پژوهشنامه ادب حماسی
سال هجدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 34، پاییز و زمستان 1401)

The predominant theme of Persian epics after Shahnameh is the description of the battles between Iran and Mazandaran.  Apparantly in this regard Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is an exception since it describes the most battles of the Iraninans with the Turanians.  There are numerous comments about the reason behind why the central battle in Shahnameh belongs to Iran and Turan, yet the main discussion in this research is concerned with the epics other than Shahnameh.  Eventhough epic geography is totally distinct from the real geography and the fictional geograhy is a psychological symbolic geography which is except for the names has no connection with the real geography, however the study of the fictional geography tells us that Mazandaran in Shahnameh must be located roughly in the west.  Relying on the evidence collected from different texts this research shows that in most Persian epic texts with the exception of Shahnameh, the main battle of Persians is with the people of Mazandaran and Turanians have no significant role.  Mazandaran based on the above evidence is roughly located in the west which is a symbol of darkness according to the Persian epic literature and is set against brightness (Iran), therefore Mazandaran cannot be located in the territory of India (east)..

The old section of Borzonameh is one of the prominent works in the Persian epic literature and its two Gurani and Persian narratives are available.  From the latter four main manuscripts close to 4200 verses exist such as the Cambridge manuscript 829 lunar, Dehli manuscript, 831 lunar Bysonghori 833 lunar, and Leningrad 849 lunar .  From the former there is an manuscript dated 1345 lunar in 2357 verses.  The striking resemblances of these two narratives is the motive for the writer of this article to compare them and study three hypothesis regarding the origin of their formation.  First the existence of one common prose source for both narratives which due to the 500 years distance in writing the possibility of their comparison do not seem logical and scientific.  Second, the translation of the text from Persian to Gurani is not possibe due to the elemination of nearly 2000 verses from the Shahnameh, and third the translation of the text from Gurani to Farsi seems more logical and is more feasible since in view of finding exact equivalence of dictions, translation of Gurani phrases and hemistichs into Persian as well as adding hemistichs or verses in addition to what exist in the main text of the story from Shahnameh looks more reasonable.

In the last decades we are faced with the paradoxical readings of Shahnameh in particular concernig two aspects of woman and peace.  Regardless of the spirit of the time of composition of the work, and the exigency of the literary genre, one takes Shahnameh to the extreme of the feministic approach while the other regards it as a totally anti feministic work.  Merely based on the narrator’s contemplations one regards Shahnameh as a work in protest of war whereas another relying on the fabricated evidence regards it not only in praise of warship but also regards it in favor of massacre.  The research introduces this type of criticism by giving its definition, revealing its methods, approaches and its special style, and  also provides analysis from different perspectives referring to the reason behind its appearance.  The conclusion is that although at first glance bipolar readings seem unrelated and contradictory, yet in fact they emerge from one unique circumstance, have considerable resemblances with one another, one is the consequence of the other.  By nature they are not able to converse with one another nor with the text under criticism and merely are bound within a vicious circle.  This research shows that in fact bipolar readings regarding Shahnameh run a proxy war and instead of revealing a truth from the text, implicitly represent a modern experience and a special circumstance from the contemporary Iran.  Belief in truth and functionality of tradition and its denial, wishing for Iran’s unity and its reverse, belief in the historical truth of Iran’s Unity and its opposite are some examples of the bipolar readings which has its roots in the emotional and mental behavior of a bipolar society whose history on one hand and its experience in facing the new era on the other hand has turned it into a pessopotimist or rather its pessooptimism prepared  the ground for its confrontation with the world and the text.  Finally the research explains why Shahnameh lends itself to this type of criticism and points to the meaning inherent in Shahnameh they all acknowledge, and hereby gives a new understanding of the cultural nature and the unique standpoint of Shahnameh in the Persian culture.

Yatim Nameh is a prose epic which for a long time was mistakenly taken under the incorrect title of the story of Hossein Kurd Shabestari and was very popular among the people at the time, yet despite its enormous success and fame in Iran not only the original text and the amazing body of this narrative has remained unknown and not published but also in few studies conducted in this connection there is no discussion regarding  the true identity of its storyteller.   Moreover, as far as the time of its composition is concerned Yatim Nameh is attributed to the Safavid or the Qajar period, two perspectives totally unexplained and generally presented which were not satistactory and systematic.  Due to the misconceptions that exist around this subject the present article  in two sections employing the inductive method and relying on the overall references and the existing facts in manuscripts of Yatim Nameh, first  explores the assumed identity of the narrator of this epic, and second state reasons for the final attribution of the time of writing Yatim Nameh to the Safavid era.

Ashi is one of the most significant mythological goddesses in Iran.  In texts such as Avesta, Yasht, and Yasnas she is associated with different attributes namely, granting fortunes to Iranians ( association with wealth and blessing), helping friends, bringing horse and blessings from foreign lands to Iranians, connection with women and their influence over them.  Since Shahnameh has a mythological substructure one can witness the reflection of functions and the characteristics of the mythological figures in certain characters of Shahnameh tales.  A fine example is the impact of Ashi’s functions on the  performance of influential and outstanding women in Shahnameh.  Using the descriptive analytic method this study is an attempt to compare the deeds of women such as Faranak, Farangis, Jarireh, Homay Chehrazad, Rumi Kanizak, and Pourandokht with the outstanding characteristic features of the goddess Ashi.  The results obtained show that their deeds are the repetition of Ashi’s actions and missions.  In fact these women are the repetition of the mythological image of Ashi in the Shahnameh text.  Reflection upon the characteristics of the above mentioned women reveal that among the different deeds of Ashi, confering fortune and blessing are the main attributes reaching these women, and more often these rewards are in conncection with kingdom or coming into power of a king or a warrior.

Derafsh is one of the important millitary devices with a symbolic function which  has played important motivating and inspiring role in battles eversince antiquity till the present time.  Derafshes in distinct colours each is expressive of a characteristic  is regarded as a representative of the attributes of a race and features of a land. Sometimes derafshes hold no significance and the holder of the derafsh is the one who gives identity to it  and cause a powerful action.  In any case whether in itself or via the human interference and force or extraordingary force derafsh had had a central importance among the nations in the past.  Factors such as the colour of the derafsh, the image carried on them, its material, and also  viewing it as a means of fortune telling  all play a part in extraordinary impression they incite in particular with the case of the Kavian derafsh.  The main trancendental characteristic of this Kaviani derafsh is the interference of elements from the occultism and numerical motifs and spells which are referred to in certain ancient sources such as Alvah- al Zahab Bouni, Ibn Khaldun’s introduction, and Kashefi’s Herzol Aman and in this way the supernatural force is entertwined with ordinary banner which caused the victory over demonic Zahhak.

The world of Macbeth is a wasteland where temptation awaits those who are inclined towards it.  This drama is a tragedy of fear and trembling, butchery, violence, crime and above all annihilation.  Everything happens in a fast pace, yet swftness exists alongside slowness in order to emphasize the paradoxical structure of the play.  The main characters undergo changes in the course of the play and in different stages present variety of linguistic features.  Their world are pictured in terms of moral, political and religious ideas.  Ambition, bravery, fear, evil, injustice, isolation, and dispair are clearly illustrated.   The purpose of this article is to discuss and compare the main motifs such as Farr, two bodies of kings, the concept of time, order versus inorder, downfall of the heroic era, invincibility, absurdity, and supernatural forces  in Rostam and Esfandyar, the greatest epic tale in Shahnameh and in Macbeth.

Myths are the narrators of the man’s first stories and in the later stage where man moves from the primordial thoughts towards a newer life is no longer faced with the primal questions instead answers his new needs with myth.  In epic we encounter more logical narratives of the stories.  Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh as a written heritage of Persian myths in a newer epic genre is a retelling of the narratives which in the other epic and mythological books were orally communicated.  After logical expression of the history of heroes such as Kyomarth, Hoshang, Tahmores, and Jamshid, there is a gap in the reign of Ahurian and Zahhak comes into power, and later with the coming of Feraydun, Zahhak is overthroned.  In the thousand years of Zahhak’s demonic soveriengty, the fate of Jamshid’s  and  Feraydun’s dynasty and their relationship is not clear.  On the basis of other epic and historical sources in particular Kushnameh,  the purpose of this article is to retell this narrative.  The outcome of this research is that after wondering in India and Zabolestan, Jamshid marries Khaqan’s daughter and the King of Zabol’s daughter.  From one branch, Rostam’s clan is born and from the other Feraydun’s clan.  The method of the research is descriptive analytic one.

Zoroaster the ancient prophet of the ancient Iran is one of the greatest and the most renowned heroes in history.    In some parts of Avesta and in Middle Persian religious texts there are references to Zoroaster and his relationship with Goshtasp.  Based on these genre of texts, after experiencing many adventures Zoroaster visits Goshtasp and invites him to his religion.  The Persian king after seeing Zoroasters’ miracles and with the mediation of Zoroasterian angels adopted the new religion.  The main consequence of this event is his battle with Arjasb.  The aforementioned narratives with few alterations are included in Shahnameh and certain historical texts.  It is worthy of attention that the Islamic historians have had two entirely different contradictory views toward Zoroaster.  Some regard him as a divine prophet or a sage and mentioned his certain miracles and spoke about the value of his book while others regard him not only as the Iranian prophet but also counted him as a person from Bani Israeil  who betrayed one of the prophets of the tribe,  created his own fake religion and upon deceiving Goshtasp caused enormous bloodshed.   This article first deals with the study of narratives concerning the adventures of Zoroaster with Goshtasp in the above sources and then it refers to the most important reasons for the negative approach the historians took towards the Iranian poet.

The defeat of Narsi in the war with Rome and the early death of his successor, Hormoz the second was the reason behind the Arabs plundering invasion of western and southern part of Iran at a time when Shapour the second was only a child.  The Invaders kidnapped a high stature Sassanid princess from a palace in  the suburb of Ctesiphon.  On one hand Yemen in parallel with Hamavaran is referred to in Shahnameh and in the Sassanid part of Shahnameh it is clearly named Hira and this matter in the reign of Yazdgerd the first is completely evident.   On the other hand in the reign of Shapur the second Yemen is  also referred to as Hira in  Shahnameh while the early historians of the Islamic era such as Tabari and Bala’mi overlooked the circumstances in Hira before and in the midst of  the revenge operations of Shapur.  In fact according to Shahnameh’s account this operation was directed first towards Hira and then against the Arabs tribes who were behind the attacks.  The examination of Namara epitaph and the study of the Roman political events concurrent with shapur’s revenge attack confirms the truthfulness of the Shahnameh’s account.

Hamleh-ie Heidari of Bāzel Mashhadi is a work that has the greatest quantity and variety of manuscripts in Persian epic literature after Ferdowsi's Shāh-nāma. In this study, by codicological analysis of 100 manuscripts of the Hamleh, several new supplements were discovered and their its interactions with Hamleh was clarified, and then the text corpus was classified into five categories based on the approach of literary genres. Based on the approach of the textual criticism, the manuscripts of the Hamleh of Bazal, due to the Indian style of the poet and the ritual use of the work in Hamleh reading, unlike other literary works, over time, instead of adding and increasing verses, have suffered to reduce and remove verses. Of course, at the end of the manuscript, the situation is reversed because the Hamleh 's poems have been supplemented. Based on the classification of literary genres, the type of Hamleh was defined as follows: “Hamleh” composing, from the branches of the genre of secondary religious epic, and the subgenre of literary-artistic epic, was explained by the function of language epic. Also, the “Hamleh”s were in terms of content among the historical epic poems with two types of pure historical epic or historical-folk epic, and in terms of relation to the basic Hamleh (Hamleh-ie Heidari of Bāzel), they contained three subspecies: book completion, composition of similar works and book translation.

The Great Ilkhanid Shahnameh is one of the masterpieces of the Mongol era in Tabriz school.  This illustrated manuscript well expresses the visual narration of the Ilkhanid kings and artistic relations of that time.  This study examines these illustrations from the perspective of visual features to show how Iraninan and Far Eastern art were intertwined in this work.  This connection is quite evident in the display of chinese mongolian portraits and the manner of illustrating nature (tree, mountain, cloud).  Moreover other illustrated features in this version such as the symbolic Farr of kings, picturing the battle scenes and mourning rituals are also examined.  In some cases the paintings are compared with their counterparts in Jamee al Tavarikh both belong to the same era using the same style.  The results show that the artistic style of many cultures are intermingled in the illustrations of the Great Ilkhanid Shahnameh.  On one hand  the influence of the Chinese painting in depicting portraits and scenary is evident and on the other hand Mongolian culture dominates the paintings.  Moreover the theme of the illustrations is rooted in the paintings of the ancient Iran.  One can even find traces of influence of  the fartetched art such as Byzantine art in this work.  Therefore this version of Shahnameh can be regarded as an intercultural Shahnameh which blends many cultural traditions such as Mongolian, Chinese, old Persian, and Byzantine into one unified copy.

Following the style of Shahnameh, the War of Khorasan poem is an historical epic belonging to the second half of the thirteenth century composed by an unknown poet whose pseudonym is Mohtaj. Using the Moteghareb mode, he versified the events related to Salar’s uprising which began in Khorasan in the reign of Naseredin Shah Qajar and  involved the central estate.   This article first introduces and studies this work, then by analyzing its textual and meta textual features show that in order to explain the concepts which form the Persian identity in the Qajar period and the eras leading to the contemporary era alongside the exaggerated ancient outlook which is solely due to the influence of the dominant discouse over the Qajar period is more familiar, one can pay attention to the new Persian identity through the examination of the epic poems belonging to the recent periods, a subject often neglected in contemporary cultural studies.