Introduction
Fereydun is a descendant of Jamshid, son of Abtin and Faranak, who overthrew the tyrant Zahhak and restored rightful kingship to Iran, becoming one of the great heroic kings of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. His division of his kingdom among his three sons before his death set in motion the fratricidal conflict that shapes much of the epic's subsequent history.
This article follows the Zoroastrian and Shahnameh traditions, noting where the older Avestan material and Ferdowsi's later epic differ.
Family
Childhood in hiding
After Zahhak's serpents claimed Fereydun's father Abtin, his mother Faranak hid the infant Fereydun, protecting him from Zahhak, who had learned of a prophecy that a descendant of Jamshid would overthrow him. Faranak entrusted him for a time to the protection of the miraculous cow Purmayeh, before he grew old enough to take up his destiny.
Overthrowing Zahhak
Joined by the blacksmith Kaveh's popular uprising, Fereydun led the rebellion against Zahhak, defeating him in single combat. Rather than killing the tyrant outright, Fereydun, on the advice of a divine voice or angel, chained him inside Mount Damavand, where he remains bound, according to prophecy, until he is fated to break free near the end of the world.
Division of the kingdom
In his old age, Fereydun divided his kingdom among his three sons: to Salm, the eldest, he gave Rome and the West; to Tur, the second, he gave Turan (Central Asia); and to Iraj, the youngest, he gave the choicest central lands of Iran itself. This unequal division, favouring the youngest son, provoked jealousy in Salm and Tur, who conspired to murder Iraj, an act that becomes the founding grievance of the long war between Iran and Turan that runs through the rest of the Shahnameh's legendary history.