The Journal of Epic Literature
Year:2018 | Volume:13 | Issue:2 (24) |Papers Count:8

The story of Rostam and Sohrab is one of the most famous epic tales in the world. Despite its beauty and literary and artistic value, it is not exempt from some flaws in narrating the story. These flaws whether originated from Ferdowsi’ s sources, Ferdowsi himself and Shahnameh editors are not very significant. This article deals mainly with the manner in which Sohrab addresses his mother Tahmineh about his origin. Spontaneously and furiously Sohrab questions his mother about his father’ s name and ruthlessly threatens to kill her if she fails to provide an answer. In different editions of Shahnameh, there is not a justified and acceptable answer to this question, however in minstrels’ narration and also in Kurdish Shahnameh the main reason for raising the question with such rage is well accounted for. The extraordinary might of Sohrab among the boys of his age and the fact that Sohrab is the fruit of the union between Rostam and Tahmineh outside the customary wedlock prompts his comrades to question his lineage and regard him as illegitimate child. Sohrab’ s fury of such insult explains why he questions his mother about the secret of his birth with such rage and menace.

The relationship between guardianship and adoption is a legal one. It has certain characteristics and necessitates special circumstances which according to its historical background and particular outlook in ancient Persia, various examples of it are seen in Shahnameh. The purpose of this study is to examine different aspects of the rights of these adopted children in Shahnameh and to analyze the cases according to the articles of the convention of children’ s rights. This document, Shahnameh is the first international agreement which supports the children’ s rights and respects the same rights and privileges of a natural child for the adopted ones to the best interests of child. Different studies demonstrate that the guardianship and adoptions in Shahnameh had roots in social, political, and cultural factors and the economic coercion by no means had any role in the affair, the main concern being the cultivation and raising of children irrespective of winning the benefits gained in the process. The overall attention of the guardians towards the rights of these children are indeed praiseworthy. The emotional aspect in particular is an integral part of the guardian’ s responsibility unlike the weak performances seen from some families in this regard.

Ever since the last century regarding epic and its composition many valuable works have been published, yet on works such as Garshasbnameh, Faramarznameh, Shahriyarnameh, Azarbarzinnameh, and Bahmannameh one hardly comes across critical commentaries written based on the special social and political circumstances of Iran in the first Islamic centuries. In the above magnificent epics, the geography of events lead to India and all heroes are intertwined with Rostam, the national hero. The reason for these facts according to the study of these works is the historic migration of Zoroastrians to India which to a large extent influenced Persian literature and brought about meaningful changes in epic literature in particular. Zoroastrians’ activities in early post conquest centuries of Islam in Sistan province and their later migration to India are well connected with India being so bold in these epics and the central role of Rostam and his close connection with the champions in epic works is the outcome of this migration.

Rostam is the preeminent national hero in Persian epics. There is no mention of Rostam’ s name in Avesta and Dinkard, yet in few Pahlavi texts there are some brief references to his name all the more reason for later addition of it. Rostam’ s tales are quite well known and popular in Parthian era and towards the end of Sassanid era in particular and had therefore an important role in transmitting and spreading the tales to the Islamic era in two branches, eastern one with Persian language as the focal point and western one with Gorani language as the main concern. The study of the role and standpoint of Rostam in western Iran is the subject matter of this article. In fourth and fifth lunar century, Piruzan Shahnameh in western branch include the mythological history of Iran from the reign of Kayumars till the reign of Bahman with numerous tales of Rostam. Shahnameh or Gordnameh composed by Larijani in Hamedan was produced following the example of Piruzan Shahnameh. In Gorani epics there is a reference to a Shahnameh in prose which seems to be that of Piruzan. Probably the fountain head of Gorani epics goes back to this Shahnameh and narratives of Gordnameh Larijani and their sources. Gorani epics encompass the full cycle of Rostam’ s life from birth to his death. Apart from Rostam’ s tales in Shahnameh Ferdowsi, there are extra narratives and epics added after the composition of Shahnameh, also narratives recited by the minstrels or naqqals such as Rostam and Zonoon, Rostam and Zardhang of which only their Gorani versions are available.

Despite the numerous copies of Shahnameh and its vast sources it had been coherently and systematically composed in a wholesome manner which rendered this masterpiece universal. The reflection of this coherence and consistency is evident in fifty reigns throughout the work. In terms of structure the durations of reigns are treated equally, hence this article deals with the analytic and comparative study of the reigns. The outcome of the study shows that the structure of commencement of sovereignty in Shahnameh follows eight common patterns and Ferdowsi’ s attempt throughout the work had been to adhere to those patterns in order to convey his main objective. The patterns are seen as: 1-The accession of the monarchs to the throne 2-setting out feasts 3-giving speeches 4-declaration of monarch’ s sovereignty 5-exalting God, the lord of wisdom before everything else 6-having divine Farr (God-given glory) 7-nobles praising the kin g 8-duration of reign.

Structuralism is one of the methods of analyzing the text in the twentieth century which casts a general look over the work and examines the existing rules and patterns in text. Grintser is a Russian theorist who had studied the structure of the epic tales originated from Asian civilizations. Employing documentary research method, the attempt is made in this article to analyze Bahmannameh based on the theory of Grintser and Greimas, and also to analyze the impact of evil and good thoughts on the structure of heroic tales in this work to answer the questions whether these tales have the structure of calenderic myths and whether the hero of these epics like the Goddess of fertility in mythological tales dies periodically only to return to life later. According to the research done for this article, it seems that the hero in heroic tales of Bahmannameh has calenderic mythical structure according to the theory of Grinster and the narrative texture of this epic verse is under the influence of the everlasting battle between Good and evil. This in turn had led to the emergence of apparent oppositions in characters and actions of the tale.

Manuscripts receive special attention in written Persian heritage collection. A large section of evolutionary thoughts from our ancestors had reached us through these manuscripts copies. The importance of their identification, revival, and publication as major historical, literary, and cultural sources are quite evident. The purpose of this article is to introduce a newly found copy whose main title is unknown yet it is recognized as an historical epic related to Shah Abbas I chronicle or the conquests of Shah Ismaeil in verse. This work deals with the political history of events occurred in Iran particularly in Mazandaran, and is also concerned with the reign of Marashian and other local sovereigns of the northern province of Iran in Safavid era. The anonymous poet of this historical epic had recorded all the major events of Persian history till his own time in a new verse form and this is highly important since the innovations employed in this work had no prior history as far as the historiography of Mazandaran is concerned. The present article identifies and analyzes the manuscript copy with emphasis on local history of Dar al-Marz (Northern provinces of Iran).

Akhavan Saless is a poet who has rightfully earned the title of the composer of new epic alongside poets such as Siavash Kasraei and Shamlou. His epic language is completely his own creation which is an amalgam of new and old epic and shows his mastery over old and new texts both in prose and verse. This article studies his works in six sections namely lexis and taxis, structure, atmosphere, figures of speech, mood, tone, and myth. Also it examines the following aspects such as preferences for certain diction and terms, descriptive and possessive compounds, beginning and end, old grammatical structure, love and hyperbole, contradiction, meter and rhyme, the concordance of word and its meaning, praising wisdom, classification, the battle between Ahriman and Ahuramazda, narration, heroism, and victorious martyrdom. The results drawn from this study shows that Akhavan is not only the composer of epic, but also he is a poet who composes new epic with its particular characteristics. Some of his works such as Adamak, the eighth trial, then on after the thunder, the story of Sangestan city, and epitaph and my garden are testimony to his mastery in epic composition.