Kay Khusrau in the Mirror of Eastern and Western Literature

Kay Khusrau, the Persian ideal king, has been such a significant character in Persian mythology, history, national epic, folktales, transcendental philosophy and mystical literature that he has changed into a character type. This paper tries to examine the similarities between Kay Khusrau and similar characters in the myths, history and literature of other nations. Some similar cases could be found in Rigveda, Mahabharata, and the Chinese myths. In addition, there are significant similarities between Kay Khusrau and Feraydoun, Buddha, Ebrahim Adham, Cyrus the Great, Ardeshir, Al-Hakem, Romuluy, King Arthur, as well as Hamlet. On the basis of the present study, two hypotheses are possible. 1) All these characters have a common basis, i.e., their background can be traced back to Indo- European mythology, however, they have taken different manifestations in the East and West. In other words, it is possible to find an oriental origin for the Kay Khusrau type. 2) The origin of similarities can be attributed to Jungian archetypes and the collective unconscious of human beings.