The Shahnameh atlas · The heroic age
Mount Asperuz
کوه اسپروزKay Kavus's camp on the threshold of the land of divs; location approximate
- Legendary: the location is approximate · Mazandaran in the Atlas
- Kay Kavus, Rostam, Olad, Arzhang, the White Div, Giv
Mount Asperuz is where Kay Kavus pitches his throne on the threshold of Mazandaran, at a place, the poem says, where the divs (demons) live and even elephants are afraid. The king and his champions spend the night there drinking. From here he sends Giv ahead to sack the first city of Mazandaran, and here, a week later, the White Div's cloud of smoke and pitch settles over the camp and blinds him and two-thirds of his army.
Rostam's road leads here too. After the fifth labour Olad guides him through the night and the day to Mount Asperuz, where Kavus had led his army, and from it they see the fires of the city of the divs. Rostam ties Olad to a tree, kills the div Arzhang, and comes back to Asperuz before going on to find the blind king. From Kavus he learns that the White Div's cave lies beyond seven mountains.
No mountain on the modern map carries the name, and Ferdowsi gives no clue to its position beyond its place at the edge of the divs' country. The point here, on the northern side of the central Alborz, follows the common identification of the poem's Mazandaran with the Caspian province and is only approximate. The Warners' translation spells the name Ispuruz.
The tales told hereداستانها
Kay Kavus and the song of Mazandaranکاووس و سرود مازندران
A demon's song lures Kay Kavus into Mazandaran, where he is struck blind
The seven labours of Rostamهفت خان رستم
A lion, a desert, a dragon, a witch, a darkness, a demon and the White Div
In Mythologyاسطوره
Rostam, Rakhsh and the seven labours
Iran's greatest hero and his matchless horse take the short, deadly road to rescue a foolish king: a lion, a desert, a dragon, a witch and the White Div.
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.