Barzu, usually Sohrab’s son and Rostam’s grandson, belongs to an epic tradition preserved in different manuscripts and recorded Tajik storytelling.

Manuscript painting of two warriors wrestling among pink rocks, with onlookers, horses and Persian verse above and below
Rustam Combats Barzu, his Grandson, Walters W.601.278B. The museum dates the illustration to the nineteenth century; the older manuscript was copied in 1618–19. The Walters Art Museum · W.601.278B · CC0.

Who is Barzu?

Barzu, also written Borzu, is an epic hero associated with the family of Rostam. His usual written genealogy makes him the son of Sohrab and grandson of Rostam. His adventures circulated as the Barzu-nama and as additions inside copies of the Shahnameh. The presence of a story in a manuscript of Ferdowsi’s poem therefore needs to be distinguished from its presence in Ferdowsi’s own text. Gabrielle van den Berg’s manuscript research identifies Barzu as a hero of the wider Persian epic cycle, rather than a character in that original text. [1]

Different written versions

The manuscripts preserve different plots. In the version placed during Kay Kavus’s reign, Barzu’s mother Shahru intervenes before Rostam kills him. Recognition permits reconciliation, but this version eventually ends with Barzu’s death at the hands of the div Manharas. A version set under Kay Khosrow begins with Afrasiab encountering a powerful young farmer. After recognition and further warfare, including the episode of the witch Susan, Barzu receives Ghur and Herat. Combining those endings produces a misleading single biography. [1]

A work with a complicated transmission

The surviving copies also differ greatly in length. Van den Berg describes a fifteenth-century Cambridge copy of 4,253 verses and much longer Paris copies of about 38,000. She explains that the formerly accepted attribution to Ata ibn Yaqub rested on a misreading. The Cambridge colophon names Shams al-Din Muhammad Kusanj or Kusaj. Neither a universal verse count nor an uncontested author can safely be assigned to every text called Barzu-nama. [1]

A farmer in the stories of Boysun

A different kind of evidence comes from Ravshan Rahmoni’s field recordings in Pasurxi, near Boysun in Uzbekistan. His introduction to The Story of Barzu describes recording Jura Kamol in 1995 and also recording Kamol’s son Mulloravshan. In Kamol’s version, Afrasiab’s soldiers damage a melon field, bringing the farmer Barzu into conflict with them. His mother is named Turkonxotun. These details locate the epic within a recognisable agricultural and social world. Rahmoni also records disagreement among tellers over whether Barzu is Rostam’s son or grandson. [2]

How the tale was performed

Rahmoni describes Kamol standing to narrate, changing his voice, imitating movement and using pauses to hold his listeners. Friends gathered in houses during winter and outside in spring, sharing food, conversation and stories. Such performances were occasions for adaptation, with local vocabulary and remembered episodes shaping each telling. The 2013 book, edited by Rahmoni and van den Berg, presents two versions in the Tajik speech of the region, alongside English translation. It preserves particular narrators’ accounts rather than declaring a single authorised plot. [2] [3]

Reading the manuscript image

The Walters Art Museum identifies the pictured scene as Rostam fighting his grandson Barzu. Two warriors struggle among coloured rocks while other figures watch. The museum dates this painting to the nineteenth century, although manuscript W.601 was copied in 1618–19. Its fourteen illustrations appear to be later additions, possibly made in India or Iran. The image documents how readers and artists incorporated Barzu into the visual life of the Shahnameh. Its inclusion does not establish that Ferdowsi composed the episode, and the date of the page’s text should not be used as the date of its painting. [4] [5]

Sources and further reading

  1. Gabrielle van den Berg, “Borzu-nāma (article 2),” Encyclopaedia Iranica (2009; updated 2018): manuscript research and variants.
  2. Ravshan Rahmoni, introduction to The Story of Barzu (2013), pp. 7–16: first-person fieldwork, storytellers and oral variants.
  3. Leiden University Press, The Story of Barzu, edited by Ravshan Rahmoni and Gabrielle van den Berg (2013): edition and translation.
  4. The Walters Art Museum, Rustam Combats Barzu, his Grandson, W.601.278B: object record and CC0 image.
  5. The Walters Art Museum, Book of Kings, W.601: manuscript dated 1618–19 and nineteenth-century illustrations.