Women’s Presence in Eskandar-nāma as Narrated by Ferdowsi

Ferdowsi’s Šāh-nāma, Iranians’ greatest epic in verse, is comprised of stories, myths and historical events which are all interrelated and interwoven together, so that excluding or leaving out any part of it disintegrates the whole. Šāh-nāma provides one of the sources for the story of Alexander (Eskandar) the Great who invaded Iran and brought a debacle to the Achaemenids, and so did he commit his very sin of his ruling period. He is, however, a man of different credit as presented in Šāh-nāma. He is not an evil as a whole. His treatment of women is noteworthy. This article is to investigate his character through a rather feminine point of view and compare and contrast two warrior Alexanders; one as a historical character and one as introduced in Šāh-nāma.