Pishdadian dynasty
His most renowned successor, Jamshid, established the main elements of civilization, but, as a result of his pride and hubris, was overthrown by the evil tyrant Zahhak.
Iraj and his successors aroused the envy of the other descendants of Fereydun, leading to a lengthy feud and series of wars which eventually caused the downfall of the dynasty.
Both in antiquity and the Middle Ages, ruling dynasties claimed descent from them in order to be imbued with their prestige and political legitimacy.
[18] Considered to be a globally significant literary masterpiece,[19] the poem is a history of Iran from its mythic beginnings to the Muslim conquest at the end of the Sasanian period, and opens with the story of the Pishdadian kings.
[25][note 1] Ferdowsi excludes Islamic cosmology and chronology from the Shahnameh and makes the pre-Islamic Persian myths the core message of the epic.
[16] The mythical kings of the Shahnameh have parallels with characters in the much earlier Avesta,[31] which likely reached its final form by the middle of the first millennium BCE.
[6] However, the Avesta gives only brief references to the characters involved, using different or variant names, with little detail of the myths that later find their full expression in the Shahnameh.
[34] Sitting between the Avesta and the Shahnameh are Middle Persian or Pahlavi Zoroastrian texts, such as the Denkard, the Bundahishn[35] and the Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg.
They give more detail than the Avestan references on some of the stories relating to the mythic kings, but still do not provide full narratives in the manner of the Shahnameh.
[12][37] His narrative intertwines an account of the mythical Persian kings with biblical stories and the prophets of Islam,[38][39] and integrates the Zoroastrian myths of the Pishdadians’ conflict with evil into the concept of mankind's struggle against satanic forces.
[12] Tabari's History was an important influence on the Muslim historiography that followed him,[41] and the most significant subsequent Persian development of this genre was the mid-10th century Tarikhnama of Bal'ami.
[45] In the Shahnameh, Gayomard is the first king of the world and, wearing animal skins and living in the mountains, he teaches humankind how to feed and dress itself and lays down the rules of kingship.
[45] The epic goes on to tell the story of how the Pishdadians ruled for over two millennia during which they fought demons, gave knowledge and skills to humanity, and created civilisation.
[49] This results in an ongoing feud and lengthy war between the Iranians and Turanians which ultimately causes the downfall of the Pishdadians and their replacement by a new dynasty, the Kayanians.
[14][50] In all, as narrated in the Shahmaneh, there are ten kings considered to be Pishdadian: Hushang, Tahmuras, Jamshid, Zahhak, Fereydun, Iraj, Manuchehr, Nowzar, Zav and Garshasp.
[53][54] Further details of the Pishdadian kings, as told in the Shahnameh, are summarised below together with their equivalent antecedent characters in the Avesta and the later Pahlavi texts, principally the Denkard and the Bundahishn.
Unlike Ferdowsi, the other Muslim authors who include the Persian mythic kings in their histories, sought to adapt the stories to fit Islamic chronology and thinking.
He built them homes, and taught them to eat meat, use animal skins for clothing, cut trees, mine and work metals and cultivate the land.
Writing a document on a white sheet, he imposed covenants upon them enjoining them not to confront any human being...They further mention that Iblis and his armies rejoiced at the death of Oshahanj.
[98] Tabari makes brief mention of the continuing struggle with the demons in Tahmurath's reign,[40] and notes that "God gave him so much power that Iblis and his Satans were submissive to him".
[100] Muslim authors typically attribute meanings to al-shidh such as "shine" or "radiance" and, in one instance, that his full name, including Jam, meant "brightness of the moon".
[67] According to Tabari, "some Magians claim that he took al-Dahhak captive and imprisoned him in the mountains, putting a group of jinn in charge of him; others assert that he killed him".
An agreement is made whereby the boundary between their realms is set by having an Iranian archer shoot an arrow from a mountain and where it lands will form the frontier.
[117] In particular, and despite the evidence of archaeology and modern historical scholarship, the Pishdadian dynasty and its equally mythical successor, the Kayanians, are at the core of Persian people's perspective of Iran's history and informs their sense of national identity.
[118] This is reflected in the fact that Iranians persist in calling Persepolis, the site of the Achaemenid capital, by its mythological name, Takht-e Jamshīd (the “Throne of Jamshid”).
