Babr-e Bayān ( fa, بَبْرِ بَیان) or Palangina () is the name of a suit that

Rostam use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kabulistan , death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a w ...

, the legendary

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

hero wore in wars. The suit had a number of preternatural features. It was invulnerable against fire, water and weapon. Its color was dark and apparently it was hairy.

, before going to battle, wore three levels of defensive suits: he first put on a zereh, then a ''gabr'' or '' jowshan'', and lastly the Babr-e Bayan. According to some verses 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 5 ...

, Babr-e Bayan had been made out of the skin of a

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, ...

(the name Palangineh refers to this). This account is also mentioned in some Sogdian texts. According to

Faramarznameh ''Faramarz-nama'' or ''Faramarz-nameh'' ( fa, فرامرزنامه, italic=yes) is a Persian epic recounting the adventures of the hero Faramarz"FARĀMARZ-NĀMA" in Encyclopedia Iranica by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh. Accessed April 4, 2010/ref> who ...

, after the death of Rostam, the suit was passed to his son,

Faramarz Faramarz ( fa, فرامرز) is an Iranian legendary hero (''pahlavan'') in Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"). He was son of Rostam and at last killed by Kay Bahman. The book Faramarz-nama, written about a hundred years after Shahname ...

. The story of the armor is part of the five interpolated tales in Shahnameh that demonstrated the extent of Rostam's popularity.

Etymology

The name Babr-e Bayan consists of two components. Babr, the first component, simply means

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living Felidae, cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily pr ...

in Middle Persian. Bayan, the second component, is not a Persian word and its origin is uncertain. There are several suggestions for this but none of them are convincing. Some sources referred to the reference to tiger skin (Babre bayan) as a suit that denoted power, influence, and authority. The Shahnameh does not provide any explanation as to the origin of the armor. However, there are several sources that do provide such information. For instance, one account explains that, when Rostam was 14 years old, he killed a dragon known as Babr-e Bayan in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The dragon lived in the sea, only emerging from it on one day a week. When Rostam killed the creature, he made a suit for himself out of its skin. There are accounts similar to this in other Persian epic poems. These are also corroborated by certain other sources such as an oral version recorded by a German scholar in the 19th century and the prose versions recorded in the collection of ''tumar'' (scrolls) that appeared during the Qajar period. Another suggestion is that Bayan is the name of a city, most probably

Bayana Bayana is a historical town and the headquarters of Bayana tehsil in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan in India. Hindaun City is nearest city of Bayana - 33 km. It was the site of famous Important Battle of Bayana in 1527 between the Raj ...

, although another city of this name is mentioned by early Islamic geographers, this Bayan being situated near the river

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

Khuzestan Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it cover ...

References

Shahnameh Mythological clothing {{Shahnameh-stub