AyÃÂdgÃÂr ë ZarÃÂrÃÂn (and other approximations of ambiguous Book Pahlavi þbyþtkþr y zlyln), meaning "Memorial of ZarÃÂr", is a Zoroastrian Middle Persian heroic poem that, in its surviving manuscrip<nowiki/>t form, represents one of the earliest surviving examples of Iranian epic poetry.
The poem of about 346 lines is a tale of the death in battle of the mythical hero ZarÃÂr (< Avestan Zairi.vairi), and of the revenge of his death. The figures and events of the poem's story are embellishments of mythological characters and events alluded to in the GÃÂthÃÂs, which are a set of autobiographical hymns in the Avesta that are attributed to the prophet Zoroaster.
Historically, Iranian epic poems such as this one were composed and sung by travelling minstrels, who in pre-Islamic times were a fixture of Iranian society.
Although heroic tales such as the Memorial of ZarÃÂr were collected by Zoroastrian priests for the now-lost Sassanid-era Book of Kings, (the XwadÃÂy-nÃÂmag, a 5th/6th-century collection of heroic legends), other minstrel compositions were either never written down (and have thus been lost), or are only known of from later translations into Islamic-era languages such as Arabic or Persian. While the Sassanid-era Book of Kings has also been lost, a copy of the Memorial of ZarÃÂr was preserved by Zoroastrian priests in Zoroastrian Middle Persian (so-called "Pahlavi", an exclusively written late form of Middle Persian used only by Zoroastrian priests), and it is the only surviving specimen of Iranian epic poetry in that Middle Iranian language.
The surviving manuscripts of the Memorial of ZarÃÂr are part of (copies of) the MK Codex, the colophones of which date to 1322, butâÂÂlike most other "Pahlavi" literature represents a codification of earlier oral tradition. The language of the poem is significantly older than the 14th century, and even has Parthian language words, phrases and grammatical usages scattered through it. The manuscript came to the attention of western scholarship following Wilhelm Geiger's report of the MK collection and the translation of the text in question in 1890.
Following an analysis by ÃÂmile Benveniste in 1932, the poem is now generally considered to be a 5th or 6th-century (Sassanid-era) adaptation of an earlier (Arsacid-era) Parthian original.
The story of Memorial of ZarÃÂr plays in the time of the mythological KayÃÂnid monarch Wià ¡tÃÂsp (< Avestan Vià ¡tÃÂspa), the patron of Zoroaster. The story opens with the arrival of messengers at the Wià ¡tÃÂsp's court. The message is from the DaÃÂva-worshipping king of the Un-Iranian Xyonites (< Av. xÃÂyaona-), ArjÃÂsp ( Middle Persian ArzÃÂsp < Avestan ArÃÂjaá¹±.aspa), who demands that Wià ¡tÃÂsp "abandon 'the pure MazdÃÂ-worshipping religion which he had received from Ohrmazd', and should become once more 'of the same religion'" as himself. ArjÃÂsp threatens Wià ¡tÃÂsp with a brutal battle if Wià ¡tÃÂsp does not consent.
ZarÃÂr, who is Wià ¡tÃÂsp's brother and the command-in-chief of Wià ¡tÃÂsp's army, pens a reply in which ArjÃÂsp's demands are rejected and a site for battle is selected. In preparation for battle, the army of the Iranians grows so large that the "noise of the caravan of the country of Iran went up to heavens and their clamors went down to hell." Wià ¡tÃÂsp's chief-minister, JÃÂmÃÂsp (< Av. JÃÂmÃÂspa), whom the poem praises as infinitely wise and able to foretell the future, predicts that the Iranians will win the battle, but also that many will die in it, including many of Wià ¡tÃÂsp's clan/family. As predicted, many of the king's clansmen are killed in the fight, among them Wià ¡tÃÂsp's brother ZarÃÂr, who is slain by Wëdrafsh / Bëdrafsh, the sorcerer (the epithet is jÃÂdà «g, implying a practitioner of wicked magic) of ArjÃÂsp's court.
ZarÃÂr's 7-year-old son, Bastwar / Bastà «r (< Av. Basta.vairi) goes to the battlefield to recover his father's body. Enraged and grieving, Bastwar vows to take revenge. Although initially forbidden to engage in battle due to his youth, Bastwar engages with the Xyonites, killing many of them, and revenging his father by shooting an arrow through Wëdrafsh's heart. Meanwhile, Bastwar's cousin SpendyÃÂd (< Av. SpÃÂá¹Âtà ÂôÃÂta) has captured ArjÃÂsp, who is then mutilated and humiliated by being sent away on a donkey without a tail.
Although quintessentially Zoroastrian (i.e. indigenous ethnic Iranian religious tradition), the epic compositions of the traveling minstrels continued to be retold (and further developed) even in Islamic Iran, and the figures/events of these stories were just as well known to Muslim Iranians as they had been to their Zoroastrian ancestors. The 5th/6th-century Book of Kings, now lost, and partly perhaps a still living oral tradition in north-eastern Iran, served as the basis for a 10th-century rhymed-verse version of the Memorial of ZarÃÂr by Abà «-Maná¹£à «r Daqëqë. In turn, Daqëqë<nowiki/>'s poem was incorporated by Ferdowsi in his à  ÃÂhnÃÂma. In 2009, these adaptations of Memorial of ZarÃÂr became the basis of the stage play YÃÂdgÃÂr-i ZarirÃÂn written by Qoá¹Âb ed-Din á¹¢ÃÂdeqi, and played by Mostafa Abdollahi, Kazem Hozhir-Azad, Esmayil Bakhtiyari and others.