Salm, Faridun’s eldest son in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, receives the western realm of Rum. His resentment of Iraj’s inheritance draws Tur into a family conflict that ends in murder, vengeance and the surrender of Salm’s army.
A name earned in the dragon test
In the episode illustrated by the Aga Khan Museum’s Faridun Tests his Sons, Faridun assumes the form of a dragon to test his three sons. The eldest retreats to safety, Tur prepares to fight, and Iraj stands firm and addresses the creature. Faridun then names them. Salm’s name is connected in this telling with his choice of safety. [1] This introductory contrast establishes different responses to danger before the later conflict over inheritance. Salm is a character in the epic’s legendary history.
What Faridun gives each brother
Ferdowsi’s division of the world assigns Rum and the western lands to Salm, Turan and China to Tur, and Iran with the royal throne, crown and seal to Iraj. [2] Salm’s complaint develops after time has passed: he objects to the youngest receiving the central kingship, urges Tur to join him and sends a threatening message to their father. Faridun answers that the settlement followed consultation with wise men, astrologers and priests. [3] The dispute concerns authority and perceived entitlement as much as territory.
From resentment to conspiracy
When Iraj visits, the brothers’ soldiers admire him as a fitting ruler. Salm notices their changed loyalties and warns Tur that Iraj will eventually displace him. The two spend the night planning. [4] This scene makes Salm’s responsibility specific: he reads the army’s response as a threat and turns admiration for his brother into an argument for removing him. The conspiracy grows through private persuasion, not merely through an abstract statement that he was jealous.
Iraj offers to give up the crown
In the next episode, Tur challenges Iraj over the division. Iraj offers to relinquish kingship and asks for peace, even accepting a modest place in the world. Tur strikes him with a golden seat, draws a dagger and kills him; the head is sent to Faridun. [5] The poem distinguishes Salm’s incitement from Tur’s direct violence while implicating both brothers. The Freer Gallery’s early-fourteenth-century illustration places the killing inside a tent, surrounded by the manuscript’s Persian verses. [7]
Salm’s death and the soldiers’ surrender
Iraj’s grandson Manuchehr eventually defeats the brothers. At Salm’s end, he flees toward the sea and finds no ship. Manuchehr catches him, condemns the murder committed for a crown and strikes his neck with a sword. [6] The narrative then gives Salm’s soldiers a voice: they explain that they include farmers and householders and submit to the victor. Manuchehr distinguishes the guilty from the innocent and orders further bloodshed to stop. That ending broadens the episode from punishment of a prince to the treatment of a defeated army.
Sources and further reading
- Sheila R. Canby, Aga Khan Museum, Faridun Tests his Sons, AKM903; account of the dragon test and naming.
- Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, Faridun, section 5; original Persian account of the division of the realm, Ganjoor.
- Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, Faridun, section 6; Salm and Tur’s grievance, threat and Faridun’s reply, Ganjoor.
- Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, Faridun, section 9; Iraj’s reception and the brothers’ planning, Ganjoor.
- Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, Faridun, section 10; Iraj’s renunciation and murder, Ganjoor.
- Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, Faridun, section 20; Salm’s death, the army’s submission and Manuchehr’s restraint, Ganjoor.
- Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, F1929.29, Iraj slain by his two brothers, Salm and Tur; early-fourteenth-century Iranian manuscript illustration.