A Study of Shahnameh's Effect on Samnameh

Shahnameh, the unique work of Ferdowsi, has greatly drawn attention of Persian poets. They have benefited from it a lot. Among them, epic poets have particularly looked at this work as a masterpiece of epic literature. Like a model, they have substantially profited from it or tried to compete with its author.The composer of Samnameh is one of those epic poets who not only read Shahnameh fully but also used it in the composition of his work.In this study, the author is trying to show how the composer of Samnameh used Shahnameh as a model for selecting stories, types of events, styles of narrative, processing of character, themes, and even rhymes of words. But due to the lack of required talent for depicting battles and the inability of describing his imagination, the composer is not capable of creating an epic work like Shahnameh. It appears that the composer is not capable of creating a work like Shahnameh because he does not have mastery and skill in using speech elegances and also in approaching tastes of ordinary people.