Zartosht Bahram E Pazhdo - Life and Place of Birth

Life and Place of Birth

Zartosht was born somewhere during the Khwarzmian Shah era and witnessed the Mongol invasion of Persia first hand. That he witnessed the Mongol era is shown by the laments over the Mongol destruction in his work the Ardaviraf Nama. He finished his Zaratusht-nama in 1278 A.D. Thus from the available sources, Zartosht Bahram was born in mid or early 13th century and was alive in the late 13th century. In the British manuscript of Zaratusht-nama held in the British museum, his birthplace has been mentioned as the city of Rayy in Persia which is now a suburb of modern Tehran in Persia. On the other hand, the Persian scholar Mohammad-Taqi Bahar has mentions the Zartosht Bahram e Pazhdo's preface in his Ardavarifnama: My name is Zartosht, my father's name is Bahram the son of Pazhdo, .. we are from the people of khwaf in the area of Bizhan Abad which was built during the time of KeyKhusraw. Thus the poets ancestors came from Khwaf in Khorasan and he must have settled in Shahr-i-Rayy, which is now a suburb of modern Tehran.