Detail of “Faridun Tests His Three Sons”

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Dragons appear in many tales from the Shahnameh. In this story, Firdawsi mentions that Faridun transformed himself into an azhdaha—a word which, in Firdawsi’s time, referred to a mythical giant snake. By the 16th century, however, such creatures came to be depicted as fire-breathing monsters with enormous teeth and claws, inspired by dragons from Chinese visual repertoire.

Earlier in the Shahnameh, Faridun achieved one of the epic’s great feats of heroism: imprisoning the evil monarch Zahhak, who had come under the spell of Ahriman, the devil, spawning a reign of terror.