Statue of Arash in Borujerd

Âraŝ, the Archer (Persian: آرش کمانگیر Āraš-e Kamāngīr) is a heroic archer of the Persian mythology. Being celebrated by poets such as Ferdowsi, the name Arash is one of the most popular in the Persian-speaking world. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 481 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1092 × 1360 pixel, file size: 750 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 481 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1092 × 1360 pixel, file size: 750 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation... Borujerd (Persian: ), (Luri pronunciation: vorÅ«gerd, also borÅ«gerd; Borujerdi Dialect: vÅ«riyerd) (Name spelling variations: Boroujerd, Borudjerd, Boroojerd, Brujerd, Burujird, Borugerd) is a city and shahrestan (township) in Lorestan Province in Western Iran. ... Persian (Local names: فارسی Fârsi or پارسی Pârsi)* is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... The beliefs and practices of the culturally and linguistically related group of ancient peoples who inhabited the Iranian Plateau and its borderlands, as well as areas of Central Asia from the Black Sea to Khotan (modern Ho-tien, China), form Persian mythology. ... Ferdowsi Tousi (فردوسی طوسی in Persian) (more commonly transliterated Firdausi, Ferdosi or Ferdusi) (935–1020) is considered to be one of the greatest Persian poets to have ever lived. ...

Synopsis of Story

At the end of war between Iran and Turan, Turan had advanced close to the Damavand mountain area. Damavand in Iranian mythology is the very heart and centre of the Middle Clime where Iranian people reside. This Middle Clime or Iran Zamin, incorporating far larger area than present Iran, was reputed to have the best soil, most moderate weather and the greatest of peoples. However to the east of the Iranian plateau lay the vast expanses of the wintry Southern Siberia where the nomadic and covetous Turanians lived and the story of early Iranian civilizations is that of survival against Turan. For the ideology of uniting Ural Altaic peoples, see Turanism. ... The Congregation mosque of Damavand, built in 1409CE, has traces of Sassanid architecture in it. ...

The humiliation of conquest was to be complete with a Turanian proposal to limit Iran to the radius of an arrow's flight from the umbilical Damavand. Iranians were to shoot an arrow towards Turan and wherever the arrow landed, the new border between Iran and Turan would be drawn. Âraŝ, an old man, volunteered to shoot the arrow. On the bright morning of Tirgan, Âraŝ stripped naked, faced north, strained his bow as never before, let the arrow fly and, exhausted, became one with the arrow and disappeared. The arrow flew the entire morning and fell at noon on the far bank of the Oxus River in what is now Central Asia. The Oxus river is the traditional boundary between the Iranian world and outer central Asia or Turan. Âraŝ's body was never found. There are still stories from travelers who, lost in the mountains, hear Arash Kamangir's voice who helps them find their way and thus saves their lives. Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... The Amu Darya (in Persian آمودریا; Darya means river in Persian) rises in the Pamirs and flows mainly north-west through the Hindu Kush, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to join the Aral Sea in a large river delta. ...

History

The story of Âraŝ (Avestan Erexŝa) is also attested to in the Avesta composed sometime before 1000 BC. This points to the antiquity of the story and may be an archetypal remembrance of how superior archery of the sedantary populations of the Iranian plateau, against the nomadic raiders of Central Asia, saved them from permanent servitude. An alternative explanation is the association of Âraŝ with Tir, the ancient Iranian name for Sirius which is identified in zodiac calendar with Summer Solstice or Tirgan. Tir is portrayed as an archer in art and mythology and the story of Âraŝ may merely be the vague remembrance of the recession of glaciers from the Iranian plateau. See Avesta Municipality for the Swedish town Yasna 28. ...

In Avestan times the ethnicity of both "Iran" and "Turan" was essentially the same, when the Scythians and other Iranian tribes presented the nascent civilizations on the Iranian plateau with the greatest threats to their survival. By Sassanid era the Scythians were largely replaced by the Turko-Mongolians who invaded from the East and the stories of Eastern Iran were adapted to rouse the patriotic fervor of the Iranians against the marauders of the eastern frontier. Sassanid Empire at its greatest extent The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) was the name given to the kings of Persia during the era of the second Persian Empire, from 224 until 651, when the last Sassanid shah, Yazdegerd III, lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the Umayyad Caliphate... The Scythians (also Scyths, from Greek ), a nation of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who spoke an Iranian language[1], dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity. ...

In addition, the story of Âraŝ the Archer shows striking similarities to the story of the legendary Indian hero Arjuna (also known as Partha; possibly from Parthian) of the Hindu mythology, pointing toward a common origin of the two tales which could date back to the indo-iranian era ca. 4000 BC. For other uses, please see Arjun. ... Pārtha (Sanskrit: पार्थ, pāŗtha) - is the other name for Arjuna (अर्जुन, or aÅ—juna). ... Parthia[1] (Middle Persian: اشکانیان Ashkâniân) was a civilization situated in the northeast of modern Iran, but at its height covering all of Iran proper, as well as regions of the modern countries of Armenia, Iraq, Georgia, eastern Turkey, eastern Syria, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, the Persian Gulf... Hindu mythology is a term used by modern scholarship for a large body of Indian literature that details the lives and times of legendary personalities, deities and divine incarnations on earth interspersed with often large sections of philosophical and ethical discourse. ... Map of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture (red), its expansion into the Andronovo culture during the 2nd millennium BC, showing the overlap with the BMAC in the south. ... (5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC - other millennia) Events City of Ur in Mesopotamia (40th century BC). ...

The name Arash and the Parthians

The founder of the Parthian Empire and the liberator of Iran from Macedonian Yoke used the dimunitive form of the name Ârŝak. Âraŝ means "giver". Like the names Caesar and Augustus, the name Ârŝak and later the corruption of the same Aŝk (Ashk) became synonymous with the Emperor of Iran during the Parthian period. The parthian monarchy was thus named Aŝkâni.

In modern times, the publication of the Siavuŝ Kasrâie's poem, considered one of the jewels of twentieth century Persian poetry, popularised the story. Today, Âraŝ is one of the most popular names for boys in Iran. Siavosh Kasrai (1927 , Isfahan - 1997 , Vienna) Kasrai graduated from Tehran University, Faculty of Law. ... Persian literature is literature written in Persian, or by Persians in other languages. ...

See also

• Iranian literature
• Shahnameh
• Kaveh