Taken from: https://ganjoor.net/mokhtari/shahriarname/sh24

Shahriyar is imprisoned in Sarandip (9) by Hital Shah of whom he had killed the son. Chapter 23 has as title: Arjang Shah’s fight with Hital Shah and Arjang Shah's defeat.

Chapter 24 Arjang Shah writing a letter to Zanzibar and asking for help.

(I abbreviate the story which is in verse)

Arjang Shah saw the problems. There are no helmets left. The Khosrow (10) sent to Zanzibar one of the letters: O king, hear our cry; that I have fallen into the fire like a bird. Such a failure came from my kin. I will stay in the tail of the dragon. Bring it (the army), if the king comes, I will go, turn my head.

That was your covenant with me; Are you a good and obedient king? When you come to work for me, bring an army as before, now come to my army, bring this to my face. …… The amount of 30,000 Azilans (Azanians?) was counted. He shouted to them: From Eder, go to Tazian (Azania?) with the army, bring it near Arjang Shah put to the sword of Hital Shah and the ivory throne; Leave it all to Arjang Shah. Take the army towards him …… Those troops lined up in the desert. The world was filled with the army of Zanzibar. All over the back of the Tar Sea …… Shah Arjang was happy to see that army, …… Thirty thousand troops came ……

(Hital Shah retreats and Shahriyar is released but the war still drags on for long time. ….. )

Taken from: THE SISTANI CYCLE OF EPICS By Ameneh (Saghi) Gazerani

An example of a multi-staged trial is found in the Shahriyarnameh. (Spread out between Chapter 60 and 70)

As one would come to expect of a Sistani hero, his adventures take place in India.

Here is a short list of his nine trials:

1. Shahriyar fights and kills many elephants.

2. He fights and kills many wolves.

3. He kills a dragon.

4. He kills many lions.

5. He arrives at a place called the desert of the ants (mur). The whole desert is covered with ants, who are described as mighty and frightening predators. Shahriyar survives the desert of ants.

6. Then he arrives at a place where there are many strange demons, and he sees the wonders of the demons. Here he finds tablets left behind by Garshasp along with a letter addressed to him.

7. Next, he arrives a place full of monkeys who are described as more dangerous than lions. Shahriyar wipes them out.

8. This place is full of dark-skinned people called Zangis, who are fierce fighters.

From this part the following extract (Chapter 68) is given.

9. The final trial is to kill a very powerful demon called Sagsar.

Taken from: https://ganjoor.net/mokhtari/shahriarname/sh68

Chapter 68 - Shahriar's arrival at the seventh grove and his battle with the Zangian.

May the sun shine on the well. The world became blessed with the shining moon. They went out of the forest. The angel landed. He praised the God of the world. He turned on the soil of Sudan. ……

What do I see in this seventh place? … May the world be illuminated by the sun, this is a thick bag full of Zangis, someone has Zangis there, beware of the Zangis that are there. The leaders name was Zanjan Zangi. He was like a war lion in battle. They did not see these Zangians (as sons) from Adam. They were in the forest like savages, let them see hostile people, because they make the beast escape, they bring grudges to war, to be caught in the claws of a leopard, they tear the armor into a fork, as if they were cutting hair, all fighting lions against single deer, everyone is mad and everyone understands, they come in like the wind, just like a dog bites a rabbit ……

The lord of the Zangi was not happy at night. They arrived near that dense forest … Income in that forest is like a drunken lion … What did those warriors drive in the forest? The Zangian became aware of their coming. A group took a brave path through the thicket of the income …… in front of them Aba Zangian; After and behind him, Namor Zangian. Those Zangians attacked him. He hit someone like that. The Zangik lost his body on the ground. He fell like a lion in Zangian. … Let's kill everyone, run away from them …… To the arrow and to the sword and mace, he killed a lot from that artless Zangian. What did those belligerents see? They put them on the run. Tell the Zangian that I have arrived.

The day of mourning came to us from them. They killed many of us in the war. It's a shame we didn't see it. What do you hear about the burning of Zangian? … Aba Zangian with more than a thousand all the teeth are sharp like a leopard from inside that forest … What a fire broke out in Zangian ……

………… He killed a hundred Zangis in an attack of spite only three people remained and were captured.

The forest was flooded with blood, finally, they ran away, that's why the Zangian lost, they gave up the war, they drowned in the sea of blood ……………………………………

When Shahryar’s army reaches Serandib (9), the remnants of Arjang's army come to him and inform him of the defeat of Arjang and the murder of Hital Shah.

Taken from: Faramarz, the Sistani Hero: Texts and Traditions of the Faramarzname and the ...By Marjolijn Van Zutphen

(fragment of the Dushanbe manuscript)

The text opens in the middle of a fight. The first verse tells of Shahriyar’s army leader Reyhan-e Zangi (6) fighting an opponent, apparently one of Faramarz’s (7) men. After Zangi has killed his opponent, he is confronted by a veiled knight, completely dressed in black, Siyah-Push. In the course of their fight, Zangi is tied up in the stranger’s lasso, but Zangi breaks free and hits his opponent on the head with a rock. Again Siyah-Push attacks and succeeds in tying Zangi up, but this time , as the latter is led away by one of Faramarz’s men, he is cut loose by Shahriyar. . The fight against Siyah-Push is then continued by Shahriyar, who hits his opponent so severely on the head that Siyah-Push has to leave the battlefield. The next day, Reyḥan-e Zangi fights a horseman completely dressed in red, Sorkh-Push. After an intensive fight, Zangi is captured and imprisoned, but at night he once more succeeds in escaping. On the following day, Sorkh-Push and Zangi meet again. When Zangi, defeated, leaves the battlefield, Sorkh-Push is opposed by Shahriyar. Along and arduous fight with maces and swords is followed by a wrestling match. The two warriors are each other’s match, but eventually Shahriyar overpowers his opponent and pulls out his sword. At that moment, a man named Pas Parhizkar rushes out from the crowd of onlookers to stop the fight. He lifts the helmet from the head of the veiled warrior and reveals the face of Faramarz.(7) Shahriyar recognizes his great-uncle, drops his sword, and the two men embrace.

Shahriyarname and East Africa.

This rather early epic (1106) totally in verses is important for the History of East Africa. It still shows an Indian Ocean in which there are strong links between the East Coast of Africa, especially Madagascar and the Indonesian world (Sarandip)(9). See Chapter 24 in which the defeated Arjang Shah humbly askes the ruler of Zanzibar to send help and mentions an agreement they had on reciprocal help.  Another even earlier epic in which the close relation East-Africa – Indonesia is made clear is from Ali ibn Ahmad Asadi: Garshasp-name (1066) (History of Garsasp). In the later account of Idris we also find that the people of Indonesia were welcomed in Africa. See my webpage on Idrisi (1150).

More about this close relationship, most specifically the Maharaja the ruler of the Indonesian Empire, I added on the bottom of my webpage Ali ibn Ahmad Asadi: Garshasp-name (1066).

And see also my webpage in the Introduction about the history of Madagascar in the written sources.

Chapter 68 from which I took the last big extract of text gives a totally different opinion on East Africa. It is like most other epic stories in which the Zangis are monsters that need to be exterminated. The verses however do not repeat the often used stereotyped descriptions of :

-They are cannibals

-Their shape is that of demons.

-The warriors are giants.

-They fight with whale bones.

-Many Zangi are warrior Heroes. And only appear to be killed by the Persian Heroes: Here in the last extract Shahriyar’s army leader Reyhan-e Zangi kills some of his Persian opponents but is beaten but not killed by others. Also earlier in the story one of Arjang Shah’s champions Nesnas Zangi gets badly wounded and treated personally by Arjang Shah.

Zangis still appear in many other chapters of this epic.

The translation of the words (ازیلان) Azilans (Azanians?) and (تازیان) Tazian (Azania?) is unsure as especially Tazian appears on the ganjoor.net website rather often in a different context.

(1) Shahnama: see my webpage on Firdausi (1000). It is the example epic for all later Persian epics.

(2) Borzu; Borzoo: see my webpage Ata i Razi; Barzu-Nama  (the story of Barzu)(11th century)

(3) Sistan: the border region of eastern Iran.

(4) Mazandaran: is an Iranian province located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea.

(5) Rostam: one of the heroes in the Shahnama which is the example for all other Persian epics.

(6) Reyhan-e Zangi: the nisba Zangi (meaning from East Africa; who made it up to being leader of the army) is the reason why this extract features here.

(7) Faramarz: see my website on Faramarzname; also one of the heroes in the Shahnama which is the example for all other Persian epics.

(8) Maharaja: Here Royal title in India and SE Asia. (9) Sarandip: Sri Lanca.

(10) Khosrow: Persian for Ruler.

(11) Lehrasp Shah: one of the mythological rulers of Persia who ruled 120 years.