The Fall of Jamshid
In Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, King Jamshid enjoyed a long, brilliant reign. He organized society, encouraged crafts, and brought prosperity. Over time, however, pride overcame him. He claimed divine honors, and the royal glory that legitimized his rule departed.
At this moment of weakness, Zahhak rose. In the epic he is an Arabian prince deceived by Ahriman, the spirit of destructive evil. The deceiver first encouraged Zahhak to kill his own father and seize power.
The Serpents
Ahriman then appeared as a talented cook and won Zahhak’s favor with rich new foods. As a reward, he asked permission to kiss Zahhak’s shoulders. When he did, two black serpents sprang from them.
Every attempt to cut the serpents away failed; they grew back. Ahriman returned disguised as a physician and prescribed a horrifying treatment: each day the serpents must be fed the brains of two young people.
Zahhak’s rule became an age of fear. Jamshid was eventually captured and killed, and the tyrant’s agents took victims to feed the snakes. Two compassionate cooks secretly saved one of every pair, substituting an animal’s brain. In the epic’s legendary history, those who escaped became ancestors of a mountain people.
A Dream of Defeat
Zahhak dreamed that a young hero would strike him down with an ox-headed mace. Terrified, he searched for the child. The hero was Fereydun, whose father Zahhak had killed. Fereydun’s mother hid him, and he was nourished for a time by the marvelous cow Barmaya.
When Zahhak’s agents killed the cow, Fereydun escaped and grew in secret. Meanwhile, Zahhak tried to strengthen his rule by forcing leading men to sign a declaration that he had always been just.
Kaveh Raises His Apron
Kaveh, a blacksmith, entered the court seeking the return of his last surviving son. Zahhak had already taken many of Kaveh’s children. The king released the son but demanded Kaveh’s approval of the false declaration.
Kaveh tore it apart and denounced the tyrant before the court. Leaving the palace, he raised his leather blacksmith’s apron on a spear as a banner. People gathered behind it. Decorated with jewels by later kings, this humble apron became the legendary Derafsh Kaviani, a symbol of Iranian resistance and royal authority.
Kaveh led the rebels to Fereydun, the hero foretold in Zahhak’s dream.
Fereydun’s Victory
Fereydun marched against Zahhak carrying an ox-headed mace. He captured the tyrant’s palace and defeated him. As Fereydun prepared to kill Zahhak, a divine message instructed him not to do so. Zahhak’s final time had not yet come.
Instead, Fereydun bound him and imprisoned him inside Mount Damavand. There the serpent-shouldered tyrant remains chained in legend, his destructive power contained rather than erased.
Justice Against Tyranny
The story contrasts failed and legitimate rule. Jamshid loses glory through pride. Zahhak rules through deception, fear, and the consumption of the young. Fereydun has heroic destiny, but the rebellion begins publicly with Kaveh, an ordinary craftsman who refuses to endorse a lie.
Kaveh’s apron is the story’s clearest symbol. An object of daily labor becomes a national banner because its owner acts when elites remain silent.
Zahhak has older roots in Iranian religious tradition, where the figure Aži Dahāka appears as a monstrous adversary. Ferdowsi’s epic reshapes those traditions into one of Persian literature’s most influential narratives.
Wikipedia Sources
This original retelling is based on Zahhak, Kaveh the Blacksmith, Fereydun, and Shahnameh on Wikipedia.