The Daughters of Goshtasp

Humāy and Beh-Āfarīd, the daughters of Goshtasp and sisters of Esfandiyār, are referred to by different names in various sources.¹ According to the Shāhnāmeh, they are “wise”, “fortunate”, and “noble” daughters, whose faces “had never been seen by the wind”; yet fate condemns them to captivity among the Turks, “with pain and grief, and faces like lamps”:

Shahrnaz & Arnavaz, according to the Shahnameh, are the sisters of Jamshid and are the first women whose names Ferdowsi mentions. He bestows upon them such epithets as “pure,” “veiled,” and “chaste”:

Two pure women from the house of Jamshid
Were brought forth, trembling like a willow;

For both were sisters of Jamshid,
And were as crowns upon the heads of noble women.

Of the veiled women, one was Shahrnaz,
And the other, chaste Arnavaz by name.

(Book One, The Reign of Zahhak, 55: 6–8)

A Different Portrayal of Rostam’s Beloved

Tahmineh, the only daughter of the King of Samangan, Rostam’s wife and Sohrab’s mother, is a beautiful, chaste, courteous and humble woman: loyal, independent, perceptive and wise, highly knowledgeable, passionate and spirited, courageous, calculating, forthright and determined in pursuing her goals, and committed to her decisions. Through her brief yet distinctive presence, she brings about the most tragic story in the Shahnameh.

Faranak, the wife of Abtin and the mother of Fereydun, is portrayed in the Shahnameh as a free-spirited, knowledgeable and thoughtful woman, compassionate and generous, a vigilant and well-organised fighter, and a caring and affectionate mother. Her character and functions can, broadly, be divided into three categories: 1. a conscious and freedom-seeking warrior; 2. a devoted mother; and 3. a generous and humanitarian individual.