Hirmand (Helmand)

In the Shahnameh the Hirmand marks the threshold of Rostam's country. When Goshtasp sends Esfandiyar to bring Rostam to court in chains, the prince pitches his tents on its bank, and his son Bahman crosses it to carry the message to Zal's house. Rostam rides down to the river without armour or weapons, crosses on Rakhsh, dismounts and greets the prince, and the two embrace by the water, each praising the other. It is here, after a day in which courtesy turns to insult, that they fight.

The river runs through the whole tragedy. Wounded by Esfandiyar's arrows, Rostam climbs a hill above the bank, asks for a truce until morning, and crosses back to his own side, while Esfandiyar watches and marvels that a man so wounded can still swim the river. After Esfandiyar's death his son Bahman stays behind in Zabol, to be raised by Rostam. Years later Bahman, now king, brings his army to the Hirmand on the way to take revenge on Zal's house.

The Helmand is real, and it is the longest river in Afghanistan. It rises in the mountains west of Kabul, runs south-west across the country, and ends in the Hamun lakes and marshes of Sistan, on the border between Iran and Afghanistan. Its water made Sistan a land of farms and towns in the past, and the Hamun wetlands depend on it; in recent decades they have shrunk badly in years of drought and heavy use upstream. The river's name goes back to the Avesta, where it is called Haetumant.