Shahbaz (bird)

Shahbaz (Persian: شَهباز or شاه‌باز‎) is the name of a fabled bird in Iranian mythology. It is described as having a body similar to an eagle, being bigger in size than a hawk or falcon and having inhabited the Zagros, Alborz and Caucasus mountain ranges of Iran. In ancient Persian mythology, the Shahbaz was a god who helped the Iranian peoples and guided the Faravahar to Greater Iran.

Standard of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, featuring the Shahbaz (see list of flags used by Iranian peoples)

During the Achaemenid era, especially during the rule of Cyrus the Great, the Persian imperial flag was rectangular in shape, divided kite-like into four equal triangles alternating between two colours; in excavations at Persepolis, archaeologists found a standard depicting a Shahbaz or golden eagle (Derafsh-e Shahbaz-e-Talayi) with open wings—the current belief is that this was the official symbol of the Iranian empire under Cyrus the Great and his heirs.

The word Shahbaz literally translates to "royal falcon".[1][2] The British explorer Richard F. Burton considered it to refer to the goshawk species Accipiter gentilis.[1] Shahbaz may also refer to the eastern imperial eagle, which is the second-largest eagle in Iran after the golden eagle.

References
  1. Burton, Sir Richard Francis (1852). Falconry in the valley of the Indus.
  2. Brill, E. J. First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936.


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