near the city also appears in the Shahnameh as the place where
Freydun bounds the dragon-fiend Zahak. In the Persian mythological and
legendary events. Kayūmarṯ, the Zoroastrian prototype of human beings and
the first king in the Shahnameh, was said to have resided in Damāvand. In
these legends, the foundation of the city of Damavand was attributed to him. Arash,
the archer who sacrificed his body by giving all his strength to the arrow that
demarcated Iran and Turan, shot his arrow from Mount Damāvand. This
Persian legend was celebrated every year in the Tiregan festival. A
popular feast is reported to have been held in the city of Damavand on 7 Šawwāl
1230/31 August 1815, during which the people celebrated the anniversary of Zahhaksdeath. In
the Zoroastrian legends, the tyrant Zahak is to finally be killed by
the Iranian hero Garšāsp before the final days. In some Middle Persian
texts, Ray (Ragha) is given as the birthplace of Zoroaster although
modern historians generally place the birth of Zoraster in Khorasan. In
one Persian tradition, the legendary king Manūčehr was born in Damavand.
During the Sassanid era, Yazdegerd III in
641 issued from Ray his last appeal to the nation before fleeing to Khorasan. The
sanctuary of BibiShahr-Banu situated in modern Tehran spur and accessible only
to women is associated with the memory of the daughter of Yazdagird who,
according to tradition, became the wife of al-Husayn b. Ali, the third Shi'ite Imam. Ray
was the fief of the Persian Mihran family and Siyawakhsh the son of Mihran the
son of BahramChubin resisted the Arab invasion.Because of this resistance, when
the Arabs captured Ray, they ordered the town to be destroyed and ordered
Farrukhan b. Zaynabi b. Kula to rebuild the town.
In the 10th
