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SoSe 21: The Šah-nama of Ferdowsi: On Possible Oral and Written Sources and Development of the Linear History

Khanna Usoyan

Comments

In this course, the following themes could be covered: 1) the Iranian epic traditions down to Ferdowsi that might be used as sources of his Šah-nama; 2) debates on Šah-nama’s oral vs. written character; 3) and lastly, the origins of Ferdowsi’s Šah-nama in the light of new evidence, pointing to the existence of "independent", epic traditions that largely cover the same topics as the Šah-nama, for example, among the eastern Kurds, including the Ahl-e ?aqq religious community. The existence of a number of such traditions, which can be shown not to derive from Ferdowsi’s text, suggests that a prominent oral epic tradition may have existed among Iranian peoples, from which Ferdowsi’s written text partly derived. We will also discuss with participants of the seminar that Ferdowsi’s Šah-nama is a result of a successful attempt to arrange the exiting anecdotes deriving from a range of heterogeneous traditions so that they would fit into a linear, time-based framework. close

Suggested reading

During the course besides Ferdowsi's Šah-nama, we would read - both in original Persian and English translations - passages from various works that many scholars see as possible sources of Ferdowsi's Šah-nama, among them: 1) Avestan and Pahlavi religious texts (e.g. Pahlavi texts Ayadgar-i Zareran (‘Memorial of Zarer’); Ayadgar-i J?amaspik (‘Memorial of Jamasp’); the more secular Karnamag-i Arda?šir-i Pabagan (‘Book of the Deeds of Arda?šir, Son of Pabag’), and others); 2) Xwaday-namags (‘Books of Kings’); the Arabic prose translation of an unknown Pahlavi work by Ebn al-Moqaffa? of the 8th century 3) and of course the existing poetrical and prose forms of the Šah-nama (such as Šah-nama of Abu-Man?ur Daqiqi, and others). close