Analysis of the perceptive concept of Zal, the mythical child (forsaken) in the picture of “Conversation on Sam Nariman and the birth story of Zal” in the Tahmasebi’s Shahnameh book (using the intertextuality approach)

Stories with global impact include mutual and global structural elements called archetypes of the hero’s journey, in which concepts such as mythical (forsaken) children are described Most of them were children of the high-rank society members or kings themselves, who have had a marvelous journey since their childhood or rather their birth, enjoying the best possible days as a kid. This happened since either their parents didn’t want them and left them alone in the hope of their death or never return, or had known them as a threat to their kingdom, family or society due to their ugliness, disabilities, female gender, or even a foretelling. However, against all the odds, they not only survived, but also, though their unsuitable growing environment, raised to be brave and fearless.
Ferdowsi’s Shah Name is one of the most significant Iranian stories which due to involving such noble concepts like the same heroic (left-alone) kids became well-known all over the world and is referred to as a rich context in numerous occasions by various artists (including painters) having counter-interests in the area. The proof could easily be found in the Tahmasebi’s Shah Name is one of the most valuable illustrated manuscripts in Iran belonging to the early tenth century (A.H.) and categorized upon the Tabrizian Safavi school.However, whether these artworks were successful in representing this concept or not is significant for consideration. Thus, this article selects Zal as a case sample of children in Shahnameh and tries to compare the structural elements of this story according to global pattern such as Campbell’s pattern in the picture of “Conversation on Sam Nariman and birth story of Zal” from Tahmasebi’s Shahnameh using the intertextual approach.
The reason to the selection one of the most important achievements of Joseph Campbell in the mythology (Hero’s journey) as a meter for taking measures on the present study, is not only its world-wide reputation, but also its flexibility makes the omission, repetition, and/or replacement of the events with one another very probable in accordance to the diversities in various cultures. Hence, the hero could express different behaviors regarding his/her era, society, and culture. Therefore, The Campbell’s hero has been called as hero with a thousand faces.
Intertextuality has been chosen for its linguistical approach to texts and its study of the inter-relation of at least two texts; and we assumed a painting as an illustrated manuscript to begin with, hence, we have the verbal text of Shah Name as well as the illustrated manuscripts as a painting. According this approach, no text is independent of another and every manuscript is intertextual and has an interconnection with the preceding texts which will be resurfaced in proceeding ones. Therefore the Iranian paintings are nothing but an intertextual relation of a picture with the script. Our second assumption is the independency of paintings in Tahmasebi’s Shah Name and their undeniable relation with world of Ferdowsi’s Shah Name, cultural background of Safawi’s era, and the creativity of the painter in using symbolic items.