Tur is a legendary son of Faridun in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. His part in Iraj’s murder connects a disputed inheritance to a family feud; translations, literary scholarship and manuscript paintings offer different evidence for reading the episode.

Persian manuscript page with columns of verse surrounding a painting of Iraj’s murder beneath a blue patterned tent
Iraj’s murder by Salm and Tur, an early-fourteenth-century Iranian Shahnameh folio, Freer Gallery of Art, F1929.29. Public-domain image via Wikimedia Commons. The painting is a later interpretation of the epic, not a portrait of historical princes. [4] Freer Gallery of Art · Smithsonian Institution · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.

A prince in an epic, not a dated historical ruler

Tur is one of Faridun’s sons in the Shahnameh. In the Warner translation he confronts his father’s dragon disguise. Later he receives Turan and Chin; Salm receives the West and Iraj Iran and the principal kingship (pp. 186–190). [1] These territories belong to narrative geography, not present borders.

The dispute becomes fratricide

Fearing that soldiers favour Iraj, Salm urges Tur against him. Iraj offers to relinquish power; Tur strikes him with a seat and kills him with a dagger. The brothers send the head to Faridun (pp. 199–202). [1] An inheritance dispute becomes a breach of family obligation. Iraj’s renunciation makes the violence especially striking.

Manuchehr’s response continues the family feud

Later, Manuchehr counters the brothers’ attempted night attack with an ambush. He pursues and kills Tur, returning his head as evidence of victory. (translation, pp. 220–221). [1] Revenge thus repeats the earlier act’s form. Literary scholar Amin Banani reads the Faridun–Iraj–Manuchehr cycle as part of the epic’s movement from external demons toward wrongdoing within human families. In this reading, greed and envy enter the elder brothers’ conduct; kinship does not prevent destruction. [2] This is an attributed interpretation, not a clinical diagnosis or a claim about a modern population.

How manuscript painters represented the consequences

The Freer Gallery’s F1929.29 depicts Iraj’s killing in an Iranian manuscript of the early fourteenth century. [4] A different witness, British Library Add. 18188, volume I, folio 55v, dated at Shiraz on 4 July 1486, shows Faridun mourning. The Fitzwilliam Museum’s catalogue describes two cypresses, associated with youth and grace, embraced by a flowering prunus beside the grieving king. [3] Comparing these images shows artists selecting different moments—violence and bereavement—from the same story. Neither image establishes the characters’ historical appearance.

Tur, Turan and Kurdish cultural context

An epic genealogy is not evidence that a modern community descends biologically from Tur. The previous article repeatedly made broad claims about an identical shared inheritance without identifying a Kurdish text or performance of this episode. This version presents Ferdowsi’s narrative and named material witnesses. A claim about a particular Kurdish adaptation would require its own manuscript, edition or recorded performance. Tur should also be distinguished from Tus, another Shahnameh character, and from historical rulers named Turanshah.

Sources and further reading

  1. Ferdowsi, The Shahnama of Firdausi, translated by Arthur George Warner and Edmond Warner, volume I, Kegan Paul, London, 1905, pp. 186–190, 199–202 and 220–221; primary epic in translation.
  2. Amin Banani, Šāh-nāma v. Excursus, Encyclopaedia Iranica, updated 26 October 2012; literary interpretation of the Faridun–Iraj–Manuchehr cycle.
  3. Fitzwilliam Museum, No. 5 Faridun mourns over the head of Iraj; British Library Add. 18188, volume I, folio 55v, Shiraz, 4 July 1486; manuscript catalogue.
  4. Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, F1929.29, Iraj slain by his two brothers, Salm and Tur; Iranian manuscript folio, early fourteenth century. Image: Wikimedia Commons, Shahnameh - Iraj slain by his two brothers, Salm and Tur, public domain.