On a Recently Found Qahraman-Namah (The Story of the Killer Hero) and its Characters

Qahramān-nāmah (or killer hero, or The Tales of Heroes) is a work by AbūṬāhir Ṭarṭūsī, a prolific author in the sixth century. This story is one of the popular folklore, reflecting the mythological reign of Houshang Shah and the courage of his warriors. The main characters in this story are Qahraman, Houshang Shah, Gardankeshan, Sarv Kharaman, and Bahram Jebeli. There are several versions of the Qahramān-nāmah in Persian, Turkish, Uzbek, and Kurdish, but so far, except a few low quality and inappropriate stone prints, no critical correction has been made of this work. This article attempts analyze the existing version of the Qahramān-nāmah, some of the stylistic features of the National Library version (the basic version), and the main character of the story, the Qahraman.