The Didactic Values of Shahnameh proverbs

Shahnameh is classified as epic literature in the classifications poetry; however، there are numerous didactic points which placed it among didactic literature. This partly relates to the story-telling framework that it adopts. On the other hand، proverbs and wisdom literature comprises a considerable part of our didactic literature and Shahnameh is one of the unparalleled treasuries of the Persian language in this respect. The proverbs and wisdom texts in Shahnameh can be classified into different categories: Some come from the heart of Shahnameh itself and are Ferdowsi''s own words of wisdom، some are deployed to introduce heroes and their acceptability or the clarification of their status، and finally some which have been (after Ferdowsi) added to the body of Shahnameh by some unknown persons. After a brief examination of the first and second categories، this paper seeks to look into the third one in detail since most stories of Shahnameh have didactic functions in our folk literature. Moreover، over centuries after the creation of Shahnameh، epic literature، and myth in the Persian literature، people have judged such personalities generally which is indicative of the fact that they have deeply penetrated into the minds of the people.