The Journal of Epic Literature
Year:2017 | Volume:12 | Issue:2 (22)|Papers Count:10

Romances are regarded as the integral part of Iranian national epics. Considering the fact that epics produced after Shahnameh were all influenced by it, many lyrical characteristics of Shahnameh are found in them. The attempt is made in this article to study these characteristics in the light of intertextuality approach. Intertextual relationships are divided into three categories in terms of diction, theme, and content. The epics were examined from the perspective of content intertextuality and the descriptive analytic library method was employed in this research. The results of the study indicate that subjects such as falling in love via hearing, the role of mediators in love, women as pioneers in declaring love, role of astronomers and priests or Mobadan, and etc are used intertextually in most romances.

Hatefi Jami, a nephew of Abdor-Rahman Jami is one of the qualified poets in the Timurid era master in all genres of poetry particularly in narrative Masnavi. In imitation of Nezami, he has produced many such Masnavis such as Laily and Majnun, Shirin and Khosrow, Haft Manzar, and Tamor Nameh. Towards the end of his life he composed an epic in the name of Shahnameh on victories of Shah Esmaeil Safavi which remained unfinished. Apart from the aforementioned Masnavis Hatefi composed a book of poetry which exists today. Tamor Nameh, his best major work is an historical epic giving the account of Timour's life, combats, braveries, conquests, and the destruction and bloodshed he brought about. Modelled after Sharaf- al Din Ali Yasdi's Zafar Nameh, Hatefi composed Tamor Nameh and according to his own admission and as far as the comparison of the texts are concerned, he had remained quite true to Zafar Nameh and except for certain poetic devices indespensible to verse, he had not added anything to the text but at times eliminated few minor parts. Hatefi in composition of this epic work emulated Ferdowsi's Shahnameh on one hand and Nezami's Eskandar Nameh on the other hand. Eloquent techniques utilized in Tamor Nameh were mostly inspired by Shahnameh whereas the general structure of the work was inspired by Nezami. Besides its literary merit, Tamor Nameh is worthy of attention in terms of history since it is a reliable source for Timour's biography and conquests.

According to the conspiracy theory or paranoia which is a modern political theory, a paranoid ruler assumes that heaven and earth are conspiring against him and therefore the afflicted believes that the country is perpetually subjected to conspiracy and threat from others. Intentionally at times the paranoid deluded ruler resorts to conspiracy as a pretext to divert the attention of his people from the illegitimacy of his sovereignty and the internal problems of the country towards conspiracies and crisis designed by the foreigners. Analysis of the above tale shows that apparently the paranoid Goshtasp was extremely frightened by the pyramid of power (Lohrasp, Esfandiar, Rostam) and for this reason was after scheming a plot to control or eliminate the three rivals. Therefore perhaps Gorzam's slanders, Esfandiar's binding, two year stay of Goshtasp in Zabolestan, and sending Esfandiar to combat with Rostam were all plans premeditated by Goshtasp himself to create crisis in order to conceal his illegitimate rule and usurp his father's throne and crown and also to eliminate his rivals. Eventually Goshtasp succeeds by conspiracy to eliminate Lohrasp and Esfandiar and also by disgracing people of Zabol for killing a Persian prince he could sit on the throne for years without adversary.

The enigma of sources and the methodology Ferdowsi employed to compose Shahnameh is one of the major challenges in Shahnameh scholarship. Based on the similarity of certain titles in the introduction remained by the Abu Mansouri Shahnameh, a group assumed that this book was the sole source used by Ferdowsi. However some believed that Ferdowsi along side it had utilized other sources. The main reason for this group of researchers is that since the only common main source used by Ferdowsi and Tha'alibi is Abu Mansouri's shahnameh and that some parts of Shahnameh such as Bizhan and Manizheh, and The seven trials of Rostam which were not appeared in Tha'alibi's work, Ghorarosyr it can be concluded that those parts were certainly borrowed from another source. Nevertheless the fact that Tha'alibi's use of the Shahnameh of Abu Mansouri is provable according to his own claim, due to the destruction of the Shahnameh of Abu Mansouri, it is difficult to determine which stories in particular were borrowed from this Shahnameh by Tha'alibi. Analysis of four narratives of the tale of Ardeshir Babakan from four texts and their comparison with the version of the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi indicates that Ferdowsi while drawing upon a written source, had used many other sources intermittently to compile the tale of Ardeshir Babakan.

Shahnameh the grand work of Abolghasem Ferdowsi has always been regarded as a document of identity and ethnicity of Iraninan People. Ever since the compostion of Shahnameh most poets and writers of Persian literature while acknowledging its uniqueness as the most important source of Persian epic and mythological stories, looked into shahnameh for epic themes and allusive overtones and in this respect have drawn amply from this great reference. Since Shahnameh is a national epic it is customary to expect that it influences the literature after it mostly in the same domain of epic, yet the interesting point is that the reflection and presence of this work in sonnet form is quite vast and astonishing. This research studies the sonnets of Hossein Monzavi, one of the most prominent contemporary sonnet composers only to find that because of deep connection with Persian culture and civilization, and also the power of its composer to create such a literary masterpiece Shahnameh even in its lyricism could exert a lasting impact on all fields of Persian poetry.

Shahnameh embraces unique ethical concepts and Ferdowsi has artistically put into verse coming of different champions on the scence. Among the warriors, Siavash is worthy of attention since he is the only prince who is a symbol of purity. He has all the characteristics of an ideal leader be it in thought or speech. Siavash is a prince who could serve as a mirror reflecting the ultimate dream of nations world wide. The purpose of this article is to analyze the character of siavash according to Max Webber's characteristics of charismatic leader.

Pashutan is the most distinguised son of Goshtasp in the mazdayasna tradition and literature. As far as his fate is concerned we are faced with three contradictory narratives. First according to the most renowned one based on the documents and evidence available from reports and narratives of the ancient Pahlavi texts, Pashutan is one of the immortals who on the Day of Judgement before the Hooshidar Millenium resurrects against evildoers and demons and also in that millenium he reigns. Second is a narrative from the Zaratosht Nameh which speaks of Pashutan's immortality by drinking blessed milk from the hand of Zoroaster, and the third narrative is a unique version of Bahman Nameh informing us of Pashutan's death in the hand of Banu Goshasp. This latter narrative is incidently more appropriate to the lexical meaning of his name. In other sources particularly in Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, Tha'alibi's Shahnameh, and other mythological, epic, historical, and Naghali or oral popular narratives available, there has not been a slightest reference to Pashutan's death or immortality. Having considered all three reports, the writer of this article has contemplated on the Zaratasht Nameh version and using the counterpart evidence in Persian literature and other world nations has analyzed the cause of immortality.

Ever since its creation, Shahnameh of Ferdowsi has been recognized as the most authentic document of identity and ethnic characteristics of Persians to uplift their spirits, and has exerted deep longlasting effect on our people in all walks of life producing many stories and beliefs. Ferdowsi's devotees from different ethnic groups retold orally variety of tales in different dialects throughout the centuries and rewarded him by creating their own legends around him to pay respect to this sublime work. The tale of Zahhak, the serpent king is one of the stories which has many different versions among the general public. The writers of this article attempt to examine and analyze a narrative of this story in Hashtrood county.