For ages the battle of Rostam and White Deev has been one of the most popular subjects among Iranian book illustrators, tile-makers, and coffee-house painters.
In the Persian epic of Shahnameh, Div-e Sepid (White Demon) is the chieftain of the Deevs of Mazandaran. He is a huge being and is skilled in sorcery. He destroys the army of Kay Kavus by conjuring a dark storm of hail, boulders, and tree trunks. He then captures Kay Kavus, his commanders, and paladins; he blinds them and imprisons them in a dungeon. The greatest Persian mythical hero Rostam undertakes his “Seven Labours” to free his sovereign. In the end, Rostam slays Deev-e Sefid and uses his heart and blood to cure the blindness of the king and the captured Persian heroes. Rostam also takes the Deev’s head as a helmet and is often pictured wearing it.
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- Rostam kills White Deev, Timurid period, Circa 1400, Dublin Chester Beatty Library
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- Rostam kills White Deev
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- Rostam kills White Deev
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- Rostam kills White Deev from an Ottoman Shahnameh in Turkish, ~1590, (British Library)
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- Rostam kills White Deev from Shah Tahmasb Shahnameh, Attributed to Abdolvahhab directed by Mir Mossavar, 1525-1530, Cleveland Museum
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- Unknown Artist, Shiraz Style, ~1576, Shiraz (British Library)
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- Rostam kills White Deev
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- Mosaic panel “Rostam kills White Deev” on an entrance to Arg of Karim Khan, Late 1700s, Shiraz
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- Mosaic panel “Rostam kills White Deev” on an entrance to Arg of Semnan, Iran
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- Rostam kills White Deev, illustrated by Ali-Akbar, 1849, Bombay
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- Rostam kills White Deev, illustrated by Mirza Ali-Qoli Khoi, 1851-1853, Tehran
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- Rostam kills White Deev, illustrated by Ostad Sattar, 1858, Tabriz
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- Rostam kills White Deev, illustrated by Mostafa, 1889, Tehran
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- Rostam kills White Deev, illustrated by Abdolhoseyn and Karbalai Hasan Naqqash, Tabriz, 1898
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- Rostam kills White Deev
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- Rostam kills White Deev, Circa mid-1900s
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- Rostam kills White Deev, by Qollar Aqasi, 1954 – نبرد رستم و دیو سفید به سبک نقاشی قهوه خانه، تصویرگر: قوللرآقاسی، ۱۳۳۳ شمسی، ۱۹۵۴ میلادی
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- Rostam kills White Deev, by Hossein Behzad, 1947 – نبرد رستم و دیو سفید، تصویرگر: حسین بهزاد، ۱۳۲۶ شمسی، ۱۹۴۷ میلادی
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- Rostam kills White Deev
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