12/26/2019 Kayanian dynasty - Wikipedia

Kayanian dynasty
The Kayanians (also Kays, Kayanids or Kaianids, or Kiani) are a semi-mythological dynasty
of Persian tradition and folklore which supposedly ruled after the Pishdadids. Considered
collectively, the Kayanian kings are the heroes of the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism,
and of the Shahnameh, Iran's national epic.

As an epithet of kings and the reason the dynasty is so called, Middle 𐭣𐭪 and New Persian kay(an)
originates from Avestan kavi (or kauui) "king" and also "poet-sacrificer" or "poet-priest".
The word is also etymologically related to the Avestan notion of kavaēm kharēno, the "divine royal
glory" that the Kayanian kings were said to hold. The Kiani Crown is a physical manifestation of
that belief.

Contents
In scripture
In tradition and folklore
Kayanian dynasts
Sources

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 gods 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 tradition and folklore

Towards the end of the Sassanid period, Khosrow II (590-628, named after the Kay Khosrow of
legend) ordered a compilation of the legends surrounding the Kayanians. The result was the
Khwaday-Namag or "Book of Lords," a long historiography of the Iranian nation from the
primordial Gayomart to the reign of Khosrow II, with events arranged according to the perceived
sequence of kings and queens, fifty in number.

The compilation may have been prompted by concern over deteriorating national spirit. There
were disastrous global climate changes of 535-536 and the Plague of Justinian to contend with and
the Iranians would have found much-needed solace in the collected legends of their past.

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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 Samanids.
Together with the folklore preserved in the Avesta, the Khwaday-Namag served as the foundation
of other epic collections in prose, such as those commissioned by Abu Mansur Abd al-Razzaq, the
texts of which have since been lost. The Samanid-sponsored revival also led to the resurgence of
Zoroastrian literature, such as the Denkard, book 7.1 of which is also a historiography of
Kayanians. The best known work of the genre is however Firdowsi's Shahnameh "Book of Kings",
which - though drawing on earlier works - is entirely in verse.

Kayanian dynasts
Kay Kawād
Kay Kāvus
Kay Khosrow
Kay Lohrasp
Vishtaspa
Kay Bahman
Humay Chehrzad
Kay Darab
Darius III

Sources
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 (http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kayanian-parent),
Encyclopædia Iranica

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