Tur (Shahnameh)

Tur
Qajar-era illustration of Iraj, Salm and Tur
In-universe information
AffiliationPishdadian dynasty
NationalityTuranian

Tur (/ˈtʊər/; Persian: تور, pronounced [tʰuːɾ]) is, according to the Iranian national history, the second son of Fereydun and the mythical ancestor of the Turanians.[1] He already appeared in the, now lost, Chihrdad nask,[2] but his story is most prominently told in the Shahnameh.[3]

Name

The name appears in Middlle Persian Sources as Tuc and in the Modern Persian as Tur.[4] Transcriptions of his name include Tōǰ,[2] Tūč,[4] Tūr,[5] Tōz,[6] ,Tūch,[7] Tūǰ, Tūž and Tūz.[8] It is derived from *Tūr-č, meaning Turanian indicating his role as their eponymous ancestor.[9] This connection was, however, lost over time. According to the Shahnameh for example, his name is interpreted as "brave".[10]

Origins

The story of Tur is based on older Indo-European traditions invloving a primordial king who divides his realm between his three sons.[11] Furthermore, the story of Fereydun dividing the world among his sons has been interpreted as a memory of the kinship between Turanians and Iranians.[12]

Tur is not mentioned in the extant Avesta, but his story was probably described in the Chihrdad nask.[7] This book was one of the volumes of the Sasanian Avesta, but is no longer extant.[2] However, according to a summary in the later Denkard, it contained the division of the world between him and his bothers.[13] Next to the Denkard, the stories involving Tur have also been mentioned in other Middle Persian works like the Jamasp Namag.[3]

In the Shahnameh

See also: Shahnameh

The most important rendition of the story of Tur is told in the Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran. He is the second son of the legendary Iranian king Fereydun and brother of both Salm and Iraj. When Fereydun divides his empire among his sons, he gives Turan and China to his second son Tur. This is the beginning of the Turanians, the neighbor and rival of the Iranians.[3] Some of the most important characters of Shahnameh, such as Afrasiab, are his descendants.[14] He was eventually killed by Manuchehr.[3]


Family tree

ShahrnazFereydunArnavaz
Fereydun's BrotherIrajSalmTur
PashangIraj's daughter
Manuchehr

See also


References

Citations

  1. ^ Yarshater 1983, pp. 372-373.
  2. ^ a b c MacKenzie 1991.
  3. ^ a b c d Shahbazi 2004.
  4. ^ a b Nyberg 1938, p. 250.
  5. ^ Yarshater 1983, p. 372.
  6. ^ Shahbazi 2004, "Tōz (Tur)".
  7. ^ a b Yarshater 1983, p. 428.
  8. ^ Yarshater 1984.
  9. ^ Shahbazi 2004, "[T]he oblique case + č gives [...] Tūr(a)ča and Tur".
  10. ^ Shahbazi 2004, "Tur (i.e., tur, “reckless, brave”)".
  11. ^ Shahbazi 2004, "In brief, some Indo-Europeans shared a tradition about a “first king,” who divided the world he knew among his three sons".
  12. ^ Kuzmina 2007, p. 174 "In Iranian texts, the idea about the kinship of all Iranian-speaking languages is reflected in a legend of how the ancestor of the Iranians divided the land between three sons: Sairima, the forefather of Sauromatians (who dwelt in the historic period from the Don to the Urals), Tur, from whom the Turians originated (the northern part of Central Asia was called Turan), and the younger son Iraj, the ancestor of the Iranian population (Christensen 1934).".
  13. ^ Shahbazi 2004, "The Sasanian Avesta had the story in the Čihrdād Nask (q.v.), of which a summary is preserved in Dēnkard".
  14. ^ Yarshater 1983, p. 430.

Bibliography

  • Kuzmina, Elena E. (2007). J.P. Mallory (ed.). The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. Brill. ISBN 978-90-474-2071-2.
  • MacKenzie, David N. (1991). "ČIHRDĀD NASK". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. V. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. p. 561.
  • Nyberg, Henrik S. (1938). Die Religionen des alten Iran. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs Verlag. doi:10.25673/33282.
  • Shahbazi, Alireza Shapour (2004). "IRAJ". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. XIII. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 200–202.
  • Yarshater, Ehsan (1983). "Iranian National History". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 3(1). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24693-4.
  • Yarshater, Ehsan (1984). "AFRĀSĪĀB". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. I. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 570–576.
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