Āzādeh ( fa, آزاده; ) is a Roman slave-girl harpist in
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,00 ...
and other works in
Persian literature
Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...
. When
Bahram-e Gur (Bahram V) was in
al-Hirah
Al-Hirah ( ar, الحيرة, translit=al-Ḥīra Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of I ...
, Azadeh became his companion. She always accompanies Bahram in hunting.
Her story with Bahram is mentioned in other works such as
Nezami Ganjavi
Nizami Ganjavi ( fa, نظامی گنجوی, lit=Niẓāmī of Ganja, translit=Niẓāmī Ganjavī; c. 1141–1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was ''Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī'',Mo'in, ...
's
Bahramnameh (also known as ''Haft Paykar'') and
Tha'alibi's ''Ḡorar''. Azadeh appears as Dilaram (heart's ease) in ''
Hasht-Behest'' by
Amir Khusrau
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian culture, Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural his ...
.
Bahram and Azadeh hunting was a popular subject in
Persian miniature
A Persian miniature (Persian: نگارگری ایرانی ''negârgari Irâni'') is a small Persian painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a ''muraqqa''. The ...
,
and other media, such as
mina'i ware
ware is a type of Persian pottery developed in Kashan, Iran, in the decades leading up to the Mongol invasion of Persia in 1219, after which production ceased. It has been described as "probably the most luxurious of all types of ceramic war ...
paintings. The moment usually shown is when Azadeh challenges the king to pin a gazelle's foot to its shoulder with an arrow (when raising the foot to scratch itself); Bahram achieves this.
References
{{Shahnameh
Women in Shahnameh
Harpists
Fictional Greek and Roman slaves