The archer’s name appears as follows: Ēraš (Tabarī, I, p. 435.7, II, p. 997; Ebn al-Athīr, I, p. 166); Āraššēbātīr, a later form of the name but including the epithet with it (Ṭabarī, I, p. 435.6, II, p. 992); Āraš-e Šewātīr (Mojmal, p. 90); Araš, for Āraš (Tha'ālebī, ghorar, p. 107; Bīrūnī, loc. cit.) and Āraš (Maqdesī, Badʾ III, p. 146; Bal'amī, Tarikhnama-ye Tārī-e Tabarī, Tehran, 1337 Š., p. 36; Moǰmal, p. 43; Šāh-nāma, Moscow ed., VIII, p. 66.235, IX, p. 273.317; Gorgānī, Vīs o Rāmīn, Tehran, 1337 Š., line 330; Maqdašī, Tārīkh-e Tabarestān, ed. B. Dorn, St. Petersburg, 1850, p. 18). His feat occurred in these circumstances: After Afrāsīāb had surrounded the Pišdadian king, Manūčehr, in Ṭabarestān, both agreed to make peace. Manūčehr requested that the Turanian return to him a piece of land the width of a bow-shot, and Afrāsīāb assented. An angel (in Bīrūnī it is “Esfandārmaḏ,” i.e., the Beneficent Immortal Spandārmad) instructed Manūčehr to prepare a special bow and arrow; wood, feather, and iron point were taken from a special forest, eagle, and mine (GHorar, p. 133). The skilled archer Āraš was commanded to shoot. According to Bīrūnī, Āraš displayed himself naked and said: “Behold! my body is free of any wound or sickness; but after this bowshot I will be destroyed.” At dawn he shot and was immediately torn to pieces. (Tha'ālebī agrees with this. A later tradition has him survive and become head of the archers; see Tabarī and Tabaqāt-e Nāserī, ed. Tabībī, Kabul, 1342 Š., I, p. 140.) God commanded the wind to bear the arrow as far as the remote regions of Khorasan, and in this way the boundary between the Iranian and Turanian kingdoms was established.

The place Āraš shot the arrow is variously idenlified: Tabarestān (Tabarī, Tha'ālebī, Maqdesī, Ebn al-Athīr, Maqdašī), a mountain of Rūyān (Bīrūnī; Gardīzī), the fortress of Āmol (Mojmal), Mount Damāvand (Bal'amī), or Sārī (Vīs o Rāmīn). The place where it landed (or was borne by the wind or an angel) is also reported differently but with general geographical harmony: by the river of Balkh (Tabarī , Ebn al-Athīr), Tokhārestān (Maqdesī, Gardīzī), the banks of the Oxus (Bal'amī). Bīrūnī has it descend between “Farghāna” and “Tabarestān;” these are probably to be understood as Farkhār and Tāleqān or Tokhārestān (Minorsky, Hodūd al-'ālam, p. 330). In Tha'ālebī’s account the arrow was borne to the district of Ḵolm (east of Balḵ); it landed at sunset at a place called “Kūzīn,” a name easily emended to *Gōzbon, the Bun ī Gōzag of the Mid. Pers. account (see also Hodūd al-'ālam, ibid.). This name also accounts for Bīrūnī’s idea that the arrow struck a walnut tree (Jowz). Other accounts deviate from the older tradition represented in these texts, probably under the influence of fluctuations in the understanding of where Iran’s eastern border actually lay. The Mojmal gives the landing place as 'Aqaba-ye Mozdūrān, which was between Nīšāpūr and Saraḵs (Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh, p. 202). Marv is named in Vīs o Rāmīn and in Maṛʿašī, Tārīkh-e Tabarestān.

 

 

Bibliography: 

	Th. Nöldeke, “Der Beste der arischen Pfeilschützen im Awesta und im Tabarî,” ZDMG 35, 1881, pp. 445-47.
	R. v. Stackelberg, “Iranica,” ZDMG 45, 1891, pp. 620-28.
	On the suggested identification of Āraš with the bowman on the reverse of Arsacid coins see V. G. Lukonin, in Camb. Hist. Iran III, 1983, p. 686 with references.