The Legendary House of Nariman: Zabulistan, Zranka, and the Enduring Epicenter of Iranian Heroic Tradition in Central Afghanistan (1500–1000 BCE)

This paper examines the legendary House of Nariman – the foundational lineage of the Iranian epic tradition that produced the heroes Sām, Zāl, and Rostam – and traces its geographical and historical roots to Zabulistan, a territory corresponding to the eastern Iranian world of Zranka (Old Persian) and Drangiana (Greek). The study establishes that the heroic cycle was fully formed in the Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age (c. 1500–1000 BCE), more than a millennium before the first historically attested presence of Scythians (Saka) in the Helmand basin (c. 2nd century BCE). The name Sistan itself derives from Sakastān, "land of the Saka" – a designation that postdates the epic tradition by over a thousand years. The Āzrah people (self-designation from Avestan Arəzahī, "eastern clime of light") are not latecomers; they are the original population of this epic and sacred landscape, as confirmed by linguistic continuity (25-35% Avestan vocabulary in Hazaragi), genetic data (Neolithic Iranian haplogroups J2a1-Page55 and G2), and direct Avestan attestations (Yasht 19, Yasna 9, and the meaning of Nairi.manah). The mountainous core of this tradition lies in Sharistan (Daykundi Province), the heart of Āzrah-jat (Hazarajat).