Salm: The Eldest Son of Faridun
- Dala Sarkis
- 2 hours ago
- 13 min read
Introduction
Salm is the eldest of the three sons of the hero-king Faridun in the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings, and one of the two brothers whose envy and fratricide set in motion the long wars between Iran and Turan. Where his brother Tur struck the fatal blow against their noble younger brother Iraj, it was Salm, the eldest, whose envy first stirred and who is remembered as the instigator of the terrible crime.
Given the western lands, the realm of Rum and the West, when his father divided the world among his three sons, Salm grew resentful that the heartland of Iran and the crown had gone to the youngest brother, Iraj. The first of the brothers to feel the bite of jealousy, Salm incited his brother Tur against Iraj, and together they murdered the innocent prince. Like Tur, Salm would in the end pay for the crime, slain by Iraj's avenging grandson Manuchehr.
Like all the figures of the Book of Kings, Salm 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 Salm is to encounter the elder brother whose envy first kindled the great crime of the epic, the instigating mind behind the murder that began the wars of Iran and Turan. His tale, with that of his brother Tur, is the epic's foundational study of how greed and jealousy can corrupt and destroy a family.
Contents
Who Is Salm?
Salm, also spelled Sarm, is a figure of the Shahnameh, the eldest of the three sons of the great hero-king Faridun. When Faridun divided the world among his sons, Salm received the western lands, the realm of Rum, but he grew envious of his youngest brother Iraj, who had been given the heartland of Iran and the crown. Salm was the first of the brothers to feel this envy, and he incited his brother Tur against Iraj; together they conspired and murdered the innocent prince, beginning the long wars between Iran and Turan. Like Tur, Salm was eventually slain by Iraj's avenging grandson Manuchehr, his death by the mace in battle settling part of the blood-debt for the murder of Iraj. He is remembered as the envious elder brother and the instigator of the epic's foundational crime.
The Eldest Son of Faridun
Salm was the eldest of the three sons of Faridun, the great hero-king who had overthrown the serpent-tyrant Zahhak and restored the royal glory that had been lost since the days of Jamshid. His brothers were Tur, the middle son, and Iraj, the youngest and noblest.
The tradition relates a memorable tale of how the brothers received their names. Faridun, wishing to test the characters of his sons, is said to have confronted them in the form of a fearsome dragon. The eldest son chose to seek safety and flee rather than face the danger, and so his father named him Salm, a name connected with the idea of seeking safety or peace. The middle son fought the dragon with fierce and reckless boldness, and was named Tur; and the youngest, who showed a measured and prudent wisdom, was named Iraj. This test revealed something of each brother's nature: Salm, the eldest, was cautious and calculating rather than reckless, a trait that would show itself in his role as the instigator rather than the direct perpetrator of the later crime. As the eldest son of the great Faridun, Salm was a prince of the highest royal blood; yet, like his brother Tur, he inherited none of his father's nobility of soul, and his envy would help to bring about the epic's first and most fateful crime. His identity as the eldest son, set above his brothers by birth yet passed over for the crown, is central to understanding the resentment that consumed him.
Key Takeaways
Salm is the eldest of the three sons of the hero-king Faridun.
He was given the western lands, the realm of Rum, in the division.
He was the first of the brothers to envy the favoured Iraj.
He incited his brother Tur to join him against Iraj.
Together they murdered the innocent Iraj, beginning the great wars.
He was slain by Iraj's avenging grandson Manuchehr.
Quick Facts
Name: Salm (also Sarm)
Role: Eldest son of Faridun; instigator of Iraj's murder
Father: Faridun, the great hero-king
Brothers: Tur (middle) and Iraj (youngest)
Domain: The western lands, the realm of Rum
His fault: Envy of Iraj; inciting the murder
His role: The instigating mind behind the fratricide
Consequence: The long wars of Iran and Turan
His fate: Slain by Manuchehr, by the mace in battle
Heritage: Shared Iranic epic tradition
Lord of the West
In the division of the world by Faridun, Salm, as the eldest son, received the western lands, the realm of Rum and the West, the lands toward the setting sun. His brother Tur received the eastern land of Turan, and the youngest, Iraj, received the heartland of Iran itself, together with the crown and the symbols of sovereignty.
Salm's portion, the West, was a great realm, and in the legendary geography of the epic he became the lord and ancestor associated with the western lands, just as Tur was the ancestor of the Turanians of the East and Iraj the ancestor of the Iranians of the heartland. Yet for all the greatness of his western domain, Salm was consumed by resentment that the central and choicest portion, the land of Iran with its crown and royal glory, had gone not to him, the eldest, but to the youngest of the three brothers. As the firstborn, Salm may have felt that the supremacy and the crown should by rights have been his, and the elevation of the youngest brother above him galled him deeply. His lordship of the West, though a great inheritance, was not enough to quiet the envy that the favouring of Iraj had kindled in him, and it was this resentment, festering in the heart of the eldest brother, that would set the tragedy in motion. The division that gave Salm the West thus also gave him the grievance that would make him the instigator of the epic's first great crime.
The Instigator of Envy
Salm's particular role in the tragedy, as the tradition presents it, was that of the instigator, the brother whose envy first stirred and who incited the crime. While both elder brothers shared in the jealousy of Iraj, it was Salm, the eldest, who is generally described as the first to feel the resentment and the one who roused his brother Tur to act against the youngest.
The epic and its tradition portray Salm as the calculating, inciting mind behind the conspiracy. It was Salm who, brooding on the injustice he felt in the division of the world, first gave voice to the resentment and worked to turn his brother Tur against Iraj, fanning the flames of envy into a murderous resolve. Their jealousy was further inflamed, the tradition relates, by the murmuring of their own followers, who declared that Iraj alone was worthy of the imperial rule, words that only deepened the brothers' sense of grievance. In this conspiracy, Salm is the elder schemer and Tur the fierce executant: Salm incites and plans, while Tur, the bolder and more violent, strikes the actual blow. This division of roles reflects the natures revealed in the dragon-test, Salm the cautious and calculating elder, Tur the reckless and violent middle son. As the instigator, Salm bears a particular and grave responsibility for the crime, for it was his envy that first kindled the conspiracy and his inciting that turned his brother toward murder. The role of the instigator of envy is central to Salm's place in the epic, marking him as the originating mind of the great fratricide.
The Murder of Iraj
The conspiracy of the two envious brothers came to its terrible climax in the murder of Iraj. The noble Iraj, learning of his brothers' resentment, had no wish for strife, and in his selflessness he went to them willingly, even offering to give up the crown and the throne for the sake of peace and their love. But the envy of Salm and Tur had hardened beyond the reach of such generosity.
Despite the noble offer of the innocent Iraj, the brothers carried out their murderous design. Incited by Salm and struck down by the hand of Tur, the young and unresisting Iraj was murdered in cold blood, and his head was severed and sent to their grief-stricken father Faridun. This fratricide, the killing of the noble and innocent Iraj by his envious elder brothers, is one of the foundational tragedies of the entire Shahnameh, the cold-blooded murder of childlike goodness by greed and jealousy. Though it was Tur who struck the fatal blow, Salm, as the instigator whose envy had kindled the conspiracy and who had roused his brother to the deed, shared fully in the guilt of the crime. The murder of Iraj, brought about by the joint envy and conspiracy of Salm and Tur, is the seed from which the whole long tragedy of the wars of Iran and Turan would grow. The grief of the aged Faridun, receiving the head of his beloved youngest son, is among the epic's most affecting scenes, and he prayed for a descendant of Iraj who might one day avenge the crime that the envy of the elder brothers had wrought.
Slain by Manuchehr
The crime of Salm and Tur did not go unavenged. The prayer of the grief-stricken Faridun for a descendant of Iraj to avenge the murder was answered in the person of Manuchehr, born of Iraj's line and reared by Faridun for the task of vengeance.
When Manuchehr came of age, Faridun equipped him with an army to avenge the murder of Iraj. Salm and Tur, learning of the rising power of the avenger, gathered their forces and marched against Iran, and a series of great battles followed. The tradition relates that, faced with Manuchehr's might, the two brothers came to recognize their peril and even, too late, to repent of their crime, but the aged Faridun would not accept their repentance, and the war ran its course. In the fighting, Manuchehr slew both of his great-uncles: Tur, the striker of the blow, was killed and beheaded, and Salm, the instigator, was in turn defeated and slain, the tradition relating that he met his death by the mace in battle, his head likewise sent to Faridun. With the deaths of both Salm and Tur, the blood-debt for the murder of Iraj was at last settled, and Faridun, his long-prayed-for vengeance accomplished, passed the rule of Iran to Manuchehr and died soon after. The death of Salm, the envious elder brother and instigator of the crime, completed the punishment of the fratricides, though the conflict they had begun, the wars of Iran and Turan, would run on for generations.
Symbolism and Meaning
Salm embodies, above all, the envy of the elder passed over for the younger, and the role of the instigator whose jealousy kindles a great crime. As the eldest son who felt that the crown should have been his, and who could not bear to see the youngest brother Iraj set above him, Salm represents the particular bitterness of the firstborn denied the supremacy he feels is his due, and the way such resentment can curdle into murderous envy. With his brother Tur, he is presented in the tradition as the very embodiment of greed and envy, the passions that corrupt the soul.
Salm embodies, too, the figure of the inciting mind, the one whose envy, working through scheming and persuasion, sets a crime in motion through the hand of another. The pairing of Salm and Tur, the calculating elder instigator and the violent younger executant, is a study in the shared and complementary guilt of conspiracy: Salm's responsibility lies in the kindling and inciting of the crime, Tur's in its violent execution, and both are fully guilty. Salm's tale also forms part of the epic's great meditation on fratricide and the cycle of vengeance, the murder that demands further blood, that begins with the killing of Iraj and runs through the generations of the wars. In all this, Salm is a figure of grave significance, embodying the envy of the elder, the role of the instigator, the shared guilt of conspiracy, and the origin of the cycle of vengeance. He is the envious eldest brother whose jealousy first kindled the great crime of the epic, a dark and fateful figure at the root of its central tragedy.
Salm and the Kurds
Salm, 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 tragedies, 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 Salm and his brothers 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 hold a place in the broad Iranic heritage that the Kurds share. The story of Salm and his brothers, the division of the world among the sons of Faridun and the tragic murder of Iraj, is part of the common store of Iranian epic tradition, known and valued across the Iranic lands. In presenting Salm, then, we present not a specifically Kurdish figure but one of the foundational figures 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 that, in the legendary geography of the epic, the three brothers are the ancestors of the peoples of the world's three parts, all springing from the one father Faridun, so that the wars that followed were at root a feud within a single family. This honest framing places Salm 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
Was Salm or Tur more responsible for the murder of Iraj? Both brothers were guilty, but the tradition assigns them distinct roles. Salm, the eldest, is generally presented as the instigator, the first to feel envy and the one who incited the crime and roused his brother against Iraj. Tur, the middle son, was the one whose hand actually struck the fatal blow. Salm's guilt thus lies in the kindling and inciting of the crime, Tur's in its violent execution. Both shared fully in the envy and the conspiracy, both were slain by Manuchehr in vengeance, and together they embody the greed and envy the epic sees as the root of the fratricide.
Is Salm 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. As an Iranian people, the Kurds share in this broad heritage, and the figures of the epic, including Salm and his brothers Iraj and Tur, are part of the common Iranian tradition to which the Kurds, alongside their neighbours, are heirs.
What did Salm rule, and was it a real place? In the legendary geography of the Shahnameh, Salm was given the western lands, the realm of Rum, the term the tradition uses for the lands of the West, later associated with the Roman and Byzantine world. As with the other domains in the epic, this is a legendary and symbolic geography rather than a precise historical map: the three brothers are given the three parts of the world, West, East, and centre, and become the ancestors of the peoples of those regions. Salm as lord of the West is thus a figure of the epic's mythic ordering of the world, the ancestor associated with the western lands, rather than a strictly historical ruler of a particular realm. His domain, like those of his brothers, belongs to the legendary framework of the Shahnameh, in which the sons of Faridun divide and people the world.
Related Topics
Iraj: the noble youngest brother, murdered through Salm's inciting
Tur: the middle brother who struck the blow against Iraj
Faridun: the hero-king, father of Salm, Tur, and Iraj
Manuchehr: the grandson of Iraj who avenged him by slaying Salm
Afrasiab: the later king of Turan, of the line of Tur
Zahhak: the serpent-tyrant overthrown by Faridun
Jamshid: the great early king whose glory Faridun restored
The Shahnameh: the Persian Book of Kings, the great epic of Iran
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Salm in the Shahnameh?
Salm, also spelled Sarm, is the eldest of the three sons of the hero-king Faridun in the Shahnameh. When Faridun divided the world among his sons, Salm received the western lands, the realm of Rum, but he grew envious that the heartland of Iran and the crown had gone to the youngest brother, Iraj. The first of the brothers to feel this envy, Salm incited his brother Tur against Iraj, and together they murdered him, beginning the long wars of Iran and Turan. He was eventually slain by Iraj's avenging grandson Manuchehr.
What was Salm's role in the murder of Iraj?
Salm, the eldest brother, was the instigator of the murder. He was the first to feel envy of the favoured Iraj and the one who incited his brother Tur to act against the youngest brother. While it was Tur who struck the fatal blow, Salm's guilt lies in kindling the conspiracy and rousing his brother to murder. The two brothers shared fully in the crime, Salm as the inciting mind and Tur as the violent hand, and both were later slain by Manuchehr in vengeance.
What land did Salm receive?
In the division of the world by Faridun, Salm, as the eldest son, received the western lands, the realm of Rum and the West. His brother Tur received the eastern land of Turan, and the youngest, Iraj, received the heartland of Iran with the crown and the symbols of sovereignty. In the legendary geography of the epic, Salm became the ancestor associated with the western lands, just as Tur was ancestor of the Turanians and Iraj of the Iranians.
Why was Salm envious of Iraj?
Salm was envious because the youngest brother, Iraj, had been given the choicest portion, the heartland of Iran with the crown and royal glory, while he, the eldest, was given only the western lands. As the firstborn, Salm felt that the supremacy and the crown should by rights have been his, and the elevation of the youngest brother above him galled him deeply. This resentment, inflamed further by the murmuring of his followers that Iraj alone deserved to rule, festered into the murderous envy that made him the instigator of the crime.
How did Salm die?
Salm was slain by Manuchehr, the grandson of the murdered Iraj, in the war of vengeance. Faridun had reared Manuchehr to avenge Iraj, and when the avenger rose, Salm and Tur gathered their forces and marched against Iran. In the fighting, Manuchehr slew both great-uncles; the tradition relates that Salm met his death by the mace in battle, and his head was sent to Faridun. With the deaths of Salm and Tur, the murder of Iraj was at last avenged.
Is Salm a Kurdish figure?
Salm 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. As an Iranian people, the Kurds share in this broad heritage, and the figures of the epic, including Salm and his brothers Tur and Iraj, are part of the common Iranian tradition to which the Kurds are heirs alongside their neighbours.
References and Further Reading
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