In the process of Islamization after the 7th century, Iranian native ancestral conception and historical identity were severely eroded and interfered by foreign ideas. Under the background of the boom of New Persian language and literature, some Iranian literati assumed the mission of being the bearers of cultural memory. Collected and compiled on the basis of the ancient Iranian oral and written legends, certain Iranian national epics composed from the 10th to the 12th century show a significant influence on the survival of Iranian cultural tradition. Among the epics, Kūshnāma is particularly remarkable for its creation of an alien hero. After close scrutiny of the text, we can find that this so-called “Story of the King of China” integrates the fragments of the ancient Iranians’ collective cultural memory – the bygone military conflicts between the alien enemy chieftains and the Iranian people. The hero, acting as a typical character of the “archery target type”, is derived from multiple prototypes, which include the Kushite kings, the legendary Mesopotamian Semitic kings represented by Nimrud, as well as the kings of the Kushan Empire. Kūshnāma, therefore, by shaping an exotic hero of the archery target type with multiple identities of foreign enemies, draws the brilliant achievements of legendary Iranian kings and heroes together. Meanwhile, it contributes to establishing a comprehensive frame of reference for the rejuvenation of Iranian national memory. In other words, through recognizing the self by concretizing the other, the epic plays an important role in refashioning Iranian national identity in the Islamic era
