Kavarstān or Gavestān (A Study on the Name of Transoxiana in Shahnameh)

In three stories of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, a land in the northeastern regions of Iran corresponding to Transoxiana is mentioned, whose name has been recorded in various forms in the existing manuscripts, and the editors of Shahnameh and researchers of its geography disagree with each other in choosing from these records. The destruction of the original form of the name of this land and the confusion and imprecise recording in Pahlavi texts and the existence of similar forms in the eastern and northeastern lands of Iran in historical and geographical sources after Islam, as well as incorrect and contradictory perceptions of the geographical extent of this region are the main reasons for the different selections by Shahnameh editors. Some of the selected or proposed forms for the name of this land are Kavaršān, Kušān, Karūšān, Kohestān, Kavarstān and Kūy-sārān. In this article, by paying attention to the details of the stories in which the name of this land is used, as well as using ancient Iranian and Middle Persian and Islamic texts, a reading different from those which have been proposed before will be presented in the form Gavestān. This form has the support of some manuscripts and also can be traced in Pahlavi script.