Afrasiab
mythical character in Shahnameh
In Iranian legend, Afrasiab (Persian: افراسياب afrāsiyāb; Middle Persian: Frāsiyāv, Frāsiyāk), also known as Fraŋrasyan, is the king and hero of Turan in Iranian national history. He is the main antagonist of the Iranians in the Persian epic Shahnameh, written by Ferdowsi.
Name and origin
The oldest attested form of the name is the Avestan Fraŋrasyan, which Émile Benveniste derived from *fra-hrasya- 'to make disappear, to fell, to destroy'. This etymology is connected with a myth in which Afrasiab holds back rain. The Persian form of the name is derived from a version of the name which ends in āb 'water' (*Frahrasyāpa- > *Frārasyāp > Frāsīāb).
In the Avesta
The oldest mention of Afrasiab is found in the Avesta, where he is called Fraŋrasyan. Although the Avesta does not present his story in a single coherent narrative, it is alluded to numerous times in the so called Legendary Yashts. In these hymns, he is already presented as the King of the Turanians and archenemy of the Iranians. His common epithet mairya- (deceitful, villainous) can be interpreted as meaning an evil man. He lived in a subterranean fortress made of metal, called Hanakana.
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This entry incorporates text from “Afrasiab” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.