Maníjeh

Family: Túrán · Role: princess · First appears: The Story of Byzun and Maníjeh · Part 1

In the Story of Byzun and Maníjeh, Maníjeh, daughter of Afrásiyáb, came each spring to a garden where Byzun saw her and asked her nurse to arrange an introduction. Maníjeh had already fallen in love with him, and consented to his suit. Later, unable to bear separation, she had Byzun drugged and secretly taken to her father’s palace in Túrán, where Afrásiyáb discovered her love for a Persian youth.

Afrásiyáb first sentenced Maníjeh to share Byzun’s fate, then allowed her to remain near the pit where he was imprisoned, forbidding anyone to bring her food or visit her. Stripped of her garments and jewels by Gersíwaz, she and Byzun could still hear one another through a fissure in the rock, and bread and water reached him. When Rustem came, Maníjeh revealed who she was and explained Byzun’s capture and imprisonment; she carried Rustem’s seal-ring to Byzun inside a roasted fowl, then agreed to light a fire to guide Rustem to the pit. Maníjeh also received a present in recognition of her virtue and fidelity.