The Journal of Epic Literature
Year:2021 | Volume:17 | Issue:1 (31)|Papers Count:11

History of mentality is a novel method in Historiography which attempts to recognize the public mentality and discover the spirit of time to strive at what is known as “ total history” . Linguistic, literary, and artistic sources are filled with information among which one can identify nations’ attitudes. Hence, literary masterpieces with their widespread influence over nations’ mentality gain particular interest here. The singular role of Shahnameh in the history of Persian mentality and formation of persistent national identity amid the Persian literary works and the related arts is worthy of attention. Inspection of historical and cultural sources is a subject mostly overlooked in the common literary and historical researches, therefore, this article pays attention to this aspect, and by using descriptive analytic method aims to explain and analyze the instances of impact of Shahnameh over Persian mentality. The outcome of research indicates that the theory of history of mentality can pave the way for recognition and presentation of Persian thought patterns.

Robert Southey 19th century English poet, historian, and orientalist had been under the influence of Persian and Islamic Literature in his works. This influence is more evident in his epic poem Thalaba the Destroyer which is regarded as an amalgam of Islamic and Zoroastrian instructions. Following the translation of this English epic, and using content analysis and comparison method it became clear that this work had many similarities with the Shahnameh, hence in terms of structure and narrative, plot and the main theme, the story was analyzed. The first part of the article deals with issues such as respecting the binary system derived from Zurvanism and Zoroastrianism. Twin brother doctrine is demonstrated as Ahuraei or divine like Simorgh and evil or Ahrimani like Zahhak, attention paid to issues such as time and space, battle, spell, magic, power devices, and aversion towards women. Similarities were then found with the Shahnameh counterparts. The conclusion drawn from the second part of the article indicates that the main theme and plot of the Thalaba tale was taken from the tale of Feraydun, his upbringings, and his revolt against Zahhak in Shahnameh Ferdowsi.

The present article looks closely into the tale of Zal and Roudabeh from the perspective of psychological approach. Employing descriptive analytic method with particular emphasis on the concept of love according to William Glasser, the purpose of this article is to explore one of the factors that connect love and wisdom in the tale. Glasser equates love to commitment that in turn like many other man’ s functions is a behavior shown under the influence of wisdom. To achieve this end, apart from explaining Zal’ s most vital need, the need for love and belonging the behaviors of the leading characters are revealed far from their habitual improper acts to throw light on their roles to attain utmost love. Zal, Roudabeh, maids, Sindokht, Sam, Manouchehr, and Mehrab all in turn with their committed behavior based on dialogues and wise conversations, and controlling their destructive habits, gradually managed to change the horizons of their ideal worlds and upon acceptance of unity of conflicts and oppositions could pave the way to take the journey within the inner circles of Mandala figure starting with the largest circle of love between Zal and Roudabeh and continue to take the path towards the unifying centre where lies the ultimate love. Since in language, no two words are hundred percent synonymous, commitment is an element connected on one side to wisdom and on another to love. Therefore, taking this tale as a model, one can regard commitment as one of the elements connecting love with wisdom.

Since there is no trace of Achaemenids in Shahnameh and Khodaynameh in the Sasanid era and since the beginnings of the studies on Sasanid dynasty the discussion revolved around whether Sasanian had any knowledge of Achaemenids or not. Certain figures such as Noldeke, Memzan, and Yarshater denied this awareness and certain others such as Fry, Shahbazi, and Zarrinkoub persisted upon this knowledge. Some like Daryaei, taking a more moderate approach, believe that Sasanian had consciously ignored Achaemanids memorial so that they could trace their genealogy to Kianis who were an ancient dynasty in the east Iran. Certain evidence and documents show that the earliest Sasanians were definitely aware of the existence of Achaemenids and related themselves to them, however the later Sasanids by deliberate distortion of history and by transforming characters have changed the Achaemenid portraits due to their own taste to achieve their political and religious purposes. Nevertheless, Achaemeinds new image and identity remained in the Sasanid historiography and found their way to Islamic era. Deliberate distortions made in history of Iran by Sasanids are proved today, and upon studying the evidence one can discover the extent and the reason for this manipulation. The purpose of this article is to prove the existence of outstanding figures in Achaemenids dynasty namely, Cyrus and Darius in the new Sasanid-Islamic historiography, and also to detect records that approve Achaemenids’ existence within the Sasanid sources. This requires a thorough research into the thought processes of Sasanids during their reign upon adopting an apprehensive approach.

The world of myth and legend is a world filled with mysteries, symbols, and enigmas that since the 19th century onwards with the advent of different mythological approaches, attempt was made to throw light on the obscurities found in the wonderland of myths and to reveal their symbolic deep structure. Using descriptive analytic method, this research is concerned with the study of the subject of horse, a perplexing theme quite distinct in the realm of myths, in epics both in prose and verse. It became clear that horse, alongside cow and woman is the symbol of rain. Owning a horse equates having rain at hand, and losing it equates drought. Horses such as Rakhsh, and Shabrang-e-Behzad are often stolen by demons and one task of Gods or warriors is to return the horses to the Persian Land, as these horses were taken to Turan land at times. According to numerous evidence it can be understood that horse stealing, like stealing cow and woman in myths and beliefs, are the symbol of stealing rain, and their return is the symbol of rainfall.

The story of Bahram Chubineh’ s revolt against two great Sasanid kings that is Hormoz, and his son Khosrow Parviz is only an example of many instances where Ferdowsi speaks about the insatiable nature of man to satisfy his instinct to acquire power and his continuous struggle to gain ultimate power. The relationship of Bahram with Sasanid kings is among the longest interactions between the king and warrior, an example being the heated discussions between Bahram and Khosrow which covers a good part in Shahnameh. Delving into this discussion is an eligible manner in order to analyze the power struggle in the political court in Iran. The necessity to be connected with the kings’ , nobles’ , and warriors’ lineage on the one hand, and the need for national fame and popularity to gain the legitimate sovereignty, on the other hand, made the discourse between the two unique in Shahnameh especially that history confirms its correspondence. Apart from benefitting from certain pragmatic language elements, this article is concerned with the close interconnection of two special kinds of language that is power and ideology.

Battle with dragon is one of the most exciting adventures in the mythological and heroic history that had always been the center of attention. Little by little, it found its way into religious poetry being regarded as an important achievement for religious heroes, as many poets from the 7th century till present refer to the event of slaying the dragon by Imam Ali in the cradle. The oldest narrative source of this story is Manaqib Ibn Shahr Ashub in the 6th century Hijra. However, in other authentic Shi’ a and Sunni texts and sources such as Shavahed al Tanzil by Haskani, Manaqib by Kharazmi, and Manaqib Ali Ibn Abi Talib by Aljallabi al Shafeei there are no references to this story. This research is concerned with the study and analysis of the theme of dragon killing in both myth and epic, paying particular attention to the slaying dragon by Imam Ali in cradle, also dealing with the reasons behind the frequent growth of this theme in religious poetry. The fame of this theme in the field of divine religions could be a symbolic discussion, dragon being the symbol of either external enemies including Ahriman, Anti religion enemies or internal enemies such as Nafs or lower soul. All saints could at some point overcome this latter enemy and in case of Imam Ali dragon can be regarded as both internal and external enemy. Due to having an epic prestigious form, this tale not only during human history but also within the domain of religious poetry have been tremendously received.

Due to having dramatic and story appeals, many dramas, operas, and screenplays were adapted from the tale of Rostam and Sohrab so far. This tale is one of the most prominent and controversial stories in Shahnameh in which destiny brings father and son in two opposing sides. One such adaptation is the animation of Rostam and Sohrab produced by Kianoush Dalvand in 1392. Since production of animation in our country is quite new and needs substructures according to the writers of this article the most important of which is screenplay hence the purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the screenplay of this animation with the criteria proposed in Richard Krevolin’ s book “ How to adapt anything into a screenplay” which is the most important reference in writing screenplay adaptations. This comparison further provides aid to systematic writing and finds errors in the screenplay adaptations produced from the masterpieces of Persian land’ s literature. From this perspective and with the comparison of the genuine story with its animation copy it was concluded that the Shahnameh text lends itself well with the structure and content proposed by Krevolin, yet the animated screenplay adaptation has certain discrepancies such as not dealing with the genre of adaptation, not considering the spirit of the tale, sudden change in the story’ s end without providing the foregrounds, changing the tale’ s theme, and not introducing the tale’ s author. Furthermore, alterations made in the tale caused the work to get out of its main genre which is tragic epic, and thereby induced distortion in such popular tale.

One of the most important reasons for the impact of the tale of Rostam and Esfandyar is the way these two main characters confront each other. Despite most battles represented in Shahnameh, Rostam and Esfandyar before confrontation had always been on one side. Therefore it seems that we are neither faced with good and evil in its literal sense nor with a sort of misunderstanding that happened in the tale of Rostam and Sohrab. Hence the characteristics that put these two characters opposite one another gain significant importance to such extent that the analysis of their fundamental differences is one way to discover the enormous impact of this tale. To reach this purpose it is essential to find a suitable criterion in order to classify the characteristic features of each protagonist. Attempt is made in this article to study the principal differences of the protagonists according to theories of “ Authentic life” and “ inauthentic life” put forward by Martin Heidegger paying attention to the role of the differences in the course of the tale that gradually brings about its tragic end. The results obtained show that looking at the tale from Heidegger’ s perspective not only can help us to better understand the root of their discords but also it can justify certain conflicting behaviors of Esfandyar.

Story is the common ground between literature and many arts. Arts such as theatre, cinema, painting, and music, yet in order for the story to be translated into screenplay it must have certain features which the most principal one is the pictorial quality of the literary tale in question since the image and the picture emanated from the poet’ s or the author’ s description is the most animated element which leads the spectator to understand time and place orientation. Hence employing descriptive analytic method attempt is made in this article to concentrate on the elements of “ image” and “ story” which are the most significant structural factors in the formation of the screenplay. This research also deals with the competence and capabilities of the Shahnameh stories to be turned into screenplay forms. For this reason the discussion is begun by defining terms such as picture whether epic or cinematic, story, and screenplay. Then the screenplay’ s narrative structure which is more based on the pictorial and narrative elements such as scene, character, plot, theme, and dialogue is classified and described, finally by bringing examples from the Rostam and Esfandyar tale and correspondence of its structure with the structure of the screenplay together with giving examples of illustration in the tale the research comes to its end. The result of the search shows that Shahnameh Ferdowsi in particular the tale of Rostam and Esfandyar due to Ferdowsi’ s accounts composed according to epic features is capable to go hand in hand with cinema. Hence in order to change into a cinematic screenplay Shahnameh could be investigated in terms of image, scenery and characterization.

Transactional Behavior analysis, TA is a much disputed theory in new Psychology which is concerned with regulating the behavior in human relations. The application of this theory in analysis of the stories could be an effective and scientific approach in order to benefit from outstanding literary works. Since themes and circumstances embedded in Shahnameh tales well reflect human relation, it is appropriate to look at them from the perspective of this theory. Hence, using descriptive analytic approach the tale of Rostam and Esfandyar is analyzed through the lens of TA. The conclusion drawn from this study showed that the reason for the failure of relationships and the ensuing unhappy end of the tale was the existence of pathological traces in Esfandyar’ s psychological structure, and also constraints and motivations in his earlier life were all the more reason for the lack of independence and weakness in his decision making which eventually led to the story’ s tragic end.