Kayanian dynasty

The Kayanians, also rendered Kiani, were an ancient dynasty in the Iranian national history. Originating from the ancient Avestan term for "warrior poet", the Kiani are the union of wisdom and power, and represent Iranian identity at its most militant and self-conscious.

The founding dynasty that preceded them, the Pishdadians, represented a Primordial Age where mankind itself was first emerging. By contrast, the Kiani mark the beginning of the Iranian Heroic Cycle—mythopoetic in nature, but believed by scholars to represent a genuine collective memory of real, living ancient Iranians.

The Kiani are the heroes both of the Avesta (the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism) and of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran. The Kiani Crown is a physical manifestation of that belief.