Uzava of the Avesta), as the new ruler. When Zab dies, his son Garshasp ascends the throne.
See also: Legendary Kings: Afrasiyab; Kay Qobad; Rostam; Zal
Further Reading
Bundahishn. Edited by Mehrdad Bahar. Tehran: Tus Publications, 1991.
Ferdowsi, Abulqasem. Shahnameh. Edited by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh. New York: Mazda Publishers, 1997.
Ferdowsi, Abulqasem. Shahnameh. Translated by Dick Davis. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
Pahlavi Texts, Part I: Bundahishn. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.
The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yashts, and Nyayish. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Molital Banarsidass, 1965.
Zahhak
A demonic creature who personifies evil and plays an important role in the legendary history of ancient Iran. In the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy scripture, Zahhak (Dahak) appears as Azhi Dahaka (Dragon), a “three-headed, the three-mouthed and the six-eyed” monster who “has a thousand senses” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 29, 34). He is “the most powerful, fiendish Druj [the lie], that demon, baleful to the world, the strongest Druj that Angra Mainyu [the evil spirit] created against the material world, to destroy the world of good principle” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 34). The Azhi Dahaka of the Avesta worships Aredvi Sura Anahita, the goddess of waters, in a castle in the land of Bawri, which has been identified by some scholars as Babylon (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 29). The principal opponent of Azhi Dahaka in the Avesta is Thraetaona, “the heir of the valiant Athwya clan” who offers a sacrifice in Varena (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 33). Thraetaona also pleads with the goddess Anahita to give him a boon so that he can overcome and defeat Azhi Dahaka (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 34).
In the legendary history of Iran, Zahhak appears as an evil and tyrannical king. He receives an actual genealogy and becomes a great-grandson of Siyamak (the son of the first man and the first ruler Gayomard [Gayomart]) on his father’s side, and a descendant of the evil spirit Ahriman, on his mother’s side. In the Shahnameh [Book of Kings], the Persian epic poet Ferdowsi portrays Zahhak as the son of an Arab king. While the father is a generous and compassionate ruler, the son, Zahhak, is a scheming, devious, shrewd, ruthless, and brutal prince. His demonic personality and traits attract the devil, who approaches Zahhak and encourages him to murder his father so that he can ascend the throne. Although Zahhak initially resists the temptation to kill his father, he is eventually convinced to participate in a plot hatched by the devil to eliminate his father. After the devil murders his father, Zahhak assumes the reins of power. The devil now reappears as a master in culinary arts, feeding Zahhak the most delicious and scrumptious dishes. Greatly impressed by his skillful and gifted chef, the king asks the devil whether he has a wish that he
can fulfill. The devil responds that his only wish is to express his love for Zahhak by kissing his shoulders. When the tyrant consents to his request, the devil kisses the king’s shoulders. Shortly after this encounter, two serpents grow on Zahhak’s shoulders from the spots kissed by the devil. It is therefore not surprising that in the Persian literature Zahhak is called Mardush (Serpent/Snake Shoulder).
Frightened by the appearance of the two snakes on his shoulders, Zahhak consults with physicians, but none can offer a remedy. The devil appears once again, this time as a healer and a physician, and prescribes a remedy. The remedy is to feed each serpent the brains of young men daily. Zahhak accepts the devil’s remedy as the only solution for his condition and orders his henchmen to detain and kill young men and feed their brains to the serpents on his shoulders.
Meanwhile, the legendary king Jamshid has lost his glory (khvarnah or farr) after he has declared himself divine. With the king’s loss of divine glory, his kingdom plunges into a long period of chaos. In a desperate attempt to choose a successor to Jamshid, court dignitaries agree to invite Zahhak to assume the reins of power. Once he ascends the throne, Zahhak embarks on a long search for Jamshid. When he finally succeeds in capturing the disgraced king, the evil Zahhak orders Jamshid’s body to be sawn in half.
Having split Jamshid into two pieces, Zahhak ascends the throne, takes Jamshid’s two sisters as hostage, and rules with oppression and injustice for 1,000 years. The demonic nature of the evil king continues to unfold, represented by the incessant demands by the two serpents on his shoulders for human brains. To calm the hunger of the two hungry serpents, Zahhak continues to feed them the brains of young men. Though outraged by his tyranny and savagery, Zahhak’s frightened and intimidated subjects do not protest for fear of retribution. Rebellion against Zahhak erupts suddenly, however, when the sons of the blacksmith Kaveh are seized and transported to the palace. Kaveh is not willing to allow his sons to be murdered by the king’s henchmen without a public airing of his grievances. He marches to the royal palace to protest the intolerable oppression and injustice of Zahhak. Zahhak responds to Kaveh’s objections by ordering the release of the blacksmith’s sons. In return for showing compassion, Zahhak demands that Kaveh sign a proclamation that declares Zahhak to be a just ruler. An outraged Kaveh tears up the proclamation and storms out of the palace. As he leaves the palace, Kaveh lifts his blacksmith’s leather apron aloft on a long pole to use as his standard. Crowds gather around Kaveh, and his protest quickly turns into a mass uprising. The rebellious blacksmith and his supporters march to the Alborz Mountains seeking Fereydun, son of Abtin (Aptin), a descendant of King Jamshid, who lives in hiding, fearing for his life. Fereydun is brought forth from his hiding place and hailed as the legitimate king. He then marches at the head of an army and captures Zahhak at his palace. The demonic tyrant is then dragged in chains to a cave at the summit of Mount Damavand, in the Alborz mountain range of northern Iran. With Fereydun ascending the throne, power is restored to the rightful line of kings of the Pishdadian dynasty, and peace and justice are restored.
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