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Reign of Kayumars or Kayumarth

The document provides a summary of key events and themes from the Shahnameh, the famous Persian epic poem written by Ferdowsi in the 10th century. It describes the story beginning with Kayumars, the first king, and the early mythological creation themes. It then discusses the reigns of subsequent kings like Hushang, who discovered fire, and Tahmures, who learned writing from more civilized "demons." Looking at the Shahnameh from a historical and mythological perspective helps understand the relationships and logic behind each part of the story.

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Nima Niassati
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340 views3 pages

Reign of Kayumars or Kayumarth

The document provides a summary of key events and themes from the Shahnameh, the famous Persian epic poem written by Ferdowsi in the 10th century. It describes the story beginning with Kayumars, the first king, and the early mythological creation themes. It then discusses the reigns of subsequent kings like Hushang, who discovered fire, and Tahmures, who learned writing from more civilized "demons." Looking at the Shahnameh from a historical and mythological perspective helps understand the relationships and logic behind each part of the story.

Uploaded by

Nima Niassati
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PERSIAN 2704

Niassati

Nima

Shahnameh

Shahnameh or the book of kings is arguably the most famous piece


of literature among Persian speaking people. Written by Abolghasem
Ferdowsi during the middle ages, it tells the story of Persian kings
combined with mythological themes. Ferdowsi started working on the
script druid Samanid dynasty in Persia, and therefore the story is
written for a Muslim audience ands for that reason Ferdowsi did his
best to do justice to the both sides, doing justice to the ancient
mythological theme, while keeping it interesting for the Muslim elite
readers.
The story starts with reign of Kayumars or Kayumarth. Kayumarth is
both the first man and the first king. Hes the one who establishes the
crown and thrown, first with his people in mountains. His people are
mentioned to here as wearing leopard skins. Both mentioning the
costume of Kayumarths people and them living in mountains seem to
be pointing to the fact that they were not yet civilized.
Another noteworthy point about the story of Kayumarth is the
exiting parallel between this story and Biblical creation story. In fact
Kayumarth is the fist man/king as Adam is the first man/prophet. In
Shahnameh the unit of time is reign of kinsan in parallel the unit of
time in bible is prophecy of prophets.
Next we are encountering the death of Siamak, Kayumarths wise,
handsome and eager for fame son by the hands the Black Demon or
the Black Div. This event disrupts the creation story, which was
peaceful up to this point. The next step is revenge. There is a cycle of
Peace, injustice, vengeance (or kin) and again peace, which repeats,

itself all over the Shahnameh as a theme.

In the case of Siamak,

injustice has occurred and Siamaks blood has been shed unjustly,
which requires revenge. Siamaks son Hushang and Kayumarth himself
fight with the Black Div and Hushang kills the Div, therefore completes
the cycle of vengeance. Kayumarths rule finishes after finishing the
cycle of vengeance.
The reign of Hushang turns our to be quite crucial as it was a bridge
between the creation stage of they story to the civilization stage. This
transition became possible by Hushang himself, discovering fire.
Discovery of fire would have directly caused discovery and utilization
of iron and eventually emergence of tools. Having metal tools means
that a wide variety of task can now be done, among which farming is
the most influential as the gateway to civilization. As a result of
farming, stable food sources become available, plus farming causes a
surplus of wealth which itself may cause in later complicated political
systems and conflicts. Shahnameh talks about, treasury and army and
other complicated systems of governance which all indicate that we
are encountering a civilized population now. Besides that Hushand
establishes the fist Sadeh. This is a fist in autumn, and a celebration
for harvest that again put emphasis on importance of agriculture at
this point for Hushangs kingdom as civilized society.
After Hushang, his son Tahmures takes the throne. Hes nickname is
Binder of Demons perhaps because of his clashes with the Divs. In
the story we see that Tahmures defeats the Divs, but eventually spares
them in return for their knowledge of writing. This raises the question
of how come these demons were more civilized than Tahmureses own
people? Who are these demons? It seems that the so-called DIvs are
actually other peoples outside of the boundaries of Tahmureses
kingdom (probably from Mesopotamia) that are actually more civilized

that Tahmures and his people themselves. The story of Tahmureses


clashes with the DIvs is actually a story of conquest. If we look at this
story in a historical context, there are parallels with this story in Irans
history, when the Persian took over Mesopotamia and learned writing
from Ilamids and other Mesopotamians.
Another noteworthy and interesting characteristic of Shahnameh
seems to be that the story is widely attached to the geographical
limitations of Iranian plateau and therefore natural boundaries are
playing different important roles in defining Iranians and Divs and etc.
Among these natural boundaries are, Jaxutes and Oxus rivers as well
as Mesopotamian deserts and Hindukosh mountains.
In summery, looking at Shanhameh from a historical/mythological
prospective helps to understand the relationships and logics behind
each part. It is important to keep in mind that what type of theme we
are facing here, when we are going to read different parts. This is
helpful in order to comprehend the story better.

References:
1- Dick Davis; Shahnameh, The Persian Book of King.
2- Class Notes.

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