The Virtue of Patriotism in Shahnameh and Aristotle's Theory of Virtue

Epic literature, plays an important role in moral education of society. Shahnameh as a national epic has a great role in cultivating moral virtues among Iranians. One of the virtues, is patriotism. According to this research, Manifestations of the virtue of patriotism in Shahnameh is divided into three aspects as follows: The preference of the homeland on personal relationships, Poetic descriptions of Iran to promote patriotism and Sacrifice for the homeland. To explain them,The Aristotle's theory of moral virtue: The triple (knowledge, emotion and will) was used as the philosophic and theoretical framework. For each of the above, enough evidence from the Shahnameh were mentioned. The result is that the concept of patriotism is presented in all three aspects. With awareness, motivation, and practical displays of patriotism, Ferdowsi has provided promotion and fostering the virtue of patriotism as a moral act and his work in this regard has an educational and philosophic basis. The research method in this study is qualitative content analysis.