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Arash the Archer () is a archer-figure of Iranian mythology. According to Iranian folklore, the boundary between Iran and Turan was set by an arrow launched by Arash, after he put his own life in the arrow's launch. The arrow was traveling for days before finally landing on the other side of the Oxus on the bark of a walnut tree hundreds of miles away from the original launch site atop a mountain.
As is typical for names from oral tradition, there are numerous variations of 'Arash'. In the Avesta the name appears as 'Erekhsha' ( Ǝrəxša) "of the swift arrow, having the swiftest arrow among the Iranians" ( Yasht 8.6). This Avestan-language form continues in Zoroastrian Middle Persian as 'Erash' ( Bundahishn, Shahrastanha-i Eran, Zand-i Vahuman Yasht, Mah i Frawardin), from which the anglicized 'Eruch' derives. New Persian forms include 'Erash' and 'Irash' in al-Tabari and ibn al-Atir; Aarashshebatir in al-Tabari; 'Arash' in al-Talebi; 'Aarash' in Maqdesi, Balami, Mojmal, Marasi, al-Biruni, and in the Vis o Ramin of Gorgani. Names with a stock epithet representing the Avestan "swift arrow" include al-Tabari's 'Aarashshebatir' and Mojmal's 'Arash-e Shewatir'. A surname form includes 'Arash/Aarash kaman-gir' "Arash, bow-expert." Also it’s a common name for people that lived there.
In Talebi and Bal'ami, Arash is destroyed by the shot and disappears. In al-Tabari, he is exalted by the people, is appointed commander of the archers and lives out his life in great honor. The distance the arrow travels varies: in one, it is a thousand leagues ( ), and in another, forty days' walk. In several, the arrow traveled from dawn to noon; in others, from dawn until sunset. A few sources specify a particular date for the event. The Middle Persian Mah i Frawardin notes the 6th day of the 1st month (i.e. Haurvatat of Fravashi); later sources associate the event with the name-day festivities of Tiregan (13th of Tishtrya) "presumably" provoked by the homonymity with the Yazata Tir or tir "arrow." ()
The location from which Arash fired his arrow varies as well. In the Avesta (which does not mention places in Western Iran), it is Airyo.khshaotha, an unidentified location in the Karshvar. Islamic-era sources typically place the location of the shot somewhere just south of the Caspian Sea, variously in Tabaristan (Tabari, Talebi, Maqdesi, Ibn al-Athir, Marashi) and (al-Biruni, Gardēzī); Amol fortress (Mojmal); Mount Damavand (Balami) or Sari (Gorgani). The place the arrow landed is variously identified as 'Mount Khvanvant' in the Avesta (likewise an unknown location); a river in Balkh (Tabari, al-Atir); east of Balkh (Talebi); Bactria/Tokharistan (Maqdesi, Gardizi); the banks of the Oxus River (Balami) or Merv (Mojmal). According to al-Biruni, it hit a walnut tree between "Fargana" and Tabaristan "in the furthest reaches of [Greater Khorasan]]."
The name Arash remains a popular name among Iranians.
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