Zav, the son of Tahmasp, becomes king after Nowzar in the Shahnameh. His short reign turns from a disputed succession and exhausted armies towards negotiated peace. The Persian text, an early English translation and a fourteenth-century painting preserve different aspects of the episode.
Why Zal seeks another king
In the Persian passage on Ganjoor, Zal tells the chiefs that military strength alone is insufficient: the army needs a king of royal descent, wisdom and divine farr. Tus and Gostaham are passed over. The search among Faridun’s descendants identifies Zav, son of Tahmasp, and Qaran, religious advisers and other leaders bring him the invitation to rule. Zal then gives his blessing. [1] The scene combines lineage, fitness and recognition by leading figures. It does not describe a modern election or establish a historical dynasty with datable reigns.
Justice begins with restraint on the army
Zav’s good rule has a concrete expression in the poem: he restrains the army from wrongdoing. The verses connect his kingship with justice and a reduction in seizure, imprisonment and killing. [1] This matters because the same military force that defends a realm can also injure its inhabitants. The passage’s praise is therefore more specific than a general claim that he was a kindly old king. Its image of renewal rests partly on limiting abuse by those who possess armed power.
Drought and armies unable to continue
The earth and vegetation dry out, rain fails and bread becomes expensive. The opposing armies are reduced to desperation and associate their suffering with their own conduct. [1] Details vary between texts consulted here: Ganjoor’s Persian version describes eight months facing one another without a major battle, while Arthur and Edmond Warner’s 1905 translation gives five months with fierce daily encounters. [1][2] These should remain identifiable readings rather than being combined into one exact military chronology. Both versions make scarcity a reason to abandon prolonged hostility.
A negotiated settlement and the return of rain
An envoy proposes dividing the land and ending the old feud. The Persian passage names Paykand, Turan, China and Khotan in its description of the settlement; Zav withdraws towards Pars and Zal towards Zabulistan. Thunder, flowing water, renewed vegetation and public celebrations follow. [1] Warner’s translation instead names the Jihun, and the translators’ note questions that geography, proposing the Aras. [2] The episode’s frontier should consequently be read within its textual tradition, without drawing a single unqualified modern border from it. The return of abundance gives peace a moral and environmental significance within the story.
Five years and an uncertain biographical age
Both accounts give Zav a five-year reign. The Persian text calls him an eighty-year-old man when introducing his kingship; Warner’s rendering describes his death in his eighty-sixth year. [1][2] These are details of the transmitted narrative, not independent birth and death records. In the following section of Warner’s translation, Zav’s son Garshasp succeeds him and Afrasiab renews the conflict. [2] The respite is therefore temporary within the larger epic, rather than a permanent settlement of all Iran–Turan wars.
How a later manuscript pictured the king
The Smithsonian catalogues the illustrated folio above as Zav’s enthronement, from Tabriz around 1330–1340. It belongs to the dispersed Great Mongol Shahnama and is painted in ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper. [3] The king’s raised throne, crown, cup and surrounding attendants turn the brief accession into a courtly scene. The painter is unidentified. This object documents a medieval interpretation of the story, rather than Zav’s historical appearance. The reproduction is available on Wikimedia Commons as a faithful image of a public-domain artwork. [4]
Sources and further reading
- Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, reign of Zu Tahmasp, Persian text on Ganjoor; full 45-couplet passage.
- Arthur George and Edmond Warner, The Shahnama of Firdausi, volume 1 (1905), pp.369–374; Zav section, notes and opening of Garshasp; Packard Humanities Institute.
- Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, S 1986.107: Shah Zav enthroned; collection record, date, origin and medium.
- Wikimedia Commons, Enthronement of Shah Zav, Great Mongol Shahnama; unknown artist; public-domain artwork and faithful reproduction.