The Royal Genealogies

Eight plates set out every line of descent named in Books A0 to B14 — the Pishdadian kings from Kioumars to Fereydoon, the three houses into which Fereydoon divided the world, the Kayanian succession down to Kay Khosrow, and the great families of Iran and Turan whose quarrels carry the narrative. Every name is spelled as it stands in this volume, and every figure is keyed to the chapter in which the poem first gives the relation.

Ferdowsi records what he records. Where the poem leaves a person unnamed — the daughter of Iraj, the mother of Siavash, the daughter of Tus — the plates say so rather than supply a name from elsewhere. Where the descent runs through generations the poem does not enumerate, a broken line stands in their place.

Nine plates set out every line of descent named in Books C1 to D5. This is the volume in which the old houses end. Afrasiab and Garsivaz are beheaded, Piran and every son of Viseh fall at the Battle of the Rukhs, Kay Khosrow gives the crown away and vanishes, Rostam dies in a pit at Kabul and his line is broken, and Arjasp’s house is destroyed. What follows is a new descent — Lohrasp of Hushang’s line, Goshtasb, Esfandiyar, Bahman — running down to Dara and to Iskandar, whom the poem makes Dara’s own half-brother.

Every name is spelled as it stands in this volume, and every figure is keyed to the chapter in which the poem gives the relation. Where the poem leaves a person unnamed — Darab’s second bride, the daughter of Kabul’s king who weds Shaghad — the plates say so rather than supply a name from elsewhere. Figures carried over from Volume I for the sake of a descent are marked as such.

Nine plates set out the house of Sasan through thirty-one reigns, from Ardeshir Babakan to the last Yazdegard. Plate I gives the whole succession at a glance; the eight that follow take it in stages, with the men and women around each throne — Ardavan and the Tribal Kings, Mehrak’s hidden daughter, Malika and the Roman wars, Monzer who reared Bahram Goor, Mazdak and Bozorgmehr, Bahram Chubin’s house, Maryam and Shirin, and the short reigns that end it.

This volume turns on names repeated down the line: six Bahrams reign, and four Hormizds, four Shapurs, three Ardeshirs and three Yazdegards. The plates identify each by the patronymic the poem gives him, and a table at the back, Kings of the Same Name, sets them side by side. Where the poem leaves a person unnamed — Babak’s daughter, Mehrak’s daughter, Anooshirvan’s Christian wife, the fifteen brothers of Shiruyeh — the plates say so rather than supply a name from elsewhere.