ii. DĀRĀ(B) II

Dārā II was the son of Dārā I (see i, above) and the last king of the legendary Kayanid dynasty, often identified in sources with Darius III Codomannus, the last Achaemenid king (336-31 B.C.E.). His name is recorded as Dārā in the Pahlavi literature and in the majority of the Islamic sources but as Dārāb in Abū Ṭāher Moḥammad Ṭarsūsī’s Dārāb-nāma and the Persian prose version of the Eskandar-nāma. His mother was Māhnāhīd, daughter of Hazārmard (Ṭabarī, I, p. 693); according to a later tradition, however, she was Ṭamrūsīa, daughter of Faṣṭabīqūn and former wife of the king of Oman (Ṭarsūsī, I, pp. 100 ff.). In the legend Dārā II was the half-brother of Alexander (Eskandar) the Great. When he came to power he demanded the customary tribute from Alexander, who refused to comply and instead led an army to Iraq on the Euphrates, where he encountered the forces of Dārā coming from Eṣṭaḵr. According to one tradition (Ebn al-Balḵī, p. 55; cf. Ṭabarī, I, pp. 692-30; Meskawayh, pp. 34-35), Dārā II’s vizier, whose brother had been killed by *Rašnīn, the vizier of Dārā I, instigated Alexander’s attack on Iran. In order to learn the potential of the Iranian army and to become privy to Dārā’s plans, Alexander presented himself as an envoy to Dārā II and witnessed the court ceremonial. He was recognized by some courtiers, but he managed to escape before he was arrested. War broke out, and Dārā fled to Kermān, where he asked the emperor of India, Porus (Fūr), to come to his aid but in vain. Dārā was killed by two men, called Māhyār and *Jānūšyār, who were his ministers (dastūr), guards, or amirs. Then they led Alexander to the dying king, who asked him to marry his daughter Rowšanak (Roxana), also called Būrān-doḵt, and to avenge his death (Šāh-nāma, Moscow, VI, pp. 398 ff.; Ṭabarī, I, pp. 696, 698; Balʿamī, ed. Bahār, p. 698; Ṯaʿālebī, Ḡorar, p. 410; Ebn al-Balḵī, p. 56; Masʿūdī, Morūj, ed. Pellat, II, pp. 9, 12; Gardīzī, ed. Ḥabībī, p. 16; Mojmal, ed. Bahār, pp. 55-56; Maqdesī, Badʾ III, p. 150; Meskawayh I, p. 35; Ṭarsūsī, I, pp. 461, 468, II, pp. 85 ff.). Dārā reigned for fourteen (Bundahišn, TD2, p. 240; Ṭabarī, I, p. 694; Ḥamza, p. 13; Mojmal, ed. Bahār, p. 55), thirteen (Ayādgār 4.4, probably a clerical error), or sixteen years (Mojmal, ed. Bahār, p. 55). He was said to have had three sons: Ašk, supposedly the ancestor of the Arsacids, Ardašīr, and a third, whose name has been corrupted (Ṭabarī, I, p. 700; cf. Balʿamī, ed. Bahār, p. 698).

The foundation of the city of Dārā (Ṭabarī, I, p. 694), or Dāryā, above Nisibis (Ḥamza, p. 39; Mojmal, ed. Bahār, p. 56) has been attributed to Dārā II. In some sources he is reported also to have built the city of Dārābgerd (see Dārāb ii). In addition, he is reported to have ordered two copies of the entire Avesta and Zand to be kept respectively in the royal treasury (ganj ī šāhīgān) and the fortress of the archives (diz ī nibišt Dēnkard, ed. Madan, I, p. 412). The legend of Dārā and the golden idol, mentioned by Ebn al-Nadīm (ed. Tajaddod, p. 364) among Iranian stories translated into Arabic, may be about Dārā II. A lengthy part of Ṭarsūsī’s Dārāb-nāma is devoted to his exploits.