An Investigation of Love in the World of Epic: A case of Shahnameh

Epics like Shahnameh are the world of battle and war; however, they also reflects feelings and sentiment. Although the love stories are really marginal and fill little space of the volume, it has greatly contributed to its perfection. If the great national battle of Iran was emptied from these love stories, it wouldnt have this degree of acceptability. Ferdowsi has paid attention to different human feelings like anger, happiness, and sorrow in his work. He has also paid a special attention to love as one of the oldest human feelings and his everlasting pain. The present paper aims at investigating and discussing the issue of love in the world of epic through the analysis of the most important stories and love events in Shahnameh. More clearly, the general characteristics of love in in the world of epic and its different social and cultural factors will be the focus of this study. To do so, first, the differences between and the similarities of love in the epic and historic eras of Shahnameh are analyzed with a focus on the genre of epic, time etc. which have been so effective in the formation of a special kind of love. Next, three characteristics of love in epic stories are presented and analyzed.