Kay Bahman

Kai Bahman or -Wahman (and other variants) is a mythological figure of Greater Iranian legend and lore. The stock epithet Kai identifies Bahman as one of the Kayanian kings of Iranian oral tradition.

In the genealogy of the legendary dynasty, Bahman is the son of Esfandiyar (hence his also being referred to in Middle Persian as 'Vohuman Asfandyar'), grandson of Goshtasp, husband of [his own daughter] Komani/Homai, and father of Dara/Darab. Other details vary: Several different Arabic and Persian sources (e.g. al-Tabari and ibn al-Balkhi) assert that Bahman had five children; two sons, Dara/Darab and Sasan/Sassan, and three daughters, Komani/Homai (stock epithet: Chehrazad), Bahmandokht and Farnak.

In the Bahman-nama (composed ca. 1100 CE, not to be confused with a 15th-century hagiography of the Deccan Bahmanids) Bahman is portrayed as being asked by Rostam to marry Katayun/Kasayun, daughter of the King of Kashmir. Bahman does so, but subsequently has to flee to Egypt where he marries Homai, the daughter of the Egyptian king, with whom he has a daughter also named Homai. Other sources have Bahman marrying his own daughter Komani/Homai on account of her great beauty, and that Dara/Darab was the result of this union. In one tradition (reiterated by ibn al-Balkhi), the marriage was denied and Homai dies a spinster.