The Shahnameh atlas · The heroic age
Kalat (Forud's castle)
کلاتForud's mountain castle, often identified with Kalat-e Naderi in Khorasan
- Traditionally placed here · Razavi Khorasan in the Atlas
- Forud, Jarireh, Tus, Bahram, Bizhan, Kay Khosrow
When Kay Khosrow sends his first army against Turan he gives Tus one firm order: do not take the road by Kalat. His half-brother Forud lives there with his mother Jarireh, in a castle on a steep mountain the poem calls Sepad, with Charam and Mayam on the road nearby. Tus takes that road anyway. Forud watches the army from a peak, offers it his friendship, and is attacked. He kills two of the champions sent up the mountain and unhorses three more before he is cut down at his own gate. Jarireh dies on his body, and Tus builds a royal tomb for him on the mountain top.
Kalat is a common word for a fortress, so the name alone proves little. The Warners thought the poet probably meant Kalat-e Naderi, in Ferdowsi's own country north of Tus. It is a high basin walled by cliffs, reached only by narrow passes, and in the eighteenth century Nader Shah, who was born in the region, made it his stronghold and treasury. The valley still holds buildings from his reign, among them the tower-like Kakh-e Khorshid.
The poem itself gives only a road between Iran and Turan, a castle on a mountain and a desert to avoid. Whether its Kalat is this one or a fortress further north, the identification is a tradition, not a certainty. The point on the map marks Kalat-e Naderi.
The tales told hereداستانها
Forud, son of Siyavashداستان فرود سیاوش
Kay Khosrow's half-brother, killed on his own mountain by an army sent to avenge their father
More from the heroic ageشاهنامه
Mount Alborzالبرز کوه
On the heights of the Alborz the Simorgh raises Zal, the white-haired child his father abandoned. The poem's Alborz is a mountain at the edge of the world, traditionally identified with the range north of Tehran.
Kabulکابل
Kabul frames the life of Rostam. His mother Rudabeh is a princess of Kabul, and it is in the hunting grounds of a later king of Kabul that Rostam is betrayed and killed.
Zabulistanزابلستان
Zabulistan is the realm of the house of Sam: the court where Zal rules, Rostam is raised, and Esfandiyar comes to put Rostam in chains. Tradition places it in Sistan, around today's Zabol.
Kuh-e Khwajaکوه خواجه
A flat-topped black hill rising from the Hamun wetlands, crowned with the ruins of a Parthian and Sasanian palace that local people call Rostam's castle. It is the closest thing Rostam has to a home on the map.