Pearls from a Dark Cloud

Abstract This chapter discusses monsters from the Persian mythological tradition, drawing on sacred and cosmogonic texts such as the Avesta and the Bundahishn, and fictional (or loosely historical) stories and epics such as the Shāhnāmeh, with particular emphasis on works written in the tenth to fourteenth centuries ce. The focus is on five categories of Persian monsters: avian monsters, such as the Simorgh; ophidian monsters, such as azhdahās (dragons); terrestrial monsters, such as kargs; aquatic monsters, such as the Gandarewa; and demonic monsters, such as divs, paris, ghuls, and jinn. The chapter also examines how these monsters influenced or were influenced by other mythological traditions, such as the Greek, Chinese, and Arabo-Islamic mythoi.