The Motif of The Girl in a Fur Coat in the Arne-Thompson List and its Iranian and Arabic Narratives

Girl in a Fur Coat is the name of a motif in which a girl escapes her father's harassment. She is looking for a way to escape and find the solution in a skin that covers her from head to toe. This motif, which is classified in the Arne-Thompson list under number 510B, is called "donkey skin". In the classification of Iranian tales, it is called "Cinderella" and in the classification of Arabic tales it is called "shirt like the sun, shirt like the moon and shirt like the stars". This article tries to introduce the mentioned type because it is not well-known among Iranian researchers of folk literature. In addition, by using the collection of works in which the folk tales of Iran as well as the lands of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq and Jordan are gathered, the Iranian and Arabic narratives are analyzed. To this aim, these narrations can be divided into several categories. Studies show that based on the girl's solution to escape from her father's house, the narrations of this motif can be divided into three categories: 1-510B: The girl hidden in the object; 2-510B: Girl in a fur coat / wooden mannequin; 3-510B: The girl and her brother. Also, this research, based on Propp's hypertext model, seeks to find the beliefs and customs that make up the "fur-clad girl". Myths and customs found in Zurvanism and Zoroastrianism can be considered as the origin for this type in Iranian stories, because it mentions the intercourse of Ahura Mazda with his mother, sister and daughter, and considers "xᵛaētuuadaθa" a ritual and sacred act.