In the ninth to twelfth century Zoroastrian texts, the legendary
Turanian king and military commander
Afrasiab is (together with
Dahag and
Alexander) the most hated among the beings that Ahriman (Avestan
Angra Mainyu) set against the
Iranians (
Zand-i Wahman yasn 7.32;
Menog-i Khrad 8.29) In the
Shahnameh, the poet
Ferdowsi draws on Zoroastrian scripture (with due attribution) and retains the association of
Aneran with the Turanians. From the point of view of Ferdowsi's home in
Khorasan, this identification coincides with the Avestan notion (e.g.
Vendidad 7.2, 19.1) that the lands of Angra Mainyu (Middle Persian: Ahriman) lay to the north. The two sources do however diverge with respect to details. In the Avesta,
Sogdia (Avestan
Sughdha, present-day
Sughd and
Samarqand Regions) is not Anērān – Sogdia is one of the sixteen lands created by Mazda, not one of the lands of Angra Mainyu. Nonetheless, for Ferdowsi the division between Ērān and Anērān is just as rigid as it is in the
Avesta: When the primordial king
Fereydun (Avestan
Θraētaona) divides his kingdom – the whole world – among his three sons, he gives the Semitic lands in the west to the eldest, the lands of the north to his middle son Tur (Avestan
Turya, hence the name "Turanian"), and
Ērān to his youngest (
Shahnameh 1.189). In the story, this partition leads to a family feud in which an alliance of the two elder sons (who rule over the Anērānian lands) battle the forces of the youngest (the Iranians). The Iranians win. For Ferdowsi, the Turanians/Anērānians (often used interchangeably) are unquestionably the villains of the piece. Their conflict with Iranians is the main theme of the
Shahnameh and accounts for more than half of the text. says a Turanian raider named Tur-Baratur killed the 77-year-old
Zoroaster in
Balkh. ==Bibliography==