Introduction
Kaveh is a blacksmith of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh who, after losing several of his own sons to Zahhak's daily sacrifice of human brains to his serpents, led a popular uprising against the tyrant, becoming one of the epic's most celebrated symbols of ordinary people's resistance to injustice.
The uprising
When officials came to take yet another of Kaveh's sons for the serpents' feeding, Kaveh, in fury and grief, tore up the summons in front of Zahhak's own court and led his remaining family and a growing crowd of supporters in open rebellion, raising his blacksmith's leather apron on the end of a spear as an improvised banner.
The Derafsh Kaviani
Kaveh's makeshift banner, richly decorated with jewels after the uprising's success, became known as the Derafsh Kaviani, "Kaveh's banner", and passed into legend as the royal standard of Iran, carried by later kings and heroes throughout the Shahnameh as a symbol of legitimate authority and resistance to tyranny, a rare instance of an object associated with a commoner becoming a central symbol of royal power.
Joining Fereydun
Kaveh brought his rebellion to Fereydun, the rightful heir to the throne, and together they overthrew Zahhak, restoring just rule to Iran.