A new look at the preamble of the story of Rustam and Suhrāb

The story of Rustam and Suhrāb has already been edited and published numerous times both independently and together with the full text of the Shāhnāmeh. However, no clear explanation of the introductory verses of this story has ever been presented. The subject of this preamble, viz., death, has been one of the most interesting topics, thus causing the scribes, readers and even the editors of the Shāhnāmeh each group have their own expectations of this preamble. Consequently, based on such expectations, the preamble has been subject to numerous changes, often, in the number of verses. In the present study, after a detailed examination of one of these verses appearing in neither of the two esteemed editions of the Shāhnāmeh (Khāleqi-Motlaq and Moscow) and proposing the clear and true recorded form and meaning which are yet undecided, we endeavour to offer an exact depiction of what Firdawsi has said in this preamble, expounding the relations (1) between its components, (2) with the text of the story, and (3) with Firdawsi’s world-view.