Zarir, or Zarer, is a warrior in Iranian epic associated with King Vishtasp’s defence of the Zoroastrian religion. His death and his son’s response survive in different literary versions, including the Middle Persian Memorial of Zarer and Daqiqi’s verses incorporated into the Shahnameh.
A hero across different names and texts
Zarir is the brother of King Goshtasp, called Wishtasp or Vishtasp in the Middle Persian tradition. Mary Boyce connects Zarer with the Avestan Zairivairi and identifies older allusions to the conflict with Arjasp. [1] These links establish a literary and religious tradition, rather than a securely dated personal biography.
An ultimatum and Zarir’s dictated reply
In Jivanji Jamshedji Modi’s translation of the Memorial, Arjasp sends Vidarafsh and Namkhvast with a letter demanding that Vishtasp abandon the Mazda-worshipping religion. The message offers wealth and allegiance if he complies, and threatens invasion, destruction of crops and captivity if he refuses. Zarir asks permission to dictate a reply. His answer rejects the demand and challenges the opposing army to meet in open country. [2] The scene makes him a spokesman and decision-maker as well as a battlefield commander.
Prophecy, royal fear and the fatal attack
Jamasp predicts the deaths of Zarir and other royal relatives. Vishtasp’s distress leads him to propose sheltering his family in a fortified place, but Jamasp asks how the enemy can be resisted without those leaders. [2] In the subsequent fighting, Vidarafsh cannot face Zarir directly and strikes him from behind with a weapon described as magically prepared and poisoned. [2] Prophecy and sorcery belong to this narrative’s world; they do not establish a historical battle date or document an actual supernatural weapon.
Bastwar’s grief and vengeance in the Memorial
The Memorial describes Zarir’s son Bastwar, rendered Bastur by Modi, as a child of about seven. He reaches his father’s body despite the king’s initial refusal. His lament notices the dust on Zarir’s clothes and the damage to his body, but the boy fears that dismounting to embrace him would leave him vulnerable. [2] Later, with royal permission, Bastwar fights Vidarafsh. Zarir’s soul advises him to use an arrow; he kills the attacker and recovers his father’s horse. [2] Grief, danger and inherited responsibility give the episode its particular shape.
What changes in the Shahnameh
The corresponding Shahnameh passage belongs to Daqiqi’s verses preserved within Ferdowsi’s epic. Bastur challenges Bidarafsh and enters combat, but Esfandiyar arrives and delivers the killing blow. He then recovers Zarir’s equipment, horse and banner. [3] Bastur’s search for vengeance remains central, while the decisive act belongs to another hero. This is a substantive difference between versions: assigning Bastwar’s arrow-killing to the Shahnameh would combine two accounts into a scene that the cited Persian passage does not tell.
The surviving text and a later painted page
Boyce describes the Memorial as a Pahlavi work containing traces of an older Parthian version. Its surviving manuscript dates to 1322; that is a copying date, not the date of the story’s beginnings. [1] The image above belongs to a different object: a Shahnameh manuscript in the Walters Art Museum, dated 1618–1619. The museum identifies its subject as Bidarafsh killing Zarir. [4] The written narrative, its medieval transmission and this later painted interpretation represent different stages of the story’s survival.
Sources and further reading
- Mary Boyce, Ayādgār ī Zarērān, Encyclopaedia Iranica III/2 (1987), pp.128–129.
- Memorial of Zarer, Jivanji Jamshedji Modi translation (1899); reprinted 1917, digital transcription by Chris Weimer (2002).
- Shahnameh, Goshtasp cycle, section 17, Daqiqi’s verses: Bastur’s vengeance and Esfandiyar’s killing of Bidarafsh; original Persian on Ganjoor.
- Walters Art Museum, Bidarafsh Kills Zarir, the Brother of Gushtasp, W.602.355 A; manuscript dated 1618–1619; CC 0 image.