Kaveh the Blacksmith: a Shahnameh story for children, retold in English
Kaveh the Blacksmith (کاوهی آهنگر) is a well-known episode of the Shahnameh: a kind blacksmith whose children have been taken by the tyrant king Zahhak refuses to sign a paper that calls the king just, tears it up, ties his leather apron to a spear and leads the people to the young hero Fereydun. The apron became the famous banner Derafsh-e Kaviani. Azizan's Persian retelling is written for ages 5–8, keeps the story gentle, and is ready for a parent or grandparent to record.
Azizan (azizan.app) is a family storytelling app for immigrant and diaspora families: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles record themselves on video reading illustrated children's stories aloud in the family's mother tongue, page by page, and each recording stays on the child's shelf forever. Real family voices — never AI narration. Persian (Farsi) first.
The story in short (Azizan's version)
Kaveh is a kind blacksmith with a small shop. Every day he heats iron and hammers it, and he wears an old leather apron.
The king, Zahhak, is cruel and always angry. People are afraid of him and hide at home.
The king's men take young people away from the families of the city, and they do not come back. Kaveh has lost many of his children, and now they come for the last one.
Kaveh goes to the palace. A big paper says Zahhak is a just king, and the city's leading men, trembling with fear, sign it one by one.
When it is Kaveh's turn he asks, "Where are my children? The paper talks about justice, but where is justice?" Then he tears the paper to pieces in front of everyone.
In the market he ties his leather apron to a spear and raises it like a flag. People gather around it, and it is named the Derafsh-e Kaviani, the banner of Kaveh.
Young and old follow the banner to Fereydun, a kind and brave young man. Fereydun decorates it with silk and jewels and sets out to bring justice back.
Zahhak's darkness fades and the cities breathe again. Kaveh goes back to his shop and his hammer, and everyone knows him as the man who raised the banner.
How this differs from the original Shahnameh
In Ferdowsi's epic Zahhak's rule is far darker, and Kaveh has lost most of his sons. Azizan's retelling keeps the loss but tells it in a child-sized way, without the gruesome details.
The torn paper and the leather apron raised on a spear are part of the original, and so is the later jewelled banner.
Details of the banner's later history vary between tellings; Azizan keeps to the core of the episode.
Why it works for older children
Telling the truth to power: one ordinary person says "this is not true" when everyone else is too afraid.
Ordinary hands, big courage: the hero is a craftsman, not a prince.
Roots: the Kaveh banner is a symbol Iranians meet again and again, so children recognise it later in life.
Reading it aloud
Read the hammer sound (tang, tang, tang) slowly and use it again at the end, so the child hears the story come back home. Slow down at the moment Kaveh tears the paper. Because Kaveh loses his children, it is better suited to ages 5 and up; it can be read together with Fereydun and Zahhak, which continues the same story.