the Fravardin Yasht are depicted as faithful followers of Ahura Mazda, most passages in the Avesta as well as later Iranian tradition depicts them in a consistently antagonistic role. Their homeland is typically located in Transoxiania. After Turkic peoples began to spread in Central Asia, the term Turanian was increasingly applied to them. Regardless, the Turanians at the time of the Avesta were Iranian. The Sarima are mentioned only in the Fravardin Yasht and do not appear in other parts of the Avesta. Their name, however, is found in later traditions involving the mythological ancestors of the Arya, the Turya and the Sarima. In these traditions, a figure known as Sarm, in Pahlavi texts, and Salm, in the Shahname, is given the western part of the known world to rule over. In addition, their name has been connected to the later Sarmatians based on etymological grounds. The Sarmatians were an Iranian speaking tribe that came into contact with the Greeks in the western steppe during classical antiquity but their origins are assumed to be in the southern Ural region. The Saini are the forth group of people mentioned in the Fravardin Yasht. They do not appear in other parts of the Avesta or in later Iranian tradition. Nor are any later groups known from historical sources to be associated with them. As a result, their identity remains unclear. The Daha are the last people being mentioned in the Fravardin Yasht. They appear as the Dahae in later historical sources. The Dahae were an Iranian speaking tribe which in antiquity lived modern day Turkmenistan. In addition to the Dahae, the name of the Daha appears as the Dasa in the Vedas, where they are described as non-Aryan adversaries of the Vedic Aryans. It is not known whether these etymological connections support an ethnic connections as well. Taken together, the available evidence points to these other peoples being Iranian tribes living in the steppes north of the Aryans. A memory of this kinship between them may be found in the Iranian epic Shahnameh, where the legendary Iranian hero Thraetaona has three sons, Iraj (Aryan), Tur (Turanian) and Salm (Sairima). It is therefore plausible that the Turanians, Sairima, Dahi, and possibly the Saini were part of or associated with the broader phenomenon of Scythian cultures. Zamyad Yasht The Zamyad Yasht is named after Zam, the Zoroastrian divinity that personifies the Earth. The extant