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In Iranian legend, '''Afrasiab''' ( ''afrāsiyāb''; ; , Frāsiyāk) is the mythical king and hero of [[Turan]]. He is the main antagonist of the Persian epic ''[[Shahnameh]]'', written by [[Ferdowsi]].
According to Islamic sources, Afrasiab was a descendant of Tūr (Avestan: Tūriya-), one of the three sons of the Iranian mythical King Fereydun (the other two sons being Salm and Iraj). In Bundahishn, he is named as the seventh grandson of Tūr. In Avesta, his common epithet mairya- 'deceitful, villainous'Nyberg H. S., Die Religionen des Alten Iran, Berlin (1938), p. 257 can be interpreted as meaning 'an evil man'. He lived in a subterranean fortress made of metal, called Hanakana.
According to Avestan sources, Afrasiab was killed by Haoma near the Čīčhast (possibly either referring to Lake Hamun in Sistan or some unknown lake in today's Central Asia), and according to the Shahnameh he met his death in a cave known as the Hang-e Afrasiab, or the dying place of Afrasiab, on a mountaintop in Azerbaijan. The fugitive Afrasiab, having been repeatedly defeated by the armies of his adversary, the mythical King of Iran Kai Khosrow (who happened to be his own grandson, through his daughter Farangis), wandered wretchedly and fearfully around, and eventually took refuge in this cave and died.
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