Sometimes referred to as the Iranian National Epic, the Shahnama (Book of Kings) is the life’s work of the Persian poet Abu ’l-Qasem Ferdowsi, from Tus in Khorasan, northeastern Iran. It is a work of heroic scale and heroic character, consisting of between fifty and sixty thousand lines (beyt), each containing two rhyming couplets (mesra‘) in the same meter: u - -/u - -/ u - -/u -, known as the bahr-e motaqareb.
Ferdowsi was born around 935 CE and died around 1020 CE. He was thus writing approximately four centuries after the fall of the ancient Persian empire and the coming of Islam. The final version was completed in 1010, dedicated to the most powerful ruler of the time, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (modern Afghanistan, r. 999-1020). Ferdowsi conceived his work as a memorial to Iran’s glorious past at a time when its memory was in danger of disappearing for good under the twin assaults of Arabic and Islamic culture and the political dominion of the Turks. His literary masterpiece has since been used by many subsequent regimes, both imperial and provincial, to assert their rightful place in the political traditions of the country, and to legitimize their dynasty. As a result, the text survives in countless manuscript copies, often lavishly illustrated in princely court ateliers. The earliest, however, was copied two hundred years after the poet’s death, making it impossible to establish with certainty exactly what he wrote.
The Shahnama narrates the history of Iran (Persia) from the creation of the world and the first king, Kayumars, who established his rule at the dawn of time, to the conquest of Persia by the Muslim Arabs in the early seventh century CE. The poem follows the structure of a king-list, with altogether fifty reigns described in sequence, though at greatly differing length. Therefore it has the appearance, at least, of a chronicle and is often cited as such by later medieval Persian historians as a source of information about the pre-Islamic past. This formal structure also emphasizes the centrality and importance of the role of the king (Shah) in Persian political culture, a characteristic also noted by Herodotus. Many of its early figures are mentioned in the Avesta, especially the
Zamyad Yasht (on the khwarnah, or Divine splendor), dealing with those who held and those who sought it.
Nevertheless, the Shahnama is more than a straightforward celebration of the monarchical and imperial tradition in Persian history. In the first place, much of its material is ahistorical. The reigns are grouped according to four major dynasties, the Pishdadians, Kayanians, Ashkanians, and Sasanians, an ancient division that became entrenched in Persian historiography. In parallel with these divisions, the poem is generally divided into mythical, legendary, and historical sections. The first includes the formation of human society, the discovery of fire, the domestication of animals, the struggle with the forces of evil (represented by divs, or devils), and the definition of Iranian territory. The distinction between the mythical passages and the following legendary sections is rather fluid; the collapse of time, the pervasive presence of the supernatural, of the fantastic, magic, dragons, and heroic endeavors give a strong continuity across these prehistorical chapters.
Secondly, a significant proportion of the narrative is taken up with a discrete cycle of stories concerning the local rulers of Sistan (southeast Iran), which is grafted onto the main structure of the poem. Olga Davidson has challenged the opinion that the ‘‘Sistan cycle’’ represents a separate textual tradition, suggesting that both these stories and those of the royal Kayanian line entered the National Epic together, as a conflation of a ‘‘book of kings’’ with an ‘‘epic of heroes,’’ both drawn from oral sources. The chief subject of these stories is the heroic exploits of Rostam, son of Zal, who was the champion of successive Iranian monarchs. Indeed, Rostam is the Iranian epic hero par excellence, and his adventures encapsulate more than anything else the spirit and the popular appeal of the Shahnama. As discussed by Davidson and by Dick Davis, the role of the hero is intrinsic to the epic, and the bravery, reliability, and loyalty of the hero form a counterpoint to the behavior of the Shahs. Davis even regards the poem as a denunciation of kingship, as increasingly unjust rulers provoke even their loyal commanders to revolt against them. Throughout the poem, however, despite his frank depiction of the shortcomings of various Shahs, Ferdowsi’s didactic intentions are clear from his comments on the consequences of poor judgment, tyranny, or rashness. The misfortunes of rulers are shown to be the result of their failings, and in contrast, success and prosperity come from wisdom and justice. Many later Persian historians claimed the same exemplary purpose in their works, but few showed Ferdowsi’s integrity and rigor in denouncing the bad. Rather, as noted by Shahrokh Meskoob, flattery and praise of rulers became standard.
Sohrab looking again for the tent of Roustem. Ferdowsi, Shahnama (Book of Kings). Ms. 607-1144, fol. 11v. Moghul dynasty, sixteenth century CE. Credit: Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY. Musee Conde, Chantilly, France.
Rostam and the Shahs he served take part primarily in the endless cycles of wars with Turan (approximately Turkestan or modern Central Asia), Iran’s traditional foe throughout the first sections of the poem. The episodes that have attracted most attention are the stories of Rostam and Sohrab and of Seyavosh, both ending in the tragic death of sons due to their domineering and intransigent fathers. Both of these, and the equally powerful confrontation between Rostam and Esfandiyar, son of the tyrannical Shah Goshtasp, are available in modern verse translations. These episodes reveal the strength of Ferdowsi’s poetry and his stark exposure of the human condition. Caught up in their own preoccupations and trapped by their sense of honor, obedience, pride, and ambition, the protagonists are unable to extricate themselves from the net that circumstances have made for them. Despite the importance and, indeed, his convincing portrayal of human motivations, Ferdowsi always implicates blind, remorseless Fate for the actual outcome. When one’s time is up, no human action can alter events. Shortly after killing Esfandiyar, Rostam too is killed, the price to be paid for accepting the help of the mythical Simorgh to overcome his foe. Rostam’s death marks the end of an era, and with it the impetus goes out of the epic narrative of the Kayanians.
The historical section, that is, when known historical events can be identified, starts only with the story of Alexander the Great, also treated as legend. It is remarkable, for example, that there is no reference to the reigns of Cyrus the Great, Darius, or the Achae-menid dynasty that preceded the appearance of Philip of Macedon on the scene. The reasons for this silence lie in the sources available to the poet. Ferdowsi followed an eastern Iranian narrative tradition, which evidently knew nothing of the separate traditions of southwest Iran and the Tigris-Euphrates valley. It is only with the coming of the Parthians (Ashkanians, Arsacids), whose long history (247 BCE to 224 CE) is treated in barely twenty verses, and during which time memory of earlier events in the southwest must have been lost, followed by the Sasanian dynasty (224-651), that Fars becomes the focus of events.
Ferdowsi provides a long account of the Sasanians, based on written sources that were also used by early Islamic historians in Arabic translations from Pahlavi (Middle Persian). The main conflicts are now with Iran’s western neighbor, the Byzantine empire. Some passages, particularly in the reign of Anushirvan (‘‘the Just’’) and the exchanges with his vizier, Bozorjmehr (‘‘Great light’’), are the vehicle for much moral and political wisdom. The stories of Bahram Gur and Bahram Chubina (Bahram V and VI) to some extent maintain the epic aspect of the Shahnama, with their heroic hunts, romantic adventures, dragon-slayings, and martial prowess. The final episode is the murder of the last Sasanian ruler, Yazdagird III (r. 632-652). Its ending echoes with the gloomy predictions of the Persian general, Rostam—killed at the battle of Qadisiyya by the Arab commander Sa ‘d b. Waqqas— of the disasters about to befall Iran.
The Shahnama is ultimately a story of defeat, yet Ferdowsi has contrived to turn this disaster into a triumph for Persian civilization. It encapsulates and expresses, as no other work of Persian literature has been able to, the Iranians’ view of themselves and their rightful place in the world.
Charles P. Melville
World History
