پژوهشنامه ادب حماسی
سال چهاردهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 25، بهار و تابستان 1397)

In the tale of Rostam and Esfandyar, Katayun in order to stop Esfandyar from going to Sistan and confront Rostam reminds him of Rostam’s heroic deeds and his services to save Iran and thus states: “He who killed the moon of Hamavaran/person had the audacity to question him”.In this couplet the moon of Hamavaran means Sudabeh and although this couplet appear in only one copy (in London, Britain 675Hijra) in all authentic and semi authentic editions of Shahnameh had been chosen. However in most manuscripts it is the king of Hamavaran which exists and this is encountered in merely certain stone and less authentic Shahnameh editions. Since in the report about the battle of Hamavaran in Shahnameh, the king of hamavaran begged Rostam for mercy and thus is not killed by him, editors regarded the version of King of hamavaran as incorrect and ignore this possibility whereas the study of various Farsi and Arabic sources indicate that from the story of the battle of hamavaran several versions at least three different reports exist in some of them the king of Hamavaran stays alive and in some other gets killed by Rostam. The reference for the aforementioned couplet above belongs to the second group of narratives related to the final destingy of King of hamavaran and is documented and based on the authentic and genunine source even earlier than Shahnameh which is also reflected in another couplet in the tale of Rostam and Esfandyar. Based on this latter evidence the register of “King of Hamavaran” which apparently seems incorrect, from the story’s point of view is reliable and also as far as criteria for the correction of the text are concerned since most editions agree and rely on the latter authentic source and the fact that it is more complex than the register “Moon of Hamavaran”,King of Hamavaran should be included in the final text of Shahnameh.

Symbols are part of a culture of a nation and for better understanding of the myths of each nation their concepts should be comprehended. Symbol is a mark, hint, or a word which imparts a message sometimes appropriate to the surface meaning and at times beyond its apparent sense. Animals, plants, people, and objects are true examples in connection with symbols. This research deals with the study of symbolic concepts of lion in epic, lyric, and mystic masterpieces namely Shahnameh, Kamsa of Nezami and Masnavi respectively using the library method and analytic comparative approach. First, the all encompassing view of lion from Avesta and Pahlavi texts are provided next, the symbolic concepts of this majestic creature in the above genres are stated and towards the end of each section the degree of correspondence of symbolic concepts in each work, the frequency of the name of the beast and the percentage of the symbolic concept of lion employed is determined for every work. The result obtained from this study shows that lion is the most employed beast as far as repetition of its name is concerned (1487 times) and second to horse is the most employed beast for the number of symbolic concepts used (19 concepts). Lion’s four symbolic concepts such as bravery, might, predatory, and rage in three works consist 21% correspondence. Six characteristics such as massiveness, agility, being tyrannical, and rancorous, immensity, and faithfulness correspond to 31.5 % in two works and nine features 47.5% is observed in one three works. Also 47.5% of concepts belong to epic domain, 10.5% in lyric domain, and 42.5% concepts fall into mystic domain.

This research deals with the study of the relationship between the ancient Persian epic tradition and Mani’s Book of Giants. The epic mythological narrative and the well known stories of the past regarding the origin of the world and man’s origin to a certain extent is incorporated in Mani’s myth and those myths propagated by Manichean missionaries were also intertwined with mythological traditions in connection with biblical accounts regarding Giants and flood. Mani had transformed Iranian mythologies in such a way to create harmony between the old mythological traditions and his own narrative version of origin of the world. All literary pieces come down to us from Mani encompass references to Persian epic tradition and for easy access they are presented in this paper.

Iranshahr is the common name of the lands in Iran’s terrain recognized in Persian mythology and in Pahlavi texts as the land of light and the territory of Ahuramazda. This idea is repeated in geography books in the Islamic era and in Persian literary texts. The result of this view regards Iranshahr as a center for the ancient world which is sacred and should remain intact from the invasion of evil doers. On the other hand, Babylon had been an immense influential civilization in Mesopotamia rising after Summerians and had a great impact on other civilization of Middle East and North of Africa and in particular influenced Europe by its astronomical beliefs. After Cyrus’s capture of Babylon and its incorporation into Iran’s soil, it had been always regarded as part of Iranshar, a fact reflected also in geographic texts. Regarding this issue, Babel like Iran should be seen as a sacred and auspicious land, yet according to Iranian’s beliefs Babylon is assumed a place where demons and sorcerers arise and certain Iran’s miseries proceeds from this place and this is contrary to all the positive attributes given to Iranshahr. Using descriptive analytic approach in this research it is argued that since Babel is located in the west of Iran’s mythological geography where the sun sets, therefore according to cult of Mithras, its adherents believe that such strategic position had brought ominous outcome for the western lands, Babylon included.

After setting fire of Persian lands, Macedoni Eskandar who in the mind and language of Iranians enjoyed a bad reputation and possessed negative characteristics, after coming of Islam in Iran suddenly finds an auspicious face and is identified as Du’l-Qarnayn from then on according to Kahf Sura verses 83-98 Iranians write many books about him both in prose and verse. Each book according to the references referred to dealt with different aspects of his life. The book of Eskandar Nameh, composed by Naseri Kermani paid attention to some angles of his life. This article familiarizes the reader with the text and deals with the style of Naseri’s composition of poetry. Like many Nezami’s imitators, Naseri had been immensely under the influence of Nezami Ganjavi in composition of his book as far as diction and imageries are concerned and in spite of epic works had used Khafif meter in his composition. In comparison with other Eskandar Namehs new points are encountered such as the fire that consumed Persepolis set by Eskandar had something to do with temptation on the behalf of a beloved.

Aristotle divided tragedy into six formative elements and mythos or plot is the most important one. In shahnameh plot plays a pivotal role in tragedies and bears considerable resemblance to Aristotle’s mythos. The purpose of this research is to discuss this issue according to Aristotle’s views employing descriptive analytic approach to indicate that most tragedies in Shahnameh correspond to Aristotelian mythos and its constituent elements such as recognition, transformation and catastrophic event or downfall. Plot refers to the sequence of events inside a tragedy which affect other events through the principle of cause and effect. The existence of recognition, transformation and catastrophic fate of the protagonist encourage the reader to reread times and times again tragedies of Shahnameh. Therefore the everlasting appeal and the secret of survival of Shahnameh owes itself to its strong plot greatly corresponding to mythos of Aristotle although as far as narrative structure is concerned in parts for instance forecasting in the beginning of tragedies and domination of destiny and final fate discrepancies exist.

Demons and demonic creatures are indispensable part of mythology and are the integral part of ancient Persian beliefs. Indeed, our ancestors for every malice and evil deed and phenomena believed in a particular demon and revelation of any of these demonic and destructive elements were related to a corresponding demon. A phenomenon named Astovidatu or demon of death is one such example. Although after coming of Islam this belief had lost its original vigor, yet its reflection could be clearly seen in certain works particularly in Shahnameh all the more reason for Ferdowsi’s use of imageries in connection with the concept of death. It is the purpose of this article to compare these imageries with information that exists regarding the demon of death, a belief already existed before Islam in Zoroastrian religion and to prove and demonstrate that the creation of those imageries consciously or unconsciously were under the influence of Astovidatu.

One of the biggest challenges facing researchers regarding defining and describing the collection of Persian national epics is the inexact information about the date of their composition and the name of most composers of epic poetry after Shahnameh remain unknown, unsolved problem in this domain. Only stylistic and linguistic references and certain intratextual inferences come to aid to make certain assumptions. Jahangir Nameh, an epic composition is one such work. Although its composer in final couplets introduces himself as Ghasem Madeh and states the place of its composition as Herat, yet the date of composition according to researches is still uncertain and vague. However the writer of this article assumes that the composer apart from Herat, had also referred to the time of composition in a form of chronogram and thus in this way announces the year 1077 Hijra in the final couplet. The study of linguistic, historical and literary data and evidences supports the assumption that this epic work belongs to the second half of the eleventh century.