Derafsh Kaviani
The Derafsh Kaviani, “the standard of Kava” or “of the kings”, was the legendary royal banner of the Sasanian kings of Iran. In the Shahnameh it began as a blacksmith’s leather apron raised on a spear; the Arab army that defeated the Sasanians at Qadesiya, about 637, captured it.
Meaning
Early Islamic writers elaborated the story, the Encyclopaedia Iranica entry by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh notes: the tenth-century historians Tabari and Masudi said it was of panther skin, 8 by 12 cubits, about 5 by 7.5 metres, while Khwarazmi cited sources that called it bear or lion skin. In the fourteenth century Ibn Khaldun reported that it had a magic square of a hundred fields woven into it in gold, from the belief that an army carrying such a banner would never be defeated. It was also called the standard of Jamshid, the standard of Fereydun, and the royal standard.
Origin and history
Nothing earlier than the Sasanians names it. Iranica notes that the Avesta and the Achaemenid and Parthian sources do not mention it directly, though several scholars have argued that it is shown in a damaged part of the Alexander mosaic from Pompeii, the battle of Issus. Xenophon gives the Achaemenid king’s standard as a golden eagle on a shield on a spear. Arthur Christensen accepted the Derafsh Kaviani as the royal standard of the Sasanians and argued that the myth of Kava itself began in the Sasanian period and grew from the fame of the house of Karen, which traced its line to Kava’s son. Stig Wikander argued that it had become the national banner of Iran already in the Parthian period.
Its end is recorded. At the battle of Qadesiya, about 637, the standard fell to Zerar ibn Khattab, who received 30,000 dinars for it, though its real worth was said to be 1.2 or even 2 million. The caliph Umar is said to have had the jewels removed and the banner burned.
The blacksmith’s apron
In the Shahnameh of Firdausi, the blacksmith Kava revolts against the tyrant Zahhak. In the Warners’ translation, he took a leathern apron, such as smiths wear at the forge, stuck it on a spear’s point and led the men who followed him to the prince Fereydun (Faridun in the Warners’ spelling). Fereydun hailed it as an omen, decked the apron with brocade of jewelled patterns on a golden ground, placed a full moon on the spearpoint, draped it with yellow, red and violet, and named it the Kawian flag. Each shah after him hung it with more jewels, brocade and painted silk of China, until Kava’s standard grew to be a sun amid the gloom of night. Iranica gives the same colours as red, yellow (or blue) and violet.
Carried to war
In the Shahnameh, Iranica says, five mowbeds (priests) brought the standard out of its storehouse when the army mustered, and it went on campaign with the king or his commander, often called “auspicious” or “blessed”. In battle it was the troops’ rallying point. The earlier Achaemenid eagle standard is described on the Aquila page.
Read next
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See also
Aquila, Jolly Roger, Blackbeard’s flag, Calico Jack’s flag, Bartholomew Roberts’s flag, Emanuel Wynne’s flag.
Sources
- Derafš-e Kāvīān, by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. VII, fasc. 3, pp. 315–316, 1994 (Internet Archive copy, 9 September 2026), Encyclopaedia Iranica, text
- The Shahnama of Firdausi, Volume I, translated by Arthur George Warner and Edmond Warner, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, London, 1905 (University of Toronto scan on the Internet Archive), Internet Archive, Zahhak, pp. 157–158
- Signa Militaria (Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1875), James Yates, in William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875, pp. 1044–1046, LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer), p. 1045
The same shape elsewhere
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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 14, 2026. How we research
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