پژوهشنامه ادب حماسی
سال هجدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 33، بهار و تابستان 1401)

AbstractThe purpose of this research is to study the biased ideological elements found in the death of Yazdgerd, Rostam Farokhzad, and Mahuy in Shahnameh and to compare it with the historical sources of its time, prior and after it.  In this way the role of the author and statements in the power relations are determined in such a way that not only the author himself, or the poet but also the work itself as a social act are the outcome of the power relations, social and political antagonism of that period in order to establish a discourse and the meaning it entails.  This subject leads to the polarization of the statements used by the author who does this polarization in a context of otherness, foregrounding, and marginalization.  Although one should not be concerned with the truth and falsity of the narratives, instead they should be treated as ideological texts.  By confronting these elements we perceive the different identity of narratives and ideological statements of the authors and their works in a logical and moral sense.

The hunting era current until ten thousand years ago belonged to the Paleolithic era is regarded as one of the most prominent periods of mankind in which people were busy gathering food and hunting animals and yet not familiarized with agriculture.  In this period lived courageous men who were in constant battle with animals.  Relying entirely on their physical strength they tried to earn a living under difficult circumstances.  The hunting era had the heroic characters of its own.  With the advent of newer historical periods and upon the passage of time these characters changed forms and melted within the eras, although not completely disappeared but their traces in accordance with the lifestyle, clothing, religion and behavioral traits could be observed in the mythologies and heroic epics of the recent past.  The writer of this article believes that it is probable that Rostam Dastan, the preeminent hero of the Persian epics due to his hunting temperament and his Palangina outfit, and heavy mace, his relationship and his speech with certain animals, worshipping sun, and  also with Zal’s carrying out shamanic practices which were all behaviors related to the hunting era, is a hero form that period who found his way to the mythological Persian epics after passing through numerous rise and fall in historical periods could well maintain his image in Persian mythological epics.

In Shahnameh tax is regarded as one of the most important income sources and is an essential index to provide military budgets, army and other governmental expenses.   Also it guarantees the viability and security of the economic and political system in the country.  The best motivation for tax payments in Shahnameh is its concentration on receiving fair systematic taxes from the people, therefore significant part of preventive measures taken by the kings, as well as laws and policies were all related to tax structures and their attempt either to reduce or eliminate obstacles and challenges facing tax payment such as injustice done upon receiving tax.  Nevertheless tax system framework in Shahnameh alongside loan policies which bring economic stability, financial and monetary turnover, and fair income distribution, gain utmost importance.  Apart from taking a glance at tax policies and presenting loan examples in Shahnameh this article is also concerned with the study of juridical, legal, and criminal aspects in connection with tax payments to prove the importance of Shahnameh’s report concerning economics and tax laws in the Sassanid period and the time before it.  The results obtained determine that apart from tax exemptions and reliefs assigned by Eskandar, Ardeshir, Bahram Gur, and Yazdgerd appointing judicial inspectors to inquire about the circumstances under which poverty stricken people lived and to exempt them from paying taxes as was the case under the reign of Ardeshir; giving out loans in Bahram Gur’s time were steps taken before the time of Qobad.  Fundamental tax and economic reform done by Anoshirvan who followed the example of his father was not only the attempt  to devise a tax system via calculating the area of the properties, determine regular time intervals for tax payments, provide exact indexes for tax rates, tax exemptions,  pay taxes in installments,  allow time for unpaid taxes, hire secret service agents, allow personal supervision, establish governmental offices, and formulate exact legal instructions, and also to consider stiff penalties for tax evaders,  but also they were all measures taken to realize justice in terms of tax payments since clear tax laws enforced by the government would be beneficial to citizens, the king and the country alike.

In the beliefs of predecessors suicide had a religious aspect and was committed for various reasons.  People believed that by offering their lives to the gods, they would actually serve them and their death bring welfare and prosperity to the society or that they would join their beloved and guardian in the other world and find peace in heaven for this reason wholeheartedly they embraced death.  This research is an attempt to study the methods of suicide in epic texts until the 7th century using the descriptive analytic method.  Results show that suicide is a voluntary act, an example of human sacrifice and its examples are more prominent in Shahnameh and Garshaspnameh than other epics.  In epic texts suicide is carried out in five ways namely taking poison, bloodshed (cutting off head and tearing open the side), throwing oneself from the fortress, self-immolation, and refusing to eat and drink (starvation).  Among the above methods bloodshed is more prominent for it seems that blood has an important role in fertility of nature.  Suicidal case are seen more in Shahnameh in comparison with Garshaspnameh however intentions for suicides are more diverse in the latter.  In shahnameh suicide is committed either for mourning a child and close relatives, or to defend an insult while this act in Garshaspnameh is often done for fertility reasons in nature, satisfaction of idols, prediction of future events and earning respect of the gods.

Vegetation gods and mythologies connected with them are regarded as part of the mythologies of the following nations Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Iran.  Dumuzi or Tammuz, Attis, Adonis, Dionysus, Osiris, Baal, Persephone, and Baldar are among the most significant vegetation gods in mythologies of nations.  In Persian mythology also Siavash is regarded as a vegetation god whose adventures cover a significant part of Shahnameh.  The writer of this article in his field investigation comes across a folk narrative whose main theme is the tale of vegetation god who appears as a King’s son.  This folk narrative is told by Ali Hossein Aalinezhad one of the eldest narrators in the Fars region of Kouhmareh Sorkhi, although his name is not seen in any written sources.  The studies conducted show that this narrative is a mingle of religious, epic, and mythological narratives.  Parts of this narrative in particular the opening of the tale is the repetition of the epic narrative of Siavash and Sudabeh in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.  Some sections are reminiscent of the tale or Prophet Yousuf and Zulaikha and certain other parts bring to mind other vegetation gods in the world mythologies.  It seems that this narrative had been popular among people in the region and in time upon change and transitions in religion and belief of the people had undergone transformations.  The comparative study of this narrative with other vegetation god narratives shows at least 14 common grounds exist between them.  The study of mourning rites regarding vegetation god in the region show that the commemoration ceremonies of this god was carried out by offering sacrifice every year before the rice plantation..

The discussion regarding the custom of parental interference and their role in their children’s marriage in the light of the latest statistics of the civil Registration Organization in 1398 based on the fact that more than 30% of marriage end in divorce is one of the chief discussions in sociology of family, therefore any research in this field that could in any way help the officials or researchers in this domain to find the underlying causes and factors in order to prevent divorce or reduce its rate would be enlightening.  Considering the importance of the subject the present article selected Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, the oldest Persian source as a statistical community that incorporates different models of marriage.  The role of parental interference in the marriage of the children was further investigated by using qualitative research method and data analysis to reveal the frequency in which this problem led to divorce in history.  The results obtained showed that in all 21 marriages fathers played crucial role in the marriages of their children while mothers were only responsible for three cases.  It was also determined that more than 60% of marriages were arranged and in all of them the father played the dominant role.  93% of arranged or imposed marriages belonged to daughters and more than 80% of the arranged marriages reported in Shahnameh were unsuccessful.

Structural analysis of literary works due to the study of intertextual elements and the discovery of their overall pattern leads to a better understanding of the literary works and with the help of the results obtained from such analysis one can unravel the mysteries underlying the creation of different works and discover the appropriate patterns for their analysis.  One of the methods to analyze the structure of literary works is the Greimas narrative model.  The application of the processes and narratological, semiotic, and semantic patterns that Greimas propose in order to recognize the overall structure of a narrative and also the analysis of Persian texts whether in prose or verse seems an essential task.  Casting a critical look over variety of texts in search of meaning either to prove or disprove the patterns could entail significant results.  Many tales in Shahnameh were investigated according to Grimas theory.  A number of these tales include manifestations of magic and sorcery and in this regard numerous studies had been conducted, yet till present a  research regarding the grammar of magic narrative in Shahnameh had not been conducted  The purpose of this article is to study the structure of the plot, to analyze the active patterns, to recognize the mechanisms and the elements involved for production of meaning in the magic and sorcery narrative in the tale of Rostam and Esfandyar, and to study the impact of magic on the structures of this narrative.  The conclusion drawn from the research show that where ever in Shahnameh tales inhuman, magic actors are involved they play the major role in forming the tale and moving it forward leaving the human actors behind.  In fact a particular grammar gets created for the works concerning magic.  The discovery and identification of this kind of grammar and unique characteristics of the author’s style could help researchers verify the attributions given to the author of the literary work.

Mythological narratives are the outcome of man’s experiences in confrontation with challenges and problems that influenced his life and one such problem is urban resilience.  The cities that embedded ancient civilizations owe their resilience mostly to the mythological insights rather than economic, managerial, or engineering mechanisms.  The present research is an attempt to explain via descriptive analytic method the connection between mythological narratives with the reconstruction and improvement of the cities making use of mythological theories of Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung, and Gilbert Doran.  The results obtained show that mythological narratives invoke more empathy and companionship among majority of people since their archetypal imageries are rooted in the collective unconscious.  Considering the fact that there are correlations between urban planning and narration of myths could reinforce the identity of a city and internalize the desire to improve and reconstruct it.  Three methods employed by the ancient civilizations to differentiate the sacred space in the city from the outside space and thereby augment the resilience of their cities were as follows:  a) constructing a symbolic wall b) performing ceremonial rites c) concordance of symbolic mythological sites with the city all these measures are still effective for better resilience.

Although for centuries translators and foreign scholars had conducted studies on Shahnameh, yet it was in 1313 when the congress of the millennium of Ferdowsi took place that Shahnameh became the focal point for the world researchers.  Derasat fi alShahnameh, the most comprehensive research in the Arab world regarding Shahnameh is one such attempt.  Taha Neda wrote this prolific book in two sections and fifteen chapters nearly twenty years after the congress.  Unfortunately this work is not fully recognized in Iran, therefore after reading the whole work attempt is made in this article to introduce this work briefly and to reveal its outstanding aspects and to refer to its drawbacks by using descriptive analytic method so that the readers become aware of the standpoint of this work.

Archetypal criticism is one of the interdisciplinary approaches in contemporary literary criticism.  Carl Jung sees literary heritage and common experiences in different cultures in the collective unconscious and believes the reason for the cultural similarities among nations lies in the common archetypes shared.  The purpose of this type of criticism is the analysis and evaluation of literary works and ancient narratives should the work lend itself to this genre of criticism.  The main purpose of metamorphosis is the presentation of symbols, and signs which intend to reveal the psychological states of man and seeks to explain and reveal ambiguous mysteries of the existence in mythologies via the archetypes.  The purpose of this article is to analyze and evaluate all types of metamorphosis of monsters who are dragons in origin in Garshasp’s adventures.  Among the antiheros with whom Garshasp, archetypal hero in Avesta fights only dragon like viragos metamorphosed as fairies or appalling monsters were investigated from the Jungian critical perspective employing library approach and descriptive analytic method.  The results obtained show that these demonic creatures despite their differences in appearance are in fact regarded as the metamorphosis of the dragon within the hero, or the hero’s anima.

In addition to its various missions, literature is also responsible for social prophecy.  The creators of literary works view social political context of their time and are influenced by them.  Sometimes they are for and at times they are against the events that take place around them.  They show and represent their standpoint in variety of ways using different elements in their works. Calling forth epic mythological characters in novels is one of the elements that help authors achieve their ends.  Certain novelists depending on the favorable or unfavorable position they adopt, invite such characters not only to represent infra textual discourses but also to reinforce or weaken some dominant political social context discourses.  The present article seeks to find the answer to this question that how and why the author of Sohrabkoshan calls the epic characters to his work?  The results obtained by using the content analysis method show that the author brings the epic characters in his novel in order to weaken and marginalize the rival’s discourse and hence highlight certain dominant discourse of his time.  In other words, the author who is one of the activists in the social political context and is also a proponent of the dominant discourse by calling characters such as Sohrab and Rostam to his novel and by the transformation of their acts in the first place represent some intellectual foundations of discourses of his time, namely the discourses and type of approaches regarding women and the youth, and in the second place highlight the intellectual foundation of the discourse he had in mind that is reform, is accentuated to the point that he could marginalize rival’s discourse.