Bijan and Manijeh

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Bijan and Manijeh (also Bizhan and Manizheh, Persian بيژن و منيژه) is a love story in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (Shāh-Nāmeh, The Epic of Kings). Bijan was the son of Giv, a great warrior of Iran during the reign of Kai Khosrow. Bijan fell in love with Manijeh, the daughter of Afrasiab, the king of Turan, and greatly suffered as a result.

When people from Arman complained to Kai Khosrow that wild boars were invading their fields, Bijan volunteered to go and combat the boars. Bijan pursued the wild boars, returning them to their lairs, without any of the boars escaping. The day following this event, Girgin told Bijan about the garden of Afrasiab on the other side of the border with Turan. Thus was the young Bijan tempted to go to Turan and see the women in that garden celebrating the spring. Bijan and Manijeh met in that garden and fell in love. When Bijan announced his intention to leave, Manijeh gave him a cup of wine, which made him sleep. The maidens carried him to the palace of Afrasiab, where he was hid by Manijeh, and no one except her maidens were aware of this secret. When Afrasiab learned that his daughter had hidden a man in her house, he sent guards to seize Bijan. Bijan was captured and prisoned in a pit in a desert and the pit was blocked with a heavy stone. Manijeh was also punished by her father. She was expelled from the palace and sent to the desert where Bijan was prisoned. Manijeh made a tunnel to Bijan's prison, and through that tunnel spoke to him and fed him. Every day she would go to the city and beg for food and bring the food to Bijan. Eventually, Kai Khosrow sent Rostam to rescue Bijan. Rostam went to Turan as a merchant, and met Manijeh in the city, from where she took him to the pit where Bijan was prisoned.

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[edit] External links

  • Shahnameh, by Hakim Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi Tusi, the complete work (64 Epics), in Persian (ParsTech). This work can be freely downloaded (File size, compiled in the form of an HTML Help File: 1.4 MB).