Hāmāvarān () is a place in

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 couple ...

and other Iranian writings. The consensus between scholars is that Hamavaran is usually identified with

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. According to

Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub ( Luri/ Persian: , also Romanized as ''Zarrinkoob'', ''Zarrinkub'', ) (March 21, 1923 – September 15, 1999) was a scholar and professor of Iranian literature, history of literature, Persian culture and history. He was ...

, it is an altered form of

Himyarite Kingdom Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qataban, Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According ...

Hamavaran background

In some old writings, the name was mentioned as Sambarān, Shambarān, Shammarān, Samarān, and Shamarān. It has been suggested that these forms consists of "Shammar + ān". Shammar in the name of a Himyarite king in 3rd century, and so, Shammarān means "the land of Shammar".The journal of History of Iran, Issue 62, Yemen in Persian literature, p 191 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 ...

texts, Yemen is mentioned as Yamar, Yambar and Yamyar and that could be a possible form of Hāmāvarān. There are many stories about Hamavaran in

Persian literature Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day ...

. In Shahnameh,

Kay Kavus The name Kay is found both as a surname and as a given name. In English-speaking countries, it is usually a feminine name, often a short form of Katherine or one of its variants; but it is also used as a first name in its own right, and also as a ...

fell in love with the daughter of Hamavaran's king,

Sudabe Sudabeh or Sodaba () is a character in the Persian language, Persian epic ''Shahnameh''. She was princess of Hamavaran kingdom and later, becomes the wife of Kay Kāvus, King of Iran (Shahnameh), Iran, and stepmother to prince Siyavash. The S ...

. In Shahnameh, Hamavaran is located far away from Iran, and Kay Kavus goes to Hāmāvarān through sea. Hāmāvarān is bordered to the left by

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and to the right by Barbarestan (possibly

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

). In Sasanian era, Hamavaran was occupied by Abyssinian troops and the king of Hamavaran, asks

Khosrow I Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; ), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ("the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 531 to 579. He was the son and successor of Kavad I (). Inheriting a rei ...

to help him. Khosrow uses 800 prisoners that are sentenced to death in a war between Abyssinian and Persians, in which Abyssinians were defeated and Hamavaran became a province of

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

References

Sources

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

Shahnameh. From the Moscow version. Mohammed Publishing.

External links

Shahnameh stories Places in Shahnameh {{Shahnameh-stub