On the Technical Structural of Shanameh

Despite their various origins, the materials of Shahnameh have been shaped into an organic whole under Ferdowsi's superb art and craftsmanship. But, in the course of time, some copyists have added to it new materials and stories, and others have supplemented or replaced the original narratives. Also, some scholars have analyzed and interpreted some parts of the work in isolation without paying attention to the totality of the work and its unity of purpose and structure. The present article is intended to illustrate the formal and structural qualities of the book and the relation of its parts, thereby revealing the roots of such fallacies and problems, so that the work's genuine meaning and value may be recovered via a systematic method.