Mardas: The Pious Father of the Tyrant
- Dala Sarkis
- Jun 3
- 13 min read
Introduction
Mardas is a figure of the early Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings: a pious and just king whose tragic fate stands at the dark origin of the tale of the tyrant Zahhak. He was the god-fearing father of Zahhak, betrayed through the plotting of the evil spirit so that his own corrupt son might seize his throne.
In the tradition, Mardas was a righteous and god-fearing ruler, a man of justice and piety. But his son Zahhak, weak-willed and corrupt, was ensnared by Ahriman, the spirit of evil, here appearing under the name Iblis, who plotted the betrayal of the good king so that Zahhak might take the throne. The contrast between the pious father and the corrupt son, and the tragedy of the good king betrayed, stand at the very beginning of the great tale of Zahhak's rise and tyranny.
Like all the figures of the Book of Kings, Mardas belongs to the shared epic and mythological heritage of the Iranian peoples, a tradition the Kurds hold in common with the Persians, the Lurs, and others of the Iranic world. To know Mardas is to encounter the pious father whose betrayal opens the dark tale of Zahhak, the just king whose virtue throws into relief the corruption of the son who would become the serpent-tyrant.
Contents
Who Is Mardas?
Mardas, sometimes spelled Merdas, is a king of the early Shahnameh, remembered as a pious and just ruler and as the father of the tyrant Zahhak. In the tradition, he is described as a god-fearing man, righteous and generous, a good king of his people. His son Zahhak, by contrast, was weak-willed and easily corrupted, and was ensnared by the evil spirit Ahriman, appearing under the name Iblis, who sought to use the young man as an instrument of evil. To set Zahhak on the path to power, the evil spirit plotted the betrayal of the good king Mardas, so that the son might seize his father's throne. The death of the pious Mardas, brought about through this plot, is the dark beginning of the tale of Zahhak's rise, and the contrast between the righteous father and the corrupt son is one of its central themes. Mardas is remembered as the good king whose betrayal opens the story of the serpent-tyrant.
The Pious and Just King
Mardas is portrayed in the tradition as a model of piety and justice, a god-fearing king who ruled his people with righteousness and generosity. His goodness is emphasized precisely to set it against the corruption of his son Zahhak.
In Ferdowsi's telling, Mardas is described as a god-fearing and pious ruler, a man of justice who possessed great wealth and used it generously, a good king beloved for his righteousness. He is said to have been devoted to his worship and his faith, a man who lived in reverence and did good to his people. This emphasis on the piety and justice of Mardas is an important element of the tale, for the goodness of the father stands in deliberate and tragic contrast to the weakness and corruption of the son. Where Mardas was righteous, generous, and god-fearing, his son Zahhak was weak-willed, impulsive, and easily led into evil. The portrayal of Mardas as the pious and just king thus serves to heighten the tragedy and the moral horror of what follows, the betrayal of so good a father by so corrupt a son, at the prompting of the evil spirit. The piety and justice of Mardas are the measure of the wrong done to him, the goodness that makes his betrayal the more terrible. As the pious and just king, Mardas embodies the righteous order that the rise of Zahhak would overthrow, the good ruler whose fall opens the way to the long tyranny. His virtue is central to his significance, the goodness of the father that throws into relief the evil of the son.
Key Takeaways
Mardas is a pious and just king of the early Shahnameh.
He is the father of the tyrant Zahhak.
His goodness contrasts sharply with his son's corruption.
His son Zahhak was ensnared by the evil spirit Iblis.
Mardas was betrayed through the plot of the evil spirit.
His fall is the dark beginning of the tale of Zahhak's rise.
Quick Facts
Name: Mardas (also Merdas)
Role: Pious king; father of Zahhak
Character: God-fearing, just, and generous
Son: Zahhak, the future serpent-tyrant
Adversary: Iblis (Ahriman), the evil spirit
Fate: Betrayed through the plot of the evil spirit
Theme: The pious father and the corrupt son
Significance: The dark origin-point of the Zahhak tale
Setting: The early epic, before the rise of Zahhak
Heritage: Shared Iranic epic tradition
Father of Zahhak
The defining relationship of Mardas is his fatherhood of Zahhak, the figure who would become the great serpent-tyrant of the epic, the usurper who would seize the throne of Jamshid and oppress the world for a thousand years.
In the tradition, Zahhak was the son of the pious Mardas, but he did not take after his righteous father. Where Mardas was god-fearing and just, Zahhak is described as weak-willed, impulsive, and lacking in the goodness and wisdom of his father, a young man more concerned with grandeur and his own desires than with virtue. This difference between father and son is the heart of the relationship, the good father and the corrupt son, and it is the son's weakness and want of virtue that make him vulnerable to the corruption of the evil spirit. The fatherhood of Mardas is significant precisely because of this contrast, for the tale stresses that the tyrant did not spring from an evil father but betrayed and destroyed a good one. The relationship of Mardas and Zahhak is thus a study in the failure of a son to inherit his father's virtue, and in the way that weakness and want of love or wisdom can open the door to evil. As the father of Zahhak, Mardas stands at the origin of the tyrant's story, the good king whose son would become the serpent-tyrant, and whose betrayal by that son is the first dark deed in the tyrant's rise. The fatherhood of Mardas frames the whole tragedy, the righteous origin from which the great evil would, by betrayal, arise.
The Plot of the Evil Spirit
The betrayal of Mardas was contrived by the evil spirit Ahriman, who in this part of the tale appears under the name Iblis, and who sought to use the corruptible Zahhak as an instrument for bringing evil into the world.
In the tradition, the evil spirit came to the young Zahhak in a fair disguise, as a flattering counsellor, and worked upon his weakness and his desire for power and grandeur. Having gained the young man's trust and ensnared him, the evil spirit proposed that the only obstacle between Zahhak and the throne was his father, the good king Mardas, and urged that this obstacle be removed. When Zahhak hesitated at the dreadful suggestion of betraying his own father, the evil spirit pressed him, offering to contrive the deed himself and asking only the young man's silence and complicity. This plotting of the evil spirit represents the corruption of Zahhak and the contriving of the first great betrayal, the malice of Ahriman working through the weakness of the son to destroy the righteous father. The plot of the evil spirit is the mechanism of the tragedy, the scheming of evil that turns the corrupt son against the good father. It is through this plot, and through Zahhak's complicity in it, that the betrayal of Mardas is brought about. The plot of the evil spirit thus marks the entry of a great evil into the world through the corruption of Zahhak and the betrayal of his father, the dark scheming that opens the long tale of the tyrant's rise and the oppression that would follow.
The Betrayal of Mardas
Through the plot of the evil spirit and the complicity of his own son Zahhak, the pious king Mardas was betrayed and brought to his death, a grievous wrong recounted soberly in the tradition as the first dark deed of the tyrant's rise.
In the tradition, the good king Mardas, devoted to his worship, was betrayed through the scheme contrived by the evil spirit with the silent complicity of his son. The righteous father, who had done no wrong, was brought to his death by the very son he had raised, a betrayal of the most terrible kind, the turning of a child against a good parent. The tradition recounts this betrayal with sorrow and moral gravity, dwelling not on any gruesome detail but on the horror and wrongness of the deed, the destruction of a pious and innocent father through the corruption of his son and the malice of the evil spirit. The betrayal of Mardas is the dark turning point of the tale, the wrong that sets Zahhak upon the throne and opens the way to his tyranny. It is presented as a grievous sin, the breaking of the bond between father and son and the destruction of a good man, the first of the many evils that would attend the rise of the serpent-tyrant. The betrayal of Mardas thus stands as the dark deed at the origin of the whole tragedy, the wronging of the pious father that begins the long story of Zahhak's evil. It is recounted soberly, as the grievous wrong it is, the betrayal of the good king that opens the dark age of the tyrant.
The Dark Beginning of the Tyranny
With the betrayal of Mardas, his son Zahhak seized the throne, and so began the long and terrible rise of the serpent-tyrant, the dark age that would oppress the world until the coming of Faridun.
Having taken his father's throne through betrayal, Zahhak fell ever further under the power of the evil spirit, who, in the famous continuation of the tale, appeared as a cook and won from the young king the fateful favour that led to the springing up of the serpents from his shoulders, the mark of his monstrous tyranny. Zahhak went on to usurp the throne of Jamshid and to oppress the world for a thousand years, feeding the serpents with the brains of the young, until at last he was overthrown by Faridun, roused by the blacksmith Kawa and the suffering of the people. The betrayal of Mardas is the dark seed from which all this evil grew, the first wrong that set the corrupt son upon the path of tyranny. In this way, the fate of the pious father is bound up with the whole great tale of Zahhak, the good king whose betrayal opened the dark age, and whose son's evil would not be undone until the deliverance wrought by Faridun. The dark beginning of the tyranny, in the betrayal of Mardas, frames the whole arc of the tale, the righteous origin destroyed by evil and the long oppression that followed, until the restoration of the rightful order. The fall of Mardas is thus the shadowed first chapter of the great story of the serpent-tyrant and his eventual overthrow.
Symbolism and Meaning
Mardas embodies, above all, the theme of righteous virtue betrayed by corruption, the pious and just king destroyed through the weakness and evil of his own son and the malice of the evil spirit. As the good father betrayed by the corrupt son, he represents the tragedy of virtue overthrown by evil at the origin of the tale of Zahhak.
Mardas embodies, too, the contrast between inherited goodness and personal corruption, for the tale stresses that the tyrant did not spring from an evil father but betrayed and destroyed a righteous one, illustrating that evil arises not by necessity of birth but through the corruption of the will. In this, Mardas represents the good origin that evil perverts and destroys, the righteous order overthrown by the malice of the evil spirit working through human weakness. And as the figure whose betrayal opens the tale of the serpent-tyrant, Mardas embodies the dark beginning of the long tyranny, the first wrong from which the great evil grew. In all this, Mardas is a figure of real significance at the origin of one of the epic's central tales, embodying righteous virtue betrayed, the contrast of goodness and corruption, and the dark beginning of the tyranny. He is the pious father whose betrayal opens the story of Zahhak, the good king whose fall sets in motion the long dark age that would not end until the deliverance of the world by Faridun.
Mardas and the Kurds
Mardas, like all the figures of the Shahnameh, belongs to the shared epic and mythological heritage of the Iranian peoples, a tradition that the Kurds hold in common with the Persians, the Lurs, and others of the Iranic world. The great tale of Zahhak, at whose dark origin Mardas stands, is part of the common inheritance of these peoples.
It is worth noting that the larger tale of Zahhak's overthrow, to which the story of Mardas belongs as its dark beginning, has a special resonance in Kurdish tradition, for the defeat of the tyrant by the rising of the people, associated with the blacksmith Kawa and celebrated at Newroz, is held especially dear among the Kurds. The story of the pious Mardas, betrayed at the origin of the tyrant's rise, belongs to this wider tale. Yet it is honest and accurate to understand Mardas himself, and the wider epic in which he appears, as part of the shared Iranic heritage, rather than as a uniquely Kurdish figure. As an Iranian people, the Kurds share in this broad heritage, of which Mardas is a part, even as the larger tale of Zahhak's overthrow holds a special place in Kurdish tradition. In presenting Mardas, then, we present a figure of the shared Iranian heritage to which the Kurds, as an Iranic people, are heirs alongside their neighbours, the pious father at the dark origin of the great tale of the serpent-tyrant.
Debates and Misconceptions
Was Mardas an evil man like his son? No; quite the opposite. Mardas is portrayed as a pious, just, and god-fearing king, a good man and a righteous ruler. The tale deliberately contrasts his goodness with the weakness and corruption of his son Zahhak, stressing that the tyrant did not spring from an evil father but betrayed and destroyed a good one. The virtue of Mardas is emphasized precisely to heighten the tragedy and the moral horror of his betrayal, and to show that evil arises through the corruption of the will rather than by necessity of birth.
Why does the tale call the evil spirit Iblis here, rather than Ahriman? In the story of Mardas and the rise of Zahhak, Ferdowsi often names the evil spirit Iblis, an Arabic name for the devil, rather than the Zoroastrian name Ahriman used elsewhere. The change of name has prompted scholarly discussion, but the figure is essentially the same: the spirit of evil who corrupts Zahhak and contrives the betrayal of his father. The use of the name Iblis reflects the layering of older Iranian and later traditions in the epic, but the role is that of the evil spirit, the adversary of the good.
Is Mardas a specifically Kurdish figure? No; like all the figures of the Shahnameh, he belongs to the shared epic heritage of the Iranian peoples, a tradition the Kurds hold in common with the Persians, the Lurs, and others of the Iranic world, rather than a uniquely Kurdish figure. Yet the larger tale of Zahhak's overthrow, at whose dark origin he stands, holds a special place in Kurdish tradition through its connection with Newroz. As an Iranian people, the Kurds share in this broad heritage, of which Mardas is a part, alongside their neighbours.
Related Topics
Zahhak: the serpent-tyrant, son of Mardas
Ahriman: the evil spirit who plotted the betrayal of Mardas
Jamshid: the king whose throne Zahhak would usurp
Faridun: the hero who would overthrow Zahhak
Kawa the Blacksmith: who roused the people against Zahhak
Faranak: the mother who saved Faridun from Zahhak
Newroz: the festival linked to the overthrow of Zahhak
The Shahnameh: the Persian Book of Kings, the great epic of Iran
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Mardas in the Shahnameh?
Mardas, sometimes spelled Merdas, is a king of the early Shahnameh, remembered as a pious and just ruler and as the father of the tyrant Zahhak. He is described as a god-fearing, righteous, and generous man, a good king of his people. His son Zahhak, by contrast, was weak-willed and corrupt, and was ensnared by the evil spirit, who plotted the betrayal of the good king so that the son might seize his throne, the dark beginning of the tale of Zahhak.
How did Mardas die?
Mardas was betrayed and brought to his death through a plot contrived by the evil spirit, with the silent complicity of his own son Zahhak. The evil spirit, having corrupted the young Zahhak, schemed to remove the good king so that his son might take the throne. The tradition recounts the betrayal soberly, dwelling not on gruesome detail but on the moral horror of the deed, the destruction of a pious and innocent father through the corruption of his son.
Why is Mardas important in the tale of Zahhak?
Mardas is important because his betrayal is the dark beginning of the whole tale of Zahhak. His goodness as a pious and just king stands in deliberate contrast to the corruption of his son, stressing that the tyrant did not spring from an evil father but betrayed and destroyed a good one. The wrong done to Mardas sets Zahhak upon the throne and opens the way to his thousand-year tyranny, making the pious father the tragic origin-point of the serpent-tyrant's story.
Was Mardas a good king?
Yes; Mardas is portrayed as a model of piety and justice, a god-fearing king who ruled with righteousness and generosity. His goodness is emphasized precisely to set it against the weakness and corruption of his son Zahhak. The virtue of Mardas heightens the tragedy of his betrayal and illustrates the tale's theme that evil arises through the corruption of the will rather than by necessity of birth, since so great an evil betrayed so good a father.
Why is the evil spirit called Iblis in this story?
In the story of Mardas and the rise of Zahhak, Ferdowsi often names the evil spirit Iblis, an Arabic name for the devil, rather than the Zoroastrian name Ahriman used elsewhere in the epic. The change of name has prompted scholarly discussion, but the figure is essentially the same: the spirit of evil who corrupts Zahhak and contrives the betrayal of his father. The use of the name reflects the layering of older Iranian and later traditions in the epic.
Is Mardas a Kurdish figure?
Mardas belongs to the shared epic heritage of the Iranian peoples, a tradition the Kurds hold in common with the Persians, the Lurs, and others of the Iranic world, rather than a uniquely Kurdish figure. Yet the larger tale of Zahhak's overthrow, at whose dark origin he stands, holds a special place in Kurdish tradition through its connection with Newroz. As an Iranian people, the Kurds share in this broad heritage, of which Mardas is a part, alongside their neighbours.
References and Further Reading
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