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Hushang
Hushang (; ), also spelled Hōshang, is an early hero-king in Iranian mythology. He is known from Avestan, Middle Persian, and Sasanian-based Persian and Arabic sources. He appears to have been one of several 'first man/king' figures in different Iranian traditions, along with Jamshid, Keyumars, and Tahmuras. In the Avesta, he is called Haoshyangha and is given the epithet , whence Persian . While this title is given only to Hushang in the Avesta, in later tradition the first Iranian dynasty (the Pishdadians), including Hushang's predecessor and successors, are called by this title. According to Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh'', which drew from the traditional history developed in the late Sasanian period, Hushang was the second king of the Pishdadian dynasty and the grandson of the first man and king Keyumars. Etymology In the Avesta, Hushang is called Haoshyangha ( ). Older sources interpreted the second part of the name as , composed of 'dwelling' and 'giving rise to', thus meaning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pishdadian Dynasty
The Pishdadian dynasty ( ) is a mythical line of primordial kings featured in Zoroastrian belief and Persian mythology. They are presented in legend as originally rulers of the world but whose realm was eventually limited to ''Ērānshahr'' or Greater Iran. Although there are scattered references to them in the Zoroastrian scriptures—the Avesta—and later Pahlavi literature, it is through the 11th-century Iranian national epic, the ''Shahnameh'', that the canonical form of their legends is known. From the 9th century, Muslim writers, notably Tabari, re-told many of the Pishdadian legends in prose histories and other works. The Pishdadian kings and the stories relating to them have no basis in historical fact, however. According to the ''Shahnameh'', the Pishdadians were the first Iranian peoples, Iranian dynasty, pre-dating the historical Achaemenids, and ruling for a period of over two thousand years. Their progenitor was Keyumars, the first human and the "Zoroastrian Adam". H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keyumars
Keyumars or Kiomars () was the name of the first king (shah) of the Pishdadian dynasty of Iran according to the ''Shahnameh''. The name appears in Avestan in the form of , or in medieval Zoroastrian texts as ''Gayōmard'' or ''Gayōmart''. In the Avesta he is the mythological first human being in the world. The corresponding name in Middle Persian is . In Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh'' he appears as the first shah of the world. He is also called the (), the first to practice justice, the lawgiver. The Avestan form means "the living mortal", from 'life' and 'mortal, human being'; cf. Persian 'human' (). In Zoroastrian literature According to the Zoroastrian creation myth, Gayōmart, who was neither male nor female, was the first human, or, according to the Avesta, he was the first person to worship Ahura Mazda. The Avestan forms ''Mashya'' and ''Mashyana'' appear as the male and female first humans; their names are versions of the word 'mortal'. In the eighth book of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siamak
Siamak ( , sometimes transliterated as Siyamak or Siamac) is a character in Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran. Ferdowsi's great epic poem begins with the story of Keyumars, the first king to arise among humans, who at that time lived in mountain caves and wore the skins of leopards. God ('' Hormazd'') granted him the supernatural radiance called '' farr'' reserved for kings. His son was Siāmak and was beloved by all, except the destructive spirit ''Ahriman'', who raised an army under the command of his own demonic son. When the divine figure Sorush warned Keyumars, Siāmak led an army of his own. Siāmak accepted a challenge to single combat and died at the hands of the demon. Keyumars mourned for a year, and then Sorush advised him to fight Ahriman once more. Siāmak's son Hushang led the army that defeated Ahriman's son, whom he bound and beheaded. Keyumars died after a thirty-year reign, leaving his throne to Hushang. Etymology and meaning In terms of etymology, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tahmuras
Tahmuras or Tahmures (, ; from Avestan "Strong Fox" via ) was the third Shah of the mythical Pishdadian dynasty of Iran according to Ferdowsi's epic poem, the ''Shahnameh''. He is considered the builder of Merv. Tahmuras in the ''Shahnameh'' Tahmures was the son of Hushang. In his time the world was much troubled by the ''div''s (demons) of Ahriman. On the advice of his vizier Shahrasp, Tahmures used magic to subdue Ahriman and made him his slave, even riding upon his back as on a horse. The demons rebelled against Tahmuras, and he made war against them with both magic and force. By magic he bound two-thirds of the demons; the remaining third he crushed with his mace. The ''div''s now became Tahmuras's slaves and they taught him the art of writing in thirty different scripts. Like his father, Tahmuras was a great inventor of arts for easing the human condition. He invented the spinning and weaving of wool, learned to domesticate chickens, how to store up fodder for lives ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couplets (two-line verses), the ''Shahnameh'' is one of the world's longest epic poems, and the longest epic poem created by a single author. It tells mainly the Persian mythology, mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest of Persia, Muslim conquest in the seventh century. Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the greater Greater Iran, region influenced by Persian culture such as Armenia, Dagestan, Georgia (country), Georgia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan celebrate this national epic. The work is of central importance in Persian culture and Persian language. It is regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of the ethno-national cultural ide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Biruni
Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (; ; 973after 1050), known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been called variously "Father of Comparative Religion", "Father of modern geodesy", Founder of Indology and the first anthropologist. Al-Biruni was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist, and linguist. He studied almost all the sciences of his day and was rewarded abundantly for his tireless research in many fields of knowledge. Royalty and other powerful elements in society funded al-Biruni's research and sought him out with specific projects in mind. Influential in his own right, al-Biruni was himself influenced by the scholars of other nations, such as the Greeks, from whom he took inspiration when he turned to the study of philosophy. A gifted linguist, he was conversant in Khwarezmian, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mashya And Mashyana
According to the Zoroastrian cosmogony, Mashya and Mashyana were the first man and woman whose procreation gave rise to the human race. Etymology The names are from Avestan, nominally transliterated as ' and ', but like other Avestan words also, spellings (and hence transliterations) vary from manuscript to manuscript. ' may thus also appear as ' or ' or ' (and variants). Originally and etymologically, ' means "mortal being" as Old Persian ''martya'', Persian ''mard'' and even Sanskrit ''martya'' also mean "mortal" and therefore "man". The root in Avesta and Sanskrit for death is ''mar'', ''mr'', "to die". The causative ''mâr'' means "to kill". Its derivatives ''merethyu''/''mrtyu'' means "death"; ''mareta'' and ''maretan'' means "mortal", and then "man, human being" ''mashya''. For more on the etymology of the ''aša'' and ''arta'' variants of these terms, see Avestan phonology. Attestations According to the creation myth as described in the ''Bundahishn'', Ohrmuzd's sixth c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khvarenah
''Khvarenah'' (also spelled ''khwarenah'' or ''xwarra(h)'': ) is an Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept literally denoting "glory" or "splendour" but understood as a divine mystical force or power projected upon and aiding the appointed. The neuter noun thus also connotes "(divine) royal glory", reflecting the perceived divine empowerment of kings. The term also carries a secondary meaning of "(good) fortune"; those who possess it are able to complete their mission or function. In 3rd- to 7th-century Sassanid-era inscriptions as well as in the 9th- to 12th-century texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the word appears as Zoroastrian Middle Persian ''khwarrah'', rendered with the Pahlavi ideogram ''GDE'', reflecting Aramaic ''gada'' "fortune". Middle Persian ''khwarrah'' continues as New Persian ''k(h)orra''. These variants, which are assumed to be learned borrowings from the Avestan, are the only Iranian language forms with an initial 'xᵛ-'. In all other dialects, the word has an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daeva
A daeva (Avestan: 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀 ''daēuua'') is a Zoroastrian supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the ''daeva''s are " gods that are (to be) rejected". This meaning is – subject to interpretation – perhaps also evident in the Old Persian "''daiva'' inscription" of the 5th century BCE. In the ''Younger Avesta'', the daevas are divinities that promote chaos and disorder. In later tradition and folklore, the ''dēw''s (Zoroastrian Middle Persian; New Persian ''div''s) are personifications of every imaginable evil. Over time, the Daeva myth as Div became integrated to Persian mythology. ''Daeva'', the Iranian language term, shares the same origin of "Deva" of Hinduism, which is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus. While the word for the Vedic spirits and the word for the Zoroastrian entities are etymologically related, their function and thematic development is altogether d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kay Khosrow
Kay Khosrow () is a legendary king of Iran of Kayanian dynasty and a character in the Persian epic book ''Shahnameh''. He was the son of the Iranian prince Siavash who married princess Farangis of Turan while in exile. Before Kay Khosrow was born, his father was murdered in Turan by his maternal grandfather Afrasiab. Kay Khosrow was trained as a child in the desert by Piran, the wise vizier of Afrasiab. His paternal grandfather was Kay Kāvus, the legendary Shah of Iran who chose him as his heir when he returned to Iran with his mother. The name Kay Khosrow derives from Avestan , meaning "seer/poet who has good fame". In Avesta In Avesta, Kay Khosrow has the epithet of , meaning "stallion of the Aryan lands". According to Avesta, Kay Khosrow had a son called Āxrūra. Kay Khosrow sacrificed for Anahita in Lake Chichast for winning a chariot race. He killed Afrasiyab in Lake Chichast as revenge for Siavash who had been killed by Aγraēraθa, son of Naru. In Pahlavi t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
