Manifestations of the Moral Degeneration of the Kings in Ferdowsi's Shāhnāmeh

One of the most pivotal foundations of Ferdowsi's thought along with the epic is didacticism. Because of this, Shāhnāmeh can be considered as a didactic book containing the ethics of the king's conduct. The vice and virtue in the poetry of this poet have a special manifestation. It would definitely be said that one of the main purposes of Shāhnāmeh is expressing merits and demerits, truth and falsehood, obscenity and abomination. One of the goals of Ferdowsi's epic can be boldly considered to be the expression of truth and falsehood, good and evil. Examining the various dimensions of the Shāhnāmeh, including the atmosphere of protest, criticism and advice against the behavior of the kings, leads to a better understanding of the content of this work. This study tries to study the manifestations of moral vices and common anomalies in the behavior of the kings through a descriptive-analytical research and by using library study. The results of this study show that in different periods, kings have fallen into the moral degeneration and these moral vices are in various forms such as pride, inhumanity, greed, anger, religious impurity, distrustful, authoritarianism, lying, murder, threats and intimidation, destruction of dominion, and dozens of other ugly traits are reflected in their behavior. These improbities have serious consequences such as dissatisfaction, poverty and misery, loss of blessings, notoriety, destruction, public revolt for society, and ultimately the fall of the government. These behaviors, which are extracted from the text of Shāhnāmeh stories, have created a protest and critical atmosphere in Shāhnāmeh. In addition, advice and moral lessons at the end of the stories generated a didactic infrastructure.