Last modified: 2015-07-28 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
Keywords: book | the banner of kaviyan |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
Harry Turtledove's short story The Banner of Kaviyan was published in
the paperback anthology Arabesques in 1988. In it, a scion of the last
independent Persian principality c. 800 CE searches for the legendary
banner of Kaviyan, hoping to use it as a rallying point in a revolt
against Arab rule.
Eugene Ipavec, 18 april 2005
It is described in the story as:
"And it was lovely, too: silk of a blue whose secret the dyers hereabouts would slay themselves to learn. Set on it, in gold and silver thread, were the sun and moon our army reverenced."and later:
"The sun and moon shone in gold and silver the moon on the banner gleamed with a soft silver glow [of its color:] it was as though a section of the bright noon sky had come to rest there"The flag as described bears little resemblance to the real deal, as described here
"azure like the sea, a flag flies, bearing the sun image on a violet background and it is crowned by a moon"
The protagonist's principality of Gomishan has a "black-striped orange
banner," referred to elsewhere dismissively as a "tigerskin rag," though
not, I believe, literally.
Eugene Ipavec, 18 april 2005