The Origins and Development of Persian Epics

Download or read book The Origins and Development of Persian Epics written by Ghazzal Dabiri and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dissertation traces the origins of the Persian historical epic, the Shahnamah, and the development of sub-genres of epic on the premise that historiography constitutes the common ground of all forms of Persian epic. It also treats the three types of epic heroes. The texts most pertinent to the discussion of the origins of epic and heroes are the Avesta, Bundahisn, Karnamag i Ardasir, ninth and tenth century Arabic histories, and the Tarikh-i Bal`ami. Through comparative textual analysis it is demonstrated that the recurring theme of legitimate rule runs through each of these texts and, thus, this study focuses on the stories of the first kings, Jamshid, and Ardashir. The way the stories of the Pishdadiyan and Jamshid were treated reveals the way the hymns were developed into didactical historical narratives in Dinavari's, T&dotbelow;abari's, and Tha`alibi's histories. Their histories, when viewed in chronological order, reveal certain socio-cultural concerns such as: just rulership and subsuming Iranian history to universal history. In the latter half of the ninth century, a need for Iranian history in Persian arose, thus, the next step in tracing epic's origins leads to a discussion on the methodologies of the translation and adaptation movements. The Tarikh-i Bal`ami, which employs translation techniques similar to adaptations, was a precondition for the Shahnamah, which itself is an adaptation of historical prose into epic. Firdawsi's Shahnamah is treated as both the product of the previous prose histories and as the forerunner of later sub-genres of epic. The sub-genres of epics dealt with are Niz&dotbelow;ami's Khamsah, particularly the romantic epic Khusraw va Shirin and the historical/quest epic Iskandar namah, and `At&dotbelow;t&dotbelow;ar's Mant&dotbelow;iq al-T&dotbelow;ayr. Niz&dotbelow;ami's Khamsah, which includes three romantic epics and a prototype of the quest epic, uses history as a backdrop to the stories of historical kings. `At&dotbelow;t&dotbelow;ar's Mant&dotbelow;iq al-T&dotbelow;ayr, an allegorical quest epic, is tied to the Avesta, to the histories, the Shahnamah, and the Khamsah since it uses anecdotes of historical kings and other figures to frame the epistemological and allegorical quest.