A literary history of Persia

THE PERSIAN EPIC 117the Avesta as an adversaryor "the good Religion,*' butNoldeke * thinks this improbable, and inclines rather to theview that the Sistan legend to which he and his ancestorsbelong was almost or quite unknown to the authors of theAvesta. At any rate Rustam's name has only been found inone or two places in late Pahlawi writings, though his doughtydeeds were known to the Armenian Moses of Khorene in theseventh or eighth century, and the stall of his horse Rakhshwas shown about the same period to the Arab invaders ofSistan. 2 Moreover, the Persian general who was defeated andslain by the Arabs in the fatal battle of Qadisiyya (A.D. 635)was a namesake of the great legendary hero.The death of Rustam brings us nearly to the end of theKaydni, or purely mythical period of the Epic. Isfandiyar,the son of Gushtasp, leaves a sonEnd of the purely ..., ,., .named Bahmanir . Tmythical part of ( Uohumano), who succeeds his grandfather. Inthe later construction of the Epic this Bahmanwas identified with Artaxerxes (drtafyshatr, 4rdashir)L>ong\-manus (MaKpovftp, Dirdz-dast\$ who was knownvBahmanr Arta-* ~ ".... .xerxcs Long;-manus. . .,,,from Greek sources. Bahman, according to the,through some bynac writer _ _.,,drawing his.,materialpractice of the Magians, married his sister Khum&ni (Humdy\who bore him a posthumous son named Dara.Her brother Sasan, who had looked forward toinheriting the crown, was so overcome with disappointmentat seeing; his sister made Queen-Regent that heDari. ~retired to the mountains amongst the Kurds andbecame a shepherd.4 From him, as the Persians believe,descend the Sasanian kings, who are uniformlySasan. .,regarded as.theilegitimate successors or,theKayanfs, and the restorers of their glory. Their founder,Ardathir IZAba^an (Artakhshatr son of Papak), is represented1Das Iramschc Nation alepos, p. 9.Ibid., p. n and n. 2 ad calc.3 Ibid., p. 12, and n. 3 ad. calc, Dinawari, p. 29.