Kangdiz in Pahlavi Literature

Abstract

Abstract Though Kandiz seems to be depicted in the early Avestan sources, only in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature does this fortress-city receive a rich and detailed description. Kangdiz becomes a significant and essential place, strongly connected to the legend of Zoroaster and the eschatological events of the final times. In its geographical, architectural, and religious transformation Kangdiz is often enriched with features belonging to other special Iranian places, such as the shelter of Jam. The fame and the narrative model of this city survives the first centuries of the Islamic conquest. This article presents the architecture and the geography of Kangdiz as found in Pahlavi sources and to define its eschatological role in the context of the Zoroastrian myth and religion.