Mazandaran

Mazandaran in the Shahnameh is a land of gardens, flowers and endless spring, sung to Kay Kavus by a demon disguised as a minstrel. It is also the country of the divs, ruled by a demon king and guarded by the White Div. Kavus, against all advice, invades. He and his army are struck blind and taken prisoner, and Rostam rides to the rescue by the short, deadly road of the Seven Labours, ending with the White Div's death in his cave.

After the White Div, there is still a war to fight. Kavus, his sight restored, demands the king of Mazandaran's submission, and the two armies meet. Rostam faces the demon king, who escapes him by turning himself into a great rock. Only Rostam can lift it, and he carries it back to the Iranian camp, where he threatens to break it apart until the king takes his true form again and is killed. Kavus gives the kingdom to Olad, the warrior who guided Rostam on the later stages of his journey.

Which Mazandaran?

The modern province of Mazandaran, the green coastal strip between the Alborz and the Caspian, is the obvious candidate, and many readers simply picture the story there. But in Ferdowsi's day the Caspian lands were usually called Tabaristan, and scholars have long debated whether the poem's Mazandaran was originally somewhere else entirely, with suggestions ranging from lands in the west to India. The question remains open. The province of today, with its rice paddies, forests and towns like Sari and Babol, has embraced the association, and the white demon and the hero on his red horse decorate its teahouses as they do across Iran.