Kayanian dynasty
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The Kayanians (Persian: دودمان کیانیان; also Kays, Kayanids, Kaianids, Kayani, or Kiani) are a legendary dynasty of Persian/Iranian tradition and folklore which supposedly ruled after the Pishdadians. Considered collectively, the Kayanian kings are the heroes of the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, and of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran.
As an epithet of kings and the reason the dynasty is so called,
In scripture
The earliest known foreshadowing of the major legends of the Kayanian kings appears in the Yashts of the Avesta, where the dynasts offer sacrifices to the god Ahura Mazda in order to earn their support and to gain strength in the perpetual struggle against their enemies, the Anaryas (non-Aryans, sometimes identified as the Turanians).
In Yasht 5, 9.25, 17.45-46, Haosravah, a Kayanian king later known as Kay Khosrow, together with Zoroaster and Jamasp (a premier of Zoroaster's patron Vishtaspa, another Kayanian king) worship in Airyanem Vaejah. The account tells that King Haosravah united the various Aryan (Iranian) tribes into one nation (Yasht 5.49, 9.21, 15.32, 17.41).
In
In tradition and folklore
Towards the end of the
The compilation may have been prompted by concern over deteriorating national spirit. There were disastrous
Following the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and the subsequent rise of Islam in the region, the Kayanian legends fell out of favour until the first revival of Iranian culture under the
Kayanian dynasts
- Kay Kawād
- Kay Kāvus
- Kay Khosrow
- Kay Lohrasp
- Vishtaspa
- Kay Bahman
- Humay Chehrzad
- Kay Darab
- Dara II
References
- .
- ISBN 9780958034630.
- Dhalla, Maneckji N. (1922), Zoroastrian Civilization, New York: OUP
- Gershevitch, Ilya (1959), The Avestan Hymn to Mithra, Cambridge: University Press, pp. 185–186
- Prods Oktor Skjaervo, Kāyānian, Encyclopædia Iranica
- Irannejad, A. Mani (2020), Kavis in the ancient national Iranian tradition, Iranica Antiqua 55: 241-277: Peeters
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