"Lord of the Iron Bow": The Return Pattern Motif in the Fifteenth-century Baloch Epic Hero Sey Murid

Background The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are considered to be the heroic age of Balochistan and the classical period of Balochi literature. It was in the fifteenth century that the powerful Rind and Lā£ār tribes, alongside a large number of other Baloch tribes, migrated from western Makran (now in Iran), conquering other Baloch tribes on their way. Their realm stretched to S|b| and D˝ād˝ar in the eastern fringes of the present-day Pakistani Balochistan and formed the first unified Baloch confederacy (Qizalbā£ 1979:19). M|r ¤ākar Khān Rind, who ruled from his capital at S|b| from 1487 to 1511 (Harrison 1981:12) was nominated as “the Great Chief” of the Baloch confederacy and the chief of all the Baloches (Baluch 1965:121; Hetu Ram 1898:105; cf. Rzehak 1998:164). 1 Tradition holds that M|r Bibagr Rind, M|r ¤ākar’s nephew, gave the name Balochistan (lit. “country of the Baloch”) to the newly unified country (Badalkhan 1992:37, n. 23). 2 Chakarian Balochistan was composed of the presently Iranian and Pakistani Balochistans as well as a great chunk of Afghani Balochistan. 3 Legend has it that under M|r ¤ākar Rind the city of S|b|, then the capital of Balochistan,