{"history":[],"article":{"id":"a520c1d7-3aef-4e6b-8226-45afe6002edd","title":"Ayadgar-i Zariran","slug":"ayadgar-i-zariran","content":":::summary\n:::\n\n# \n**Ayādgār ī Zarērān** (and other approximationscf. of ambiguous [Book Pahlavi](https://bliptext.com/articles/book-pahlavi) ʾbyʾtkʾr y zlyln), meaning \"Memorial of Zarēr\", is a [Zoroastrian Middle Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/pahlavi-literature) [heroic poem](https://bliptext.com/articles/heroic-poetry) that, in its surviving manuscript form, represents one of the earliest surviving examples of [Iranian epic poetry](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-literature).\nThe poem of about 346 lines is a tale of the death in battle of the mythical hero Zarēr (< [Avestan](https://bliptext.com/articles/avestan-language) Zairi.vairi), and of the revenge of his death.\nThe figures and events of the poem's story are embellishments of mythological characters and events alluded to in the [Gāthās](https://bliptext.com/articles/gathas), which are a set of autobiographical hymns in the [Avesta](https://bliptext.com/articles/avesta) that are attributed to the prophet [Zoroaster](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroaster).\n\n# Composition\nHistorically, Iranian epic poems such as this one were composed and sung by travelling minstrels, who in pre-Islamic times were a fixture of Iranian society.\nAlthough heroic tales such as the Memorial of Zarēr were collected by Zoroastrian priests for the now-lost [Sassanid-era](https://bliptext.com/articles/sassanid-empire) Book of Kings, (the Xwadāy-nāmag, a 5th/6th-century collection of heroic legends), other minstrel compositions were either never written down (and have thus been lost), or are only known of from later translations into Islamic-era languages such as [Arabic](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabic-language) or [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-persian).\nWhile the Sassanid-era Book of Kings has also been lost, a copy of the Memorial of Zarēr was preserved by Zoroastrian priests in [Zoroastrian Middle Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/pahlavi-literature) (so-called \"Pahlavi\", an exclusively written late form of Middle Persian used only by Zoroastrian priests), and it is the only surviving specimen of Iranian epic poetry in that Middle Iranian language.\nThe surviving manuscripts of the Memorial of Zarēr are part of (copies of) the MK Codex, the colophones of which date to 1322, but—like most other \"Pahlavi\" literature — represents a codification of earlier oral tradition.\nThe language of the poem is significantly older than the 14th century, and even has [Parthian language](https://bliptext.com/articles/parthian-language) words, phrases and grammatical usages scattered through it.\nThe manuscript came to the attention of western scholarship following [Wilhelm Geiger](https://bliptext.com/articles/wilhelm-geiger)'s report of the MK collection and the translation of the text in question in 1890.\nFollowing an analysis by [Émile Benveniste](https://bliptext.com/articles/mile-benveniste) in 1932, the poem is now generally considered to be a 5th or 6th-century ([Sassanid-era](https://bliptext.com/articles/sassanid-empire)) adaptation of an earlier ([Arsacid-era](https://bliptext.com/articles/arsacid-empire)) Parthian original.\n\n# Story\nThe story of Memorial of Zarēr plays in the time of the mythological [Kayānid](https://bliptext.com/articles/kayanian-dynasty) monarch Wištāsp (< Avestan Vištāspa), the patron of [Zoroaster](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroaster).\nThe story opens with the arrival of messengers at the Wištāsp's court.\nThe message is from the [Daēva](https://bliptext.com/articles/daeva)-worshipping king of the [Un-Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/aniran) Xyonites (< Av. x́yaona-), [Arjāsp](https://bliptext.com/articles/arjasp) ( Middle Persian Arzāsp < Avestan Arəjaṱ.aspa), who demands that Wištāsp \"abandon 'the pure Mazdā-worshipping religion which he had received from [Ohrmazd](https://bliptext.com/articles/ahura-mazda)', and should become once more 'of the same religion'\" as himself.\nArjāsp threatens Wištāsp with a brutal battle if Wištāsp does not consent.\nZarēr, who is Wištāsp's brother and the command-in-chief of Wištāsp's army, pens a reply in which Arjāsp's demands are rejected and a site for battle is selected.\nIn preparation for battle, the army of the [Iranians](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran-word) grows so large that the \"noise of the caravan of the country of Iran went up to heavens and their clamors went down to hell.\"\nWištāsp's chief-minister, Jāmāsp (< Av. [Jāmāspa](https://bliptext.com/articles/jamasp-sage)), whom the poem praises as infinitely wise and able to foretell the future, predicts that the Iranians will win the battle, but also that many will die in it, including many of Wištāsp's clan/family.\nAs predicted, many of the king's clansmen are killed in the fight, among them Wištāsp's brother Zarēr, who is slain by Wīdrafsh / Bīdrafsh, the sorcerer (the epithet is jādūg, implying a practitioner of wicked magic) of Arjāsp's court.\nZarēr's 7-year-old son, Bastwar / Bastūr (< Av. Basta.vairi) goes to the battlefield to recover his father's body.\nEnraged and grieving, Bastwar vows to take revenge.\nAlthough initially forbidden to engage in battle due to his youth, Bastwar engages with the Xyonites, killing many of them, and revenging his father by shooting an arrow through Wīdrafsh's heart.\nMeanwhile, Bastwar's cousin [Spendyād](https://bliptext.com/articles/esfandyar) (< Av. Spǝṇtōδāta) has captured Arjāsp, who is then mutilated and humiliated by being sent away on a donkey without a tail.\n\n# Legacy\nAlthough quintessentially Zoroastrian (i.e. indigenous ethnic Iranian religious tradition), the epic compositions of the traveling minstrels continued to be retold (and further developed) even in Islamic Iran, and the figures/events of these stories were just as well known to Muslim Iranians as they had been to their Zoroastrian ancestors.\nThe 5th/6th-century Book of Kings, now lost, and partly perhaps a still living oral tradition in north-eastern Iran, served as the basis for a 10th-century rhymed-verse version of the Memorial of Zarēr by [Abū-Manṣūr Daqīqī](https://bliptext.com/articles/abu-mansur-daqiqi).\nIn turn, Daqīqī 's poem was incorporated by [Ferdowsi](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferdowsi) in his [Šāhnāma](https://bliptext.com/articles/shahnameh).\nIn 2009, these adaptations of Memorial of Zarēr became the basis of the stage play Yādgār-i Zarirān written by Qoṭb ed-Din Ṣādeqi, and played by Mostafa Abdollahi, Kazem Hozhir-Azad, Esmayil Bakhtiyari and others.","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T12:17:44.430Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T12:17:44.430Z","search_vector":"'ayadgar':2 'ayadgar-i':1 'zariran':4","search_content":" \n \n\n# \n**Ayādgār ī Zarērān** (and other approximationscf. of ambiguous [Book Pahlavi](https://bliptext.com/articles/book-pahlavi) ʾbyʾtkʾr y zlyln), meaning \"Memorial of Zarēr\", is a [Zoroastrian Middle Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/pahlavi-literature) [heroic poem](https://bliptext.com/articles/heroic-poetry) that, in its surviving manuscript form, represents one of the earliest surviving examples of [Iranian epic poetry](https://bliptext.com/articles/iranian-literature).\nThe poem of about 346 lines is a tale of the death in battle of the mythical hero Zarēr (< [Avestan](https://bliptext.com/articles/avestan-language) Zairi.vairi), and of the revenge of his death.\nThe figures and events of the poem's story are embellishments of mythological characters and events alluded to in the [Gāthās](https://bliptext.com/articles/gathas), which are a set of autobiographical hymns in the [Avesta](https://bliptext.com/articles/avesta) that are attributed to the prophet [Zoroaster](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroaster).\n\n# Composition\nHistorically, Iranian epic poems such as this one were composed and sung by travelling minstrels, who in pre-Islamic times were a fixture of Iranian society.\nAlthough heroic tales such as the Memorial of Zarēr were collected by Zoroastrian priests for the now-lost [Sassanid-era](https://bliptext.com/articles/sassanid-empire) Book of Kings, (the Xwadāy-nāmag, a 5th/6th-century collection of heroic legends), other minstrel compositions were either never written down (and have thus been lost), or are only known of from later translations into Islamic-era languages such as [Arabic](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabic-language) or [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-persian).\nWhile the Sassanid-era Book of Kings has also been lost, a copy of the Memorial of Zarēr was preserved by Zoroastrian priests in [Zoroastrian Middle Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/pahlavi-literature) (so-called \"Pahlavi\", an exclusively written late form of Middle Persian used only by Zoroastrian priests), and it is the only surviving specimen of Iranian epic poetry in that Middle Iranian language.\nThe surviving manuscripts of the Memorial of Zarēr are part of (copies of) the MK Codex, the colophones of which date to 1322, but—like most other \"Pahlavi\" literature — represents a codification of earlier oral tradition.\nThe language of the poem is significantly older than the 14th century, and even has [Parthian language](https://bliptext.com/articles/parthian-language) words, phrases and grammatical usages scattered through it.\nThe manuscript came to the attention of western scholarship following [Wilhelm Geiger](https://bliptext.com/articles/wilhelm-geiger)'s report of the MK collection and the translation of the text in question in 1890.\nFollowing an analysis by [Émile Benveniste](https://bliptext.com/articles/mile-benveniste) in 1932, the poem is now generally considered to be a 5th or 6th-century ([Sassanid-era](https://bliptext.com/articles/sassanid-empire)) adaptation of an earlier ([Arsacid-era](https://bliptext.com/articles/arsacid-empire)) Parthian original.\n\n# Story\nThe story of Memorial of Zarēr plays in the time of the mythological [Kayānid](https://bliptext.com/articles/kayanian-dynasty) monarch Wištāsp (< Avestan Vištāspa), the patron of [Zoroaster](https://bliptext.com/articles/zoroaster).\nThe story opens with the arrival of messengers at the Wištāsp's court.\nThe message is from the [Daēva](https://bliptext.com/articles/daeva)-worshipping king of the [Un-Iranian](https://bliptext.com/articles/aniran) Xyonites (< Av. x́yaona-), [Arjāsp](https://bliptext.com/articles/arjasp) ( Middle Persian Arzāsp < Avestan Arəjaṱ.aspa), who demands that Wištāsp \"abandon 'the pure Mazdā-worshipping religion which he had received from [Ohrmazd](https://bliptext.com/articles/ahura-mazda)', and should become once more 'of the same religion'\" as himself.\nArjāsp threatens Wištāsp with a brutal battle if Wištāsp does not consent.\nZarēr, who is Wištāsp's brother and the command-in-chief of Wištāsp's army, pens a reply in which Arjāsp's demands are rejected and a site for battle is selected.\nIn preparation for battle, the army of the [Iranians](https://bliptext.com/articles/iran-word) grows so large that the \"noise of the caravan of the country of Iran went up to heavens and their clamors went down to hell.\"\nWištāsp's chief-minister, Jāmāsp (< Av. [Jāmāspa](https://bliptext.com/articles/jamasp-sage)), whom the poem praises as infinitely wise and able to foretell the future, predicts that the Iranians will win the battle, but also that many will die in it, including many of Wištāsp's clan/family.\nAs predicted, many of the king's clansmen are killed in the fight, among them Wištāsp's brother Zarēr, who is slain by Wīdrafsh / Bīdrafsh, the sorcerer (the epithet is jādūg, implying a practitioner of wicked magic) of Arjāsp's court.\nZarēr's 7-year-old son, Bastwar / Bastūr (< Av. Basta.vairi) goes to the battlefield to recover his father's body.\nEnraged and grieving, Bastwar vows to take revenge.\nAlthough initially forbidden to engage in battle due to his youth, Bastwar engages with the Xyonites, killing many of them, and revenging his father by shooting an arrow through Wīdrafsh's heart.\nMeanwhile, Bastwar's cousin [Spendyād](https://bliptext.com/articles/esfandyar) (< Av. Spǝṇtōδāta) has captured Arjāsp, who is then mutilated and humiliated by being sent away on a donkey without a tail.\n\n# Legacy\nAlthough quintessentially Zoroastrian (i.e. indigenous ethnic Iranian religious tradition), the epic compositions of the traveling minstrels continued to be retold (and further developed) even in Islamic Iran, and the figures/events of these stories were just as well known to Muslim Iranians as they had been to their Zoroastrian ancestors.\nThe 5th/6th-century Book of Kings, now lost, and partly perhaps a still living oral tradition in north-eastern Iran, served as the basis for a 10th-century rhymed-verse version of the Memorial of Zarēr by [Abū-Manṣūr Daqīqī](https://bliptext.com/articles/abu-mansur-daqiqi).\nIn turn, Daqīqī 's poem was incorporated by [Ferdowsi](https://bliptext.com/articles/ferdowsi) in his [Šāhnāma](https://bliptext.com/articles/shahnameh).\nIn 2009, these adaptations of Memorial of Zarēr became the basis of the stage play Yādgār-i Zarirān written by Qoṭb ed-Din Ṣādeqi, and played by Mostafa Abdollahi, Kazem Hozhir-Azad, Esmayil Bakhtiyari and others.","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

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