Pashang: The King of Turan Who Renewed the War
- Sherko Sabir
- 1 hour ago
- 13 min read
Introduction
Pashang is the king of Turan whose decision to renew the ancient war with Iran reopens the great conflict at the heart of the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings. A descendant of Tur, the son of Faridun who began the blood-feud, Pashang was the father of the dread Afrasiab, and it was Pashang who, after a long peace, resolved to take up the old quarrel once more and sent his son to invade the land of Iran.
Ruling Turan in the generations after the murder of Iraj, Pashang inherited both the kingdom and the ancient grievance of his line. When he judged the moment ripe, he gathered a great army and dispatched his fierce son Afrasiab to make war on Iran, beginning the long struggle that would run through the reign of the weak Iranian king Nowzar and on through the heroic age. Pashang was also the father of Garsivaz and of the noble and gentle Aghrirat, so that from his house came both the villainy and the rare nobility of Turan.
Like all the figures of the Book of Kings, Pashang 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. To know Pashang is to encounter the king who reopened the great feud, the dynastic hinge between the old crime of Tur and the long wars of the heroic age, and the father of the figures who would carry the conflict forward. His decision to renew the war set in motion much of the epic's central drama.
Contents
Who Is Pashang?
Pashang is an early king of Turan in the Shahnameh, a descendant of Tur, the son of Faridun, and the father of the dread king Afrasiab, the great archenemy of Iran. Ruling Turan after the long peace that had followed the first wars, Pashang resolved to renew the ancient blood-feud with Iran, and he sent his son Afrasiab at the head of a great army to invade the Iranian land, beginning the wars that would dominate the heroic age. Pashang was also the father of Garsivaz, who would prove a treacherous schemer, and of the kind and noble Aghrirat, one of the only two Turanians the epic praises. He is remembered as the king who reopened the great conflict between Iran and Turan and as the father of the central figures of the Turanian side.
King of the House of Tur
Pashang belonged to the royal house of Turan, the line descended from Tur, one of the three sons of the great hero-king Faridun. When Faridun divided the world among his sons, Tur received the eastern land of Turan, and his murder of his noble brother Iraj began the long feud between Iran and Turan. From Tur descended the kings of Turan, and Pashang was of this line.
In the genealogy of the epic, Pashang was the son of Zadashm and the grandson of Tur, and so the great-grandson of Faridun himself. The tradition records that Zadashm, Pashang's father, had been a peaceful king who kept peace with Iran throughout his reign, a calm and restrained ruler who refrained from pursuing the old vengeance. But this peace did not endure in his successor. Pashang, inheriting the throne of Turan and the ancient grievance of his line, the unavenged murder of Tur by the Iranian Manuchehr generations before, did not share his father's restraint. He looked back to the old wrongs of his house and resolved to take up the quarrel once more. As king of the house of Tur, Pashang stood as the heir of the ancient feud, the ruler in whom the old grievance, dormant through the peaceful reign of his father, was rekindled into war. His place in the royal line of Turan, as the descendant of Tur who renewed the conflict, is central to his role in the epic, the king who carried the ancient blood-feud into a new and terrible age of wars.
Key Takeaways
Pashang is an early king of Turan in the Shahnameh.
He is a descendant of Tur and the father of Afrasiab.
He was also father of Garsivaz and the noble Aghrirat.
He resolved to renew the ancient blood-feud with Iran.
He sent his son Afrasiab to invade Iran with a great army.
His war led to the capture and death of the Iranian king Nowzar.
Quick Facts
Name: Pashang
Role: King of Turan; renewer of the war with Iran
Lineage: Descendant of Tur, son of Faridun
Father: Zadashm, a peaceful king of Turan
Famous son: Afrasiab, the dread king of Turan
Other sons: Garsivaz and the noble Aghrirat
His act: Reopened the ancient war with Iran
His commander: His son Afrasiab, sent to invade
Iranian foe: King Nowzar, captured and killed in the war
Heritage: Shared Iranic epic tradition
Father of Afrasiab
Pashang's chief significance in the epic lies in his fatherhood of Afrasiab, the dread king of Turan and the great archenemy of Iran throughout the heroic age. It was Afrasiab who would become the central antagonist of the Shahnameh, the formidable warrior and sorcerer who murdered Siyavash, warred against Iran for generations, and was at last destroyed by his own grandson Kay Khosrow.
As the father of this central figure, Pashang stands at the head of the Turanian royal family of the heroic age. It was Pashang who first sent the young and fierce Afrasiab to war against Iran, giving him command of the invading army and so launching the career of the great enemy of the Iranians. In this, Pashang is the king who unleashed Afrasiab upon Iran, the father whose decision to renew the war gave his terrible son his first great command and set him on the path to becoming the archenemy of the Iranian heroes. Beyond Afrasiab, Pashang was the father of two other notable sons: Garsivaz, who would become a treacherous and scheming figure instrumental in the murder of Siyavash, and Aghrirat, the gentle and righteous prince who sought peace and was murdered by Afrasiab for his mercy. Thus from the house of Pashang came three very different sons: the dread Afrasiab, the treacherous Garsivaz, and the noble Aghrirat, embodying between them the villainy and the rare nobility of Turan. Pashang's fatherhood of these central figures, above all of Afrasiab, makes him the patriarch of the Turanian side of the great conflict.
Renewing the Ancient War
The defining act of Pashang's reign was his decision to renew the ancient war between Iran and Turan. The feud had begun generations before, when Tur, Pashang's ancestor, had murdered the noble Iraj, and the Iranian king Manuchehr had in turn slain Tur in vengeance. After these first wars, a long peace had followed, maintained through the reign of Pashang's peaceful father Zadashm.
But Pashang looked back to the old grievances of his house, the killing of his ancestor Tur, and resolved to take up the quarrel once more. The moment he judged ripe came with a change on the Iranian throne: the death of the great king Manuchehr, the avenger of Iraj, and the accession of his son Nowzar, who proved a weak and wayward ruler. Sensing the weakness of the new Iranian king and the opportunity to renew the feud, Pashang gathered the forces of Turan and prepared for war, intending to avenge his ancestors and to make war upon the land of Iran. The tradition relates that his noble son Aghrirat tried his best to dissuade his father, counselling peace and urging him to cease the hostilities, but Pashang would not be moved from his resolve. So the king of Turan, rekindling the ancient feud that had lain dormant through his father's peaceful reign, set in motion a new and terrible age of wars between the two lands. Pashang's renewal of the war is the act that reopens the central conflict of the epic, ending the long peace and beginning the struggles that would run through the heroic age.
The Invasion of Iran
Having resolved on war, Pashang sent his son Afrasiab at the head of a great Turanian army to invade Iran. This invasion fell upon Iran during the reign of the weak king Nowzar, the son of Manuchehr, whose misrule had alienated his own nobles and left Iran vulnerable to its ancient enemy.
The war went grievously for Iran. The young Afrasiab proved a formidable commander, and the Turanian forces, led by him and supported by the warriors of the great Turanian houses, won victories against the Iranians. Many of Iran's allies and vassals fell away or went over to Afrasiab, and the Iranian king Nowzar, with only a few faithful nobles such as the hero Qaren beside him, was unable to withstand the onslaught. In the course of the war, the Turanians captured the Iranian king Nowzar, and Afrasiab put him to death, a grievous blow that left Iran without a king and in dire straits. This invasion, launched by Pashang and led by his son Afrasiab, was one of the great disasters of Iranian legendary history, the war in which an Iranian king was captured and slain by the Turanian enemy. Though Iran would in time recover and the heroes would rise to its defence, the invasion that Pashang set in motion opened a long and bitter age of conflict. The capture and death of Nowzar marked the depth of Iran's peril, and it was the direct consequence of Pashang's fateful decision to renew the war and unleash his son upon the Iranian land.
A House Divided
One of the notable features of Pashang's house is the striking difference among his sons, which the epic uses to show that the royal line of Turan, though the enemy of Iran, was not uniform in character. From Pashang came three very different sons: the dread Afrasiab, the treacherous Garsivaz, and the noble Aghrirat.
Afrasiab, the eldest and most prominent, became the fierce and merciless archenemy of Iran, a formidable warrior consumed by the ancient feud. Garsivaz became a schemer and a deceiver, the figure whose treachery and lies would help bring about the murder of the noble Siyavash. But Aghrirat, alone among the brothers, was kind and gentle, a prince who sought peace between the two lands and who, when he spared the captive Iranian nobles out of mercy, was murdered by his own brother Afrasiab for his compassion. This division within Pashang's house, the cruel Afrasiab, the treacherous Garsivaz, and the righteous Aghrirat, reflects the epic's nuanced portrayal of Turan, showing that even the enemy royal house contained both villainy and genuine nobility. It also foreshadows the tragedies to come, for the very brothers of Pashang's house would turn upon one another, with Afrasiab murdering the gentle Aghrirat. As the father of these divided sons, Pashang stands at the head of a house in which the cruelty and the rare nobility of Turan were both born, a royal line whose internal divisions would themselves become part of the epic's tragedy. The house of Pashang thus embodies, in its divided sons, the moral complexity of Turan.
Symbolism and Meaning
Pashang embodies, above all, the renewal of the ancient feud and the dynastic logic of vengeance that structures the epic. As the king who, looking back to the old wrongs of his house, resolved to take up the quarrel once more and make war on Iran, he represents the way the cycle of vengeance passes from generation to generation, the old grievance rekindled in a new age. In him, the epic shows how the blood-feud begun by Tur was carried forward by his descendants, the inherited hatred that would not let the two lands rest.
Pashang embodies, too, the role of the patriarch who unleashes a great conflict, the father whose decision sets his sons upon their fateful courses. By sending Afrasiab to invade Iran, he launched the career of the great enemy of the Iranians and set in motion the wars of the heroic age. And as the father of his three very different sons, the cruel Afrasiab, the treacherous Garsivaz, and the noble Aghrirat, Pashang stands at the head of a house that embodies the moral complexity of Turan, both its villainy and its rare nobility. His refusal to heed the peace-counsel of his gentle son Aghrirat, choosing war over reconciliation, marks him as a figure who chose the path of vengeance and conflict over that of peace. In all this, Pashang is a significant figure, embodying the renewal of the ancient feud, the dynastic logic of inherited vengeance, the role of the patriarch who unleashes conflict, and the divided character of the house of Turan. He is the king who reopened the great war, the hinge between the old crime and the long struggles of the heroic age.
Pashang and the Kurds
Pashang, 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 epic of Ferdowsi, with its kings and its wars, is the common inheritance of these peoples, who share in the ancient Iranian mythological tradition from which it springs. It is honest and accurate to understand Pashang and the house of Turan as part of this shared heritage, rather than as uniquely Kurdish figures.
For the Kurds, as an Iranian people, the figures and tales of the Shahnameh are part of the wider cultural and mythological world to which they belong, and the epic and its figures, of both Iran and Turan, hold a place in the broad Iranic heritage that the Kurds share. The figure of Pashang, the king of Turan who renewed the war, is part of the common store of Iranian epic tradition, known and valued across the Iranic lands. In presenting Pashang, then, we present not a specifically Kurdish figure but one of the kings of the shared Iranian epic, belonging to the heritage that the Kurds hold in common with the other peoples of the Iranic world. It is worth noting, too, that the Turanians of the epic, the people of Pashang's kingdom, are a legendary people, descended in the tale from Faridun's son Tur and originally conceived as an eastern Iranian people, not to be simply identified with any modern nation. This honest framing places Pashang accurately within the broad and rich tradition of Iranian epic to which the Kurds, as an Iranic people, are heirs alongside their neighbours.
Debates and Misconceptions
Is Pashang 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. Indeed, he is a king of Turan, the legendary rival of Iran, descended from Tur. As an Iranian people, the Kurds share in the broad Iranic heritage of the epic, whose figures, of both Iran and Turan, are part of the common Iranian tradition to which the Kurds, alongside their neighbours, are heirs.
Is this Pashang the same as other figures of the name? The vast tradition contains more than one figure called Pashang, which can cause confusion. The Pashang discussed here is the king of Turan, the descendant of Tur and father of Afrasiab, who renewed the war with Iran. There is also, in some traditions, a different figure of the name elsewhere in the legendary material. It is this Pashang, the Turanian king and father of Afrasiab, Garsivaz, and Aghrirat, who is the significant figure of the wars of Iran and Turan. As always with the great epic, attention to lineage and role, here, the king of Turan descended from Tur and father of Afrasiab, helps to identify the figure correctly.
How prominent is Pashang in the epic? Pashang's direct appearances in the Shahnameh are relatively brief, concentrated in the episode of the renewal of the war and the invasion of Iran in the reign of Nowzar. Yet his significance is considerable, for it is his decision to reopen the feud and send Afrasiab against Iran that sets in motion the long wars of the heroic age, and he is the father of the central figures of the Turanian side. It is honest to present him as a figure whose appearances are brief but whose role is pivotal, the king whose fateful decision reopened the great conflict and the patriarch of the Turanian royal house, rather than to overstate the extent of his personal presence in the narrative. His importance lies in his pivotal decision and his fatherhood, more than in a large personal role in the epic's many episodes.
Related Topics
Afrasiab: the dread king of Turan, the son of Pashang
Garsivaz: the treacherous son of Pashang
Aghrirat: the noble and righteous son of Pashang
Tur: the ancestor of Pashang who began the feud
Nowzar: the Iranian king slain in Pashang's war
Manuchehr: the Iranian king who had slain Tur, the old grievance
Qaren: the Iranian hero who resisted the Turanian invasion
The Shahnameh: the Persian Book of Kings, the great epic of Iran
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Pashang in the Shahnameh?
Pashang is an early king of Turan in the Shahnameh, a descendant of Tur and the father of the dread king Afrasiab. After a long peace, he resolved to renew the ancient blood-feud with Iran and sent his son Afrasiab at the head of a great army to invade, beginning the wars of the heroic age. He was also the father of Garsivaz and the noble Aghrirat. He is remembered as the king who reopened the great conflict between Iran and Turan.
Who were Pashang's sons?
Pashang was the father of three notable sons: Afrasiab, the dread king of Turan and great archenemy of Iran; Garsivaz, a treacherous schemer instrumental in the murder of Siyavash; and Aghrirat, the kind and noble prince who sought peace and was murdered by Afrasiab for sparing the Iranian captives. From his house came both the villainy and the rare nobility of Turan, and the striking difference among his sons reflects the epic's nuanced portrayal of the enemy royal house.
Why did Pashang make war on Iran?
Pashang made war on Iran to renew the ancient blood-feud and avenge his ancestors. The feud had begun when his ancestor Tur murdered the noble Iraj, and the Iranian king Manuchehr had slain Tur in vengeance. After a long peace, Pashang looked back to these old grievances and resolved to take up the quarrel. Sensing opportunity in the weak reign of the Iranian king Nowzar, he gathered his forces and sent Afrasiab to invade, despite the peace-counsel of his noble son Aghrirat.
What happened in Pashang's invasion of Iran?
Pashang sent his son Afrasiab with a great army to invade Iran during the weak reign of King Nowzar. The war went badly for Iran: Afrasiab proved a formidable commander, many of Iran's allies fell away, and the Turanians won victories. They captured the Iranian king Nowzar, and Afrasiab put him to death, leaving Iran without a king and in dire peril. It was one of the great disasters of Iranian legendary history, though Iran would in time recover.
How was Pashang related to Afrasiab and Tur?
Pashang was the father of Afrasiab and a descendant of Tur. In the genealogy of the epic, Pashang was the son of Zadashm and grandson of Tur, the son of Faridun who began the feud, making Pashang the great-grandson of Faridun. His son Afrasiab became the dread king of Turan. Pashang thus stands in the royal line of Turan between the original feud-starter Tur and the great archenemy Afrasiab, the king who carried the ancient grievance into a new age of war.
Is Pashang a Kurdish figure?
Pashang 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. Indeed, he is a king of Turan, the legendary rival of Iran, descended from Tur. As an Iranian people, the Kurds share in the broad Iranic heritage of the epic, whose figures, of both Iran and Turan, are part of the common Iranian tradition to which the Kurds are heirs alongside their neighbours.
References and Further Reading
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