Evolution of Allegory Expression in Hakim Ferdowsi’s Rostam and Esfandiar

The longitudinal and iterative study on Rostam and Sohrab's story, and importance of this story from venerable Ferdowsi Hakim’s Shahnameh which is taught to associate and bachelor’s degree students in the first semesters of language and literature program have encouraged us to conduct this research. The research could investigate, explore, identify, and interpret various allegories embedded in this story. We strongly hope this research is useful and helpful for students and those interested in epic literature, along with the efforts and works of other researchers who have worked on this valuable book. After a longitudinal study from technical and verbal perspectives, the research has found that the story of Rostam and Sohrab, which consists of long dialogues between heroes, is such a novel painting presenting the meaning, expression, rhetoric, and aesthetic devices, especially, in terms of allegory in various forms in the platform of metaphorical applications of animism and foregone, and also, in terms of metaphor, simile, irony, permissibility, allusion, sensibility, vulgarity, epanodos (Laf-o-Nashr), and proverb. Indeed, using all novel expression and rhetoric devices throughout the Shahnameh's literary work is evident in this specific story. What is more appear in this story is various exaggerations and propagandas, which were used in other stories of the Shahnameh. The presence of these expressions and rhetoric devices is one of the main features of the epic stories of Shahnameh. Besides, the descriptive and compound analogies derived from sensory observations were extensively used, which is not common in other stories of the Shahnameh. This research aimed to understand the allegories used in the story of Rostam and Esfandiar, also using the novel expression expressive devices to understand the content of this Epic-letter (Razm-nameh) of Shahnameh. This research has been conducted employing library and descriptive-analytical methods on the verses of Ferdowsi Hakim’s Shahnameh in the story of Rostam and Esfandiar. The variety of these plentiful applications is a sign of its nurtured content. Deeping to this content is achieved through iterated revisions that Ferdowsi has incorporated for more than thirty years, from 369 to 402 Hijri.