Zahhak

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Zahhāk on the throne

Zahhāk or Zahāk ( Persian ضحاک), German also Sohak , is a king in Persian mythology who is considered the prototype of all tyranny and foreign rule. Zahhāk is described in the fifth book of Shāhnāme , the Iranian national epic by the Persian poet Abū ʾl-Qāsim Firdausī (940 / 41-1020). The Pahlavi word Azdahāg , also Azhi Dahaka , originally referred to a dragon in the Avesta , represented as a three-headed monster , from which the Arabic form Zahhāk arose. After the conquest of Iran by the Arabs, the dragon in the legend Dahāk or Zahāk became an (evil) Iranian ruler of Arab descent, also known as the "dragon shah".

Zahhāk in Shāhnāme saga V

In Firdausī's epic Shāhnāme the legend of Dahaka is reported, whereby the literary figure bears the name Zahhāk or Zohāk, also Ḍaḥāk or Ḍu ,āk, in Rückert Dhohhak. Zahhāk already appears in Legend IV, in which the reign of King Jamschid is reported.

Zahhāk, the son of Mirdas the Arab, is portrayed as hungry for power, which Ahriman , the representative of evil, makes use of. In his youth, Zahhāk is convinced by Ahriman, who poses as his friend and companion, that he should kill his father in order to become king himself. After Zahhāk killed his father and became king himself, Ahriman Zahhāk introduced himself as a cook who could provide him with the most delicious dishes. Zahhāk hired Ahriman to cook and was spoiled by Ahriman with wonderful food. In thanks, Zahhāk granted Ahriman a wish. He only wanted to be allowed to kiss him on the shoulders. When Zahhāk granted him this wish and Ahriman kissed him on the shoulders, two snakes grew from his shoulders. All attempts to kill the snakes failed because they kept growing back. Ahriman met Zahhāk from then on as a doctor. He explained to Zahhāk that there was only one way to protect yourself from the snakes, and that was by feeding them human brains from two young men on a daily basis, otherwise they would eat his brain.

The news that Zahhāk was appearing as the new powerful ruler reached Iran. There, the princes of Iran's Jamschid refused allegiance after he had asked them to worship him as the creator god. They raised an army, went to Arabia to Zahhāk and proclaimed the son of Mirdas the Arab as the new Shah of Iran, not realizing that they had thus chosen a "Shah in the robe of a dragon" as king.

In his translation of Firdausī's epic Shāhnāme, Friedrich Rückert describes the reign of Zahhāk as follows:

“When Dhohhak was raised to the throne,
singing passed him a thousand years.
...
The custom of the wise was lost,
The will of the fools went into swing;
Virtue despises, worships sorcery;
The right is hidden, the disaster free. "

With the takeover of Zahhāk in Iran, Firdausī begins with the legend V, in which the fight between Zahhāk and Fereydun is described, from which Fereydun emerges as the victor in the end. With this fight Firdausī takes up the basic theme of the epic again, the fight between good, symbolized here by Fereydun, and evil, represented by Zahhāk. In the end, the good in which Fereydun captures Zahhāk wins. Part of this legend is the story of Kaveh the blacksmith . Kaveh used his blacksmith apron as the flag of the uprising. The leather apron of Kaveh, which has become a flag, is now called Deraf's Kâviâni ( Kaveh's flag ). A version embroidered with jewels later becomes the state flag of the Sassanid Empire .

At the beginning of Sage V, Firdausī reports that Zahhāk takes the two daughters of Jamshid, Schehrnas (Schahnas) and Arnewas , as wives in order to obtain dynastic legitimacy through marriage. Zahhāk ruled from now on with the help of Ahriman for over a thousand years as the Shah of Iran. One night Zahhāk sees Fereydūn in a dream. Ferydun ties him up and drags him to Mount Damawand . Zahhāk asks his dream interpreters, who explain to him that Fereydun will one day take him prisoner and dethrone him. Thereupon Zahhāk has Fereydun, the son of the abbot , who is descended from Shah Tahmorath , searched. He finds the abbot and has him killed. The baby Fereydun is then hidden by his mother Firanek in the mountains of the Elburs Mountains . There he is suckled by the cow Birmaj ' and looked after by a foster father until one day he sets off on his mission to capture Zahhāk with the help of Kaveh the blacksmith. He frees the daughters of Jamshid, Schehrna and Arnewas , and takes them both as his wife. As the interpreters of dreams predicted, Zahhāk will be forged onto the rock by Fereydun on Mount Damavand to suffer a slow and painful death.

With Fereydun, another descendant of the Kayanids comes to the throne of Iran.

At the end of Sage V, Firdausī, in the spirit of Zaratustra, calls on the audience to join in the good:

“Come, let's not enter the world for evil,
Diligently offer all our hands for good!
Neither good nor bad lasts,
But good fame is desired.
Your treasure and your gold and your high castle
will all be of no use to you great.
The word remains from you in memory,
do not take the word for a little hoard!
Feridun the noble was not an angel,
not formed from muscle and amber at all.
He now lives through kindness and righteousness;
Be mild and fair and you are Feridun. "

literature

  • Friedrich Rückert : Firdosi's Book of Kings (Schahname) Sage I-XIII. 1890. Reprint: epubli GmbH, Berlin, 2010, pp. 33-69.
  • Uta von Witzleben : Firdausi: Stories from the Schahnameh. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Düsseldorf and Cologne 1960, pp. 27–37 ( The saga of Sohhak ).
  • Stuart Cary Welch: Persian illumination from five royal manuscripts of the sixteenth century. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1976, 2nd edition 1978 ( ISBN 3-7913-0388-0 ), pp. 44-47.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abū ʾl-Qāsim Firdausī: Shāhnāme - The Rostam Legends. Translated from Persian and edited by Jürgen Ehlers. Stuttgart 2010, p. 373.
  2. ↑ Geo Widengren : Iranian Spiritual World from the Beginnings to Islam. Baden-Baden 1961, (licensed edition for Bertelsmann Lesering) p. 279 ( The government of the Dahāk , from: Dēnkart IX 21)
  3. ↑ Uta von Witzleben : Firdausi: Stories from the Schahnameh. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Düsseldorf and Cologne 1960, p. 27
  4. ↑ Friedrich Rückert : Firdosi's King Book (Schahname) Sage I-XIII. 1890. Reprint: epubli GmbH, Berlin, 2010, p. 33.
  5. ↑ Friedrich Rückert : Firdosi's King Book (Schahname) Sage I-XIII. 1890. Reprint: epubli GmbH, Berlin, 2010, p. 63.
predecessor Office successor
Jamjid King of Shāhnāme
800 - 1800 after Gayomarth 		Fereydūn