''Bijan and Manijeh'' (also ''Bizhan and Manizheh'', Persian بيژن و منيژه - ''Bīžan ow Manīža'') is a love story in

Ferdowsi , image = Statue of Ferdowsi in Tus, Iran 3 (cropped).jpg , image_size = , caption = Statue of Ferdowsi in Tus by Abolhassan Sadighi , birth_date = 940 , birth_place = Tus, Samanid Empire , death_date = 1019 or 1025 (87 years old) , d ...

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 ...

. Bijan was the son of Giv, a famous Iranian knight during the reign of

Kay Khosrow Kay Khosrow ( fa, کیخسرو) is a legendary king of Iran of Kayanian dynasty and a character in the Persian epic book, '' Shahnameh''. He was the son of the Iranian prince Siavash who married princess Farangis of Turan while in exile. B ...

, the Shah of Iran, and

Banu Goshasp Bānu Goshasp ( fa, بانو گشسپ) or Goshasp Banu is an important heroine in Iranian mythology. , death_place = Kabulistan , death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a wel ... due to not recog ...

, the heroine daughter of

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 ...

. Bijan falls in love with Manijeh, the daughter of

Afrasiab Afrasiab ( fa, ''afrāsiyāb''; ae, Fraŋrasyan; Middle-Persian: ''Frāsiyāv, Frāsiyāk'') is the name of the mythical king and hero of Turan. He is the main antagonist of the Persian epic Shahnameh, written by Ferdowsi. The mythical kin ...

, the king of Turan and the greatest enemy of Iran. The tale of his suffering and Manijeh’s constancy has been quoted by several others.

The tragedy of Bijan and Manijeh

People from

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...

complain to

, the Shah of Iran, that wild boars are invading their fields. Bijan fights the boars, forcing them back to their lairs. The day after, Gorgin, an Iranian knight who had accompanied Bijan on the quest, describes the beautiful gardens of

to Bijan, tempting him to cross the border from Iran into the mythical land of Turan on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea. Turan is ruled over by the evil and egotistical King Afrasiab. In the garden, he meets Manijeh, Afrasiab's beautiful daughter. They fall madly in love; however, knowing her father's reaction to accepting an Iranian prince in her private chambers, Manijeh gives Bijan a sleeping potion and smuggles him into her house. He wakes, and Manijeh and her maids keep him hidden for many days. Eventually Afrasiab learns of Bijan and captures him. Afrasiab sentences Manijeh into exile, so that both Bijan and Manijeh are forced to live out their days in the wilderness. Bijan also sends secret messages to Rostam, the Iranian hero charged with keeping the country safe from Afrasiab. Kai Khosrow, the Shah of Iran, looks into his Crystal Cup, and sees Bijan in the forest. Instead of launching a frontal invasion to find Bijan, the hero Rostam disguises himself as a merchant and, along with a few knights, enters Turan. When Manijeh hears that a wealthy merchant from Iran has arrived in Turan, she hopes that he was sent to find Bijan. They find Bijan and escape into Iran where there is much rejoicing at Bijan return to his homeland. Furious with his own daughter's treason, Afrasiab declares war on Iran. The Iranian and Turanian armies meet and a mighty battle ensues. The skies turn dark from the dust of the battlefield while trumpets and clashing cymbals signify the attack of the Iranian cavalry. Turan is defeated, and Afrasiab is forced to return home without his daughter and in shame.This story reflects the ongoing wars between the Iranian kings and two of their greatest enemies. "Turan" is a reference to the nomadic peoples of Central Asia (initially Persian-speaking), and the boar is a symbol of the Roman armies advanced into Armenia under the leadership of

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

. The theme of doomed love stories between the youth of Iran and Turan is repeated several times in the Shahnameh (Book of Kings) and reaches its pinnacle in the epic of

Siyâvash Siyâvash ( fa, سیاوش, via Middle Persian Siyâwaxš, from Avestan Syâvaršan) or Siyâvoš or Siavash ( fa, سياووش), is a major figure in Ferdowsi's epic, the ''Shahnameh''. He was a legendary Iranian prince from the earliest days o ...

Family tree

References

Sources

Shahnameh. From the Moscow version. Mohammed Publishing. * ''Bijan and Manijeh'', by Hakim Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi Tousi, translated into English by

Helen Zimmern Helen Zimmern (25 March 1846 – 11 January 1934) was a naturalised British writer and translator born in Germany. She was instrumental in making European culture more accessible in English. Biography Zimmern and her parents emigrated in 1850 t ...

Iran Chamber Society
.
A king's book of kings: the Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Bijan and Manijeh

External links

{{Other Shahnameh characters Shahnameh characters Shahnameh stories Persian mythology Persian poems Narrative poems