كيخسرو اژدهاكش

Kaykhosrow, the Dragon Hunter

بزرگ‌ترين كردار داستان­هاي حماسي- اساطيري، اژدهاكشي است. در روايت­هاي ملّي- پهلوانيِ ايران غير از يلان سيستان شماري از شاهان نيز با اژدها، موجودات اژدهافش يا اژدهايانِ پيكرگردانيده مي­ستيزند و آنها را مي­كشند يا در بند مي­كنند. كيخسروِ كياني هم يكي از اين شهرياران است كه در مآخذِ معروف و روايات متداول دربارۀ او، به اژدها اوژني شناخته شده نيست امّا داستان رويارويي وي با اژدها روايت اصيل و كهني است كه پيشينۀ آن احتمالاً به منابعِ ايرانِ پيش از اسلام مي­رسد و دو گزارشِ متفاوت از آن در منابعِ عربي و فارسي بازمانده است. گزارش نخست در سني ملوك­الارض و الانبياي حمزۀ اصفهاني و سپس همايون­نامۀ زجّاجي و تاريخ گزيده و نزهت­القلوب مستوفي است كه در آن كيخسرو اژدهايي را در كوه كوشيد مابين فارس و اصفهان مي­كشد و ديگري، روايتِ واحدِ تاريخ قم كه اين پادشاه براي دفع زيانكاريِ اژدها به منطقۀ قم مي­آيد و اژدها از دست او مي­­گريزد. داستان اژدهاكشيِ كيخسرو به دليلِ نيامدن در متون مهم و تأثيرگذاري چون شاهنامه و تاريخ طبري و نيز برجسته­تر بودنِ وجهِ قدسي و معنويِ اين شاه نسبت به جنبۀ پهلواني و جنگاوريِ او، ناشناخته و به­دور از توجّه مانده است.

The confront of Kaykhosrow with the dragon is one of the unique and almost unknown narratives ofIran’s epic tradition. HamzehIsfahani was the first who coined it in the book “SunniMoluk al-arzva al-anbia”that way: “people told Kaykhosrow,the red mountain called Kooshid located between Fars and Isfahan where a dragon dominates the region and humans.He [Kaykhosrow] went there with his people and killed the dragon and a fire-temple built on the mountain which became known as the Kooshidfire.” The Arabic origin of the book “History of Qom” was written in 387 AH by Hasan ibn Mohammad Qomiand it has been translated into Persian in the years 805 and 806 AH. He mentioned another narrative about how to building the Saraft/Saraf village and confront of KayKhosrow and the dragon in this book: “Kaykhosrowhas built this land and when he got there [meaning: Saraft] a lake was there where all the groundwater and the rivers flowed into that lake. “This place is very suitable for construction”Kaykhosrowsaid. He ordered to build “Saraft” in this place and they called it “Saraf” which in their language that’s mean“Sarab” and in Arabic means “Rasol Ma”.The narrator says that Kaykhosrow came from the city of “Shir” [probably: “Shiz”] to here looking for the dragon and when he got to this area, he finds where the dragon lives and break up it. The dragon escaped and he went up the stack, so Kaykhosrowbuilt “Saraft” there.” Beast killing some kings and myths in Iranian’s narratives means proving the legitimacy of the position of the prince and their bravery. I think that Kaykhosrow’sstory and the Dragon can be analyzed from this perspective as well:because Toos and Nozarian are opposed to Kaykhosrow's choice to replace Kavus for the reason Turanian race and that Kaykhosrow's mother is of Afrasiab race; therefore, perhaps in addition to the conquest’s test of Bahman’s devilish castle and the success of Kaykhosrowin this mission – as its narration mentioned in Shahnameh - motif of confront with the dragonalso attributed to him up to this important act the genius of the descent and deserving the young Kaykhosrow to sit on the throne of Iran shown. Why does Kaykhosrow build a fire-temple there after killing the Kooshidmount’s dragon? In national narratives mentioned: Kaykhosrowis one of the kings who is a fire temple-maker or somehow relates to the fire temples. Except the famous Azargoshasp Fire-temple that narrative of its construction by Kaykhosrow after than conquest of Bahman’s castle mentioned in Shahnameh, building the Kosje, Karkuy and Ramesh’s villagefire-houseis also attributed to him. Probably attribution of the building the several fire-temple(like the Kooshid mount’s fire-temple) to Kaykhosrowis related to the clerical and spiritual image of this king.On the other hand, the general answer and relatively specificto building a fire-temple where the dragon is killed can be substitution a sacred and beneficial fire instead of a devilish creature with burning and damaging properties. The story of Kaykhosrow’s beast killing is an origin and ancient narrative thatprobably is related to one of the Pahlavi Xodayname transcriptionsor Iranian pre-Islamicnarratives but for two reasons it is almost unknown and forgotten.The first and most important reason is that none of the valid and famous references (e.g. Abu Mansouri’sShahnameh and Tabari historyhas used of Pahlavi texts or Xodayname’sArabic translations or the ancient references of the Persian) have mentioned to this story for reasons that it is not clear to us today and strangely enough there is no mention of this important narrativein Pahlavi texts.Only the old and well known text is shortly mentioned to this narrative is the book of “SunniMoluk al-arzva al-anbia”. The book “History of Qom” has pointed to it as well, but it can never validate public histories.The books “TarikheGozideh” and “Mostofi’sNozhat al Golub” are one of the more recent references and Homayunnameh is one of the anonymous and unnoticed poems of Persian literature, too. The Kaykhosrow’s story and the dragon like other acts of this king was once famous either spoken about that in Pahlavi textsor mentioned in famous historical references such as Tabari history, al-BadovaTarikh, MojmalolTawarikh and etc. or Ferdowsi through his prose’sreference/references it sings poetry and would be immortal. This story is due to its narratives relevance to world motif of beast killing and it is similar to other stories of this repetitious narrative, so it has the ability to express in this way which unfortunately has not been the case.