The Shahnameh atlas · The heroic age
Samangan
سمنگانTahmineh's city, where Sohrab was conceived; a Buddhist stupa bears Rostam's name
- Traditionally placed here · Balkh in the Atlas
- Rostam, Tahmineh, Sohrab, Rakhsh
The tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab begins with a lost horse. Rostam falls asleep while hunting near the border of Turan, and Rakhsh is stolen. Following the tracks, he arrives at Samangan, a city whose king welcomes him and promises to find the horse. That night Tahmineh, the king's daughter, comes to his chamber. She has heard of him all her life, she says, and wants a son by him. They are married; Rostam leaves her a token for their child and rides away when Rakhsh is found. He never comes back to Samangan. The son, Sohrab, will meet his father only on the battlefield.
In the poem, Samangan lies on the edge of Turan, a border city between the two worlds. Tradition identifies it with the town now called Aybak, or Samangan, the capital of Samangan province in northern Afghanistan, on the old road between Kabul and Balkh.
He never comes back to Samangan.
Takht-e Rostam
Just outside the town stands one of the most remarkable monuments in Afghanistan. A Buddhist stupa was carved downward out of a solid hill, its dome left standing in a circular trench, with monks' cells and halls cut into the surrounding rock. It dates from around the fourth or fifth century CE. Local people call it Takht-e Rostam, Rostam's throne, and say it was where he and Tahmineh were married. The monument is centuries older than Ferdowsi's poem and has nothing to do with the hero historically, but the name shows how firmly the epic has rooted itself in the landscape of northern Afghanistan.
In Mythologyاسطوره
Rostam and Sohrab
A father and son who have never met face each other on the battlefield. It is the most heartbreaking episode in the Shahnameh, and Ferdowsi knows it.
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.