In Turkic literature he is considered to be the same character as Afrasiab in the Persian Epic Shahnameh.[5][6] He is sometimes mentioned as a khan of Saka.[7]
Alp Er Tunga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
According to the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), by the Persian epic poet Ferdowsi, Afrasiab was the king and hero of Turan and an archenemy of Iran. In Iranian mythology, Afrasiab is considered by far the most prominent of all Turanian kings; he is a formidable warrior, a skilful general, and an agent of Ahriman, who is endowed with magical powers of deception to destroy Iranian civilization.[1]
According to Middle Persian and Islamic sources, Afrasiab was a descendant of Tūr (Avestan: Tūriya-), one of the three sons of the Iranian mythical King Fereydun (the other two sons being Salm and Iraj). In Bundahishn he is named as the seventh grandson of Tūr. In Avestan traditions, his common epithet mairya- (deceitful, villainous[2]) can be interpreted as meaning 'an evil man'. He lived in a subterranean fortress made of metal, called Hanakana.
According to Avestan sources, Afrasiab was killed by Haoma near the Čīčhast (possibly either referring to Lake Hamun in Sistan or some unknown lake in today's Central Asia), and according to Shahnameh he met his death in a cave known as the Hang-e Afrasiab, or the dying place of Afrasiab, on a mountaintop in Azerbaijan. The fugitive Afrasiab, having been repeatedly defeated by the armies of his adversary, the mythical King of Iran Kay Khosrow (who happened to be his own grandson, through his daughter Farangis), wandered wretchedly and fearfully around, and eventually took refuge in this cave and died.
Afrasiab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Shahnameh (pronounced [ʃɒːhnɒː'me]) or Shah-nama (Persian: شاهنامه‎ āhnāmeh, "The Book of Kings") is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of the Iran (Persia) and the Persian speaking world. Consisting of some 50,000 verses,[1] the Shahnameh tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian empire from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. Today Iran, Persian speakers of the neighboring nations such as Afghanistan and Tajikestan, and the greater region influenced by the Persian culture celebrate this national epic.
The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of ethno-national cultural identity of Iran.[2] It is also important to the contemporary adherents of Zoroastrianism, in that it traces the historical links between the beginnings of the religion with the death of the last Sassanid ruler of Persia during the Muslim conquest and an end to the Zoroastrian influence in Iran.
Shahnameh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia