The Shahnameh atlas · The heroic age
Khotan
ختنPiran's land in the poem, where Farangis finds refuge and Kay Khosrow is born
- A real place the poem names
- Piran, Farangis, Kay Khosrow, Siyavash, Golshahr
For Ferdowsi, Khotan lies deep in Turan, and it belongs to Piran, the old general who is the most humane figure at Afrasiab's court. After Siyavash marries Farangis, the couple spend a month there as Piran's guests, feasting and hunting, before Siyavash goes on to build his own cities of Gang Dezh and Siyavashgerd.
When Siyavash is killed, Afrasiab orders the pregnant Farangis beaten so that no heir of Siyavash may be born. Piran rides to the court, takes her from the executioners and carries her to his house in Khotan, where his wife Golshahr looks after her. There Kay Khosrow is born, on the night Piran dreams that Siyavash calls him to the new king's feast. From Khotan the child is sent to the shepherds, and from there, years later, the hero Giv brings him home to Iran.
The real Khotan, now Hotan, is an oasis city on the southern edge of the Taklamakan desert, in Xinjiang in western China. It stood on the southern branch of the Silk Road and was famous for its jade. For centuries it was a Buddhist kingdom whose people spoke Khotanese, an Iranian language of the Saka family known from manuscripts found in the sands. Persian poets made the musk of Khotan a byword for fragrance. The Turan of the Shahnameh is a land of legend, and its Khotan is not a map of the real one, but the name Ferdowsi chose was one his readers knew.
The tales told hereداستانها
Siyavash, Farangis and Siyavashgerdفرنگیس و سیاوشگرد
In exile Siyavash marries Farangis, builds two cities and foresees his own death
The death of Siyavashکشته شدن سیاوش
Garsivaz's lies turn Afrasiab against Siyavash, who dies refusing to fight
Giv's seven years' search for Kay Khosrowگیو و کیخسرو
Giv searches Turan for seven years, finds Siyavash's son and brings him home
In Mythologyاسطوره
Siyavash and the trial by fire
The innocent prince who rode through fire to prove his honour, kept his word at the cost of his life, and was mourned for centuries in Central Asia.
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.