Dara II or Darab II was the last king of the mythological Kayanian dynasty, ruling between 14 and 16 years. He is generally identified with

Darius III Darius III ( ; ; – 330 BC) was the thirteenth and last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Darius was a distant member of the Achaemenid dynasty. ...

(), the last king of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

. In

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

literature and Islamic chronicles, he is generally known as "Dara", while he is known as "Darab" in the

New Persian New Persian (), also known as Modern Persian () is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian (8th ...

proses '' Darab-nama'' and '' Iskandar-nama''. He was the son and successor of Dara I. According to early traditions, Dara II's mother was Mahnahid, daughter of Hazarmard, while later traditions refer her to as Thamrusia, a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

woman who was the daughter of Fastabiqun and former wife of the king of

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

. Dara II was the half-brother of Iskandar (

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

), who, after refusing to pay tribute, rebelled. During the rebellion, Dara II was assassinated by his ministers Mahyar and Janushyar ( Bessus and Nabarzanes). He had three sons, Ashk, Ardashir, and a third, who name is uncertain. The

Sasanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...

monarchs of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

(224–651) invented a descent that traced them back to Dara II through a son named Sasan (called "the elder"). The House of Ispahbudhan, one of the

Seven Great Houses of Iran The Seven Great Houses of Iran, also known as the seven Parthian clans, were seven aristocracies of Parthian origin, who were allied with the Sasanian court. The Parthian clans all claimed ancestry from Achaemenid Persians. The seven Great House ...

, likewise claimed descent from Dara II through their Arsacid lineage. The

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

ruler

Ismail I Ismail I (; 17 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid period is often considered the beginn ...

() claimed to be the personification of the divine light of investiture ('' farr'') that had radiated in Dara II. Dara II is credited with the foundation of the city of

Dara Dara is a given name in several languages. Dara, Daraa, or DARA may also refer to: Geography Africa * Dar'a, region in northern Ethiopia * Dara (woreda), region in southern Ethiopia Asia * Dara (Mesopotamia), an archeological site in Mard ...

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

, and in some cases the city of Darabgerd in Fars.

References

Sources

* * * * * * Kayanians Shahnameh characters {{Shahnameh-stub