Afrasiab
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Afrasiab (afrāsiyāb) (Persian: افراسياب; Avestan Fraŋrasyan; Pahlavi Frāsiyāv, Frāsiyāk and Freangrāsyāk, was the name of mythical king and hero of Turan and archenemy of Iran. Also the name of city known as Uzbek: Afrosiyob; Turkish: Efrasiyab), old Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan.
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[edit] The Mythical King and Hero
According to Shahnameh ('Book of Kings') by the Persian epic-poet Ferdowsi, Afrasiab was the mythical King and hero of Turan, the archenemy of Iran, in its legendry history. In Iranian tradition, Afrasiab, by far was considered as the most prominent of mythical Turanian kings, and a formidable warrior and skilful general; an agent of Ahriman, he is endowed with magical powers and deception to destroy the Iranian race.[1]
In Middle-Persian and Islamic sources he was decent of Tūr (Av. Tūriya-), one of three sons of Iranian mythical king Freydun. In Bundahishn he was named as the seventh grandson of Tūr. In Avestan tradition, where his common epithet mairya- deceitful, villainous[2] who take the sense of an evil man. He lived in subtreanean fortress made of metal, called Hanakana.
According to Avestan sources, Afrasiab was killed by Haoma near the Čīčhast (possibly either referring to Urmia Lake in Azarbaijan, or Lake Hamun in Sistan) and according to Shahnameh met his death in a cave, became to known as the Hang-e Afrâsiâb or the dying place of Afrasiab, on a mountaintop in Azarbaijan. The fugitive Afrâsiâb, having been repeatedly defeated by the armies of his adversary, the mythical king of Iran, Key Khosrow, who happened to be his own grandson, through his daughter Farangis, wandered wretchedly and fearfully around, and eventually took refuge in that cave and dies.[3]
[edit] In Turkish Literature
Kashgarli Mehmud metions about him (Kashgarli Mehmud:, Turkish language dictionary, 11th century).Efrasiyab is called Alp Er Tunga or Alp Ertunga. There is an old saga which is written for his death.The original version of saga:
alp er tunga öldi mü/ isız ajun kaldı mu/ ödlek öçin aldı mu/ emdi yürek yırtılur.
ödlek yarağ közetti/ oğrun tuzağ uzattı / begler begin azıttı/ kaçsa kah kurtulur?
begler atın urgurup/ kadgu anı turgurup/ mengzi yüzi sargarup/ korkum angar türtülür.
uluşıp eren börleyü/ yırtıp yaka urlayu/ sıkrıp üni yırlayu/ sığtap közi örtülür.
könglüm için ötedi/ yitmiş yaşıg kartadı/ kiçmiş ödig irtedi/ tün kün kiçip irtelür.
[edit] Archaeological Site
Afrasiab is the oldest part and the ruined site of ancient and medieval of the city of Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan. The term Qal’a ye Afrasiab (Castle of Afrasiab) appeared in written sources only from the end of 17th century.
The name is popularly connected with of the mythical king Afrasiab, but scholars see in it a distortion and corrupt form of Tajik Parsīāb (from Sogdian Paršvāb), meaning "Above the black river", i.e. Sīāhāb or Sīāb, which bounds the site of the north.[4]
The area of Afrasiab covered 219 (by some accounts 222)[5] hectares, and the thickness of the archaeological strata reaches 8-12 meters. Archaeological excavations carried on in Afrasiab since the end of the 19th century, and very actively in the 1960-70s. The settling of the territories of Afrasiab began in the 7th-6th century BCE, as the centre of Sogdian culture.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Yarshater, E., Afrasiab, Encyclopedia Iranica - digital library, (LINK); accessed January 18, 2007.
- ^ Nyberg H. S., Die Religionen des Alten Iran, Berlin (1938). p257
- ^ Shahbazi A. Sh., Hang-e Afrasiab; The Dying Place of Afrasiâb, (LINK); accessed January 18, 2007
- ^ Yarshater, E., Afrasiab, Encyclopedia Iranica - digital library, (LINK); accessed January 18, 2007.
- ^ Marshak B. I., Sogdian Archaeology, 2003, (LINK); accessed January 18, 2006
- ^ Darmesteter J., Hang-e Afrasiab, Études Iraniennes, Paris (1883), pp225-27.
| edit | Persian literature series |
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شاهنامه فردوسی Shahnameh of Ferdowsi |
| Characters: | Abtin | Arash | Afrāsiāb | Esfandiār | Fereydun | Goodarz | Gordāfarid | Hushang | Jamshid | Kāveh | Kai Khosrow | Kiumars | Manuchehr | Rakhsh | Rohām | Rostam | Rostam Farrokhzad | Rudābeh | Sām | Shaghād | Siāmak | Siāvash | Simurgh | Sohrāb | Tahmineh | Tahmuras | Zāl | Zahhāk |
| Places: | Irān | Māzandarān | Samangān | Turān | Zābol | Kābul | Birjand |
