Arash the Archer story

A long time ago, in a land far away, there were two countries called Iran and Turan. Manouchehr was the king of Iran and he had a majestic Kingdom, but unfortunately, he was a cruel monarch whose unjust behavior and imprudence made Iran an unorganized country. When the king of Turan, Pashdad, was informed about Iran’s desultory condition and the weakness of Manuchehr’s kingdom, he did not hesitate for a moment. He told his consultants and ministers, "This is the precious time to defeat Manouchehr and seize Iran”. After a long meeting they came up with a big plan. They decided to send Afrasiab, the prince, with a major army to fight with Manouchehr's corps and conquer them. That was how a gory war began between two countries.

Iranian soldiers bravely fought for their country and they sacrificed their life to defend Iran’s borders. The war took a long time, but unfortunately, despite all those sacrifices, Afrasiab was clever and powerful man, but Manouchehr was an old and slobby leader. Therefore, Afrasiab surrounded Manuchehr and his corps, and finally two sides reached a settlement. The agreement was in this way, “an Iranian soldier should shoot an arrow with a bow on Alborz Mountain and at the end, the land between the bow-shot place and wherever the arrow falls would stay as Iran’s territory and the rest would be a part of Turan”.

Manouchehr announced this news in his corps and asked for the strongest and bravest soldier who could make the longest shot. Arash Pioneered to do the shot. He had a very special bow which could make the longest shot, but that shot would come with a price. “A person who shoots with this bow, will lose all his strength and will die at the end;" he remembered this sentence vividly from a man who gave him this bow. But he was resolute to give up all he had for his country. He went on top of Alborz mountain to make the shot; he took his bow, put an arrow in it. Then he held his breath and started to drag it. He knew he had only one shot and he wanted to make the best one. He started to think about his homeland, his country, his people, his loved ones, and the smell of spring in his home, and by each thought the power was moving to his hands from all parts of his body, and in the same time, he breathed more and more from his country’s air for a very last time. When he had all his energy in his hands and his livers were full, he closed his eyes and released the arrow in the name of Iran. The arrow left Arash’s bow and traveled for a day from dawn to sunset and finally hit a walnut tree near the Jeyhoon River, which was identified as Iran and Turan’s border. But our hero, Arash, was exploded and dispersed on the mountain after the shot to enrich Iran’s soil forever with integrity and honor. (Soraya, 2015)

· This is an ancient Persian myth and folkloric story that was originally written in Aboureihan Birooni’s book.