Jones, perhaps as part and parcel of his larger program to put Persian language and literature in conversation with its Indo-European cousins, describes Ferdowsi in tandem with Homer. Little notice seems to have been taken of Ferdowsi during his lifetime, or indeed for about a century after his death, outside of his immediate circle. He points out how quixotic the project to compile a bibliography of all this actually is, since every month a new study comes out or a new manuscript comes to light.
Thus, a number of international exhibitions and conferences and commemorations were organized in , which in turn led to a number of new publications, including Downloaded by [ Concerns that have predominated in scholarship on the Shahnameh include manu- script studies, codicology and text-editing strategies, as well as evaluation of the sources, written and oral, used by Ferdowsi;75 art history and the iconographic tra- ditions;76 the Shahnameh as a record of Iranian folklore, epic traditions, social history and Indo-Iranian mythology and religion;77 the biography of the poet, the chronology by which he wrote and revised the text, and the presumed early reception or rather, rejection of his work.
The popularity of these particular episodes has generated monographs devoted to their close reading and analysis. This naturally necessitates reworking old readings and interpretations with fresh eyes, and thus opens up fresh critical vistas. The post-millennial Shahnameh as world literature.
One very large-order question that many readers bring to the text of the Shahna- meh, or perhaps leave with after reading it, is what religion—if any—informs its worldview. Against this backdrop, Davis explores the larger role of religion in the work, and especially the seeming absence of a theodicy. This taxonomy of natural and supernatural beings intersects with questions of cosmologic and moral, even theo- logical, import. Though evil need not always be embodied in supernatural or monstrous form—and indeed Ferdowsi some- times explicitly reduces demons to symbolic or abstract representations of psychic forces and impulses—evil nevertheless often manifests in biologically demonic or ser- pentine shape, though the connection between evil and the supernatural is not straightforward.
After the initial binding of the demons, the binary categories of human versus non-human, natural versus magic, become increasingly blurred, and, as Pierce shows, when demons and humans intermingle, serpents and sorcery are often implicated, but in a gendered way that differentiates between white magic as a masculine and black magic as a feminine domain.
Because modern scholarly reception of the Shahnameh emerged in the era of nationalism, and because it was vigorously promoted in that Downloaded by [ In the most poignantly tragic tales e. Cross sees the narrators of both tales invested in denying the right—to their characters as well as to their readers—of a sense of moral outrage or poetic justice, yet shows that the emotional pressures caused by the tragic sequence of events eventually stress both narratives to the breaking point, allowing resistant counter-narratives to well up through the cracks.
Gabri argues that in the prologues and epilogues to many episodes, Ferdowsi is keen to stake out, if not a philosophy, then a condition of language, namely that it is incom- mensurate to the task of explaining events, either in the world interior to the text, or in the world outside the text inhabited by the poet and his readers. For example, study of the scribal and performance traditions of the Shahnameh can show us how new plot twists or narrative arcs have been introduced to certain episodes for ideological or practical reasons; elements of the narrative can thus be restructured and re-contoured to produce new or altered meanings.
We may imagine that Ferdowsi himself, by some process and dynamic similar to what Seyed-Gohrab and Brookshaw describe, has in places, similarly introduced new wrinkles into the version s of the Shahnameh which came down to him the ideological impetus that might have motivated Ferdowsi to do so are laid out in the article by Hayes.
Notes 1. National literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach … But, while we thus value what is foreign, we must not bind ourselves to some particular thing, and regard it as a model.
We must not give this value to the Chinese, or the Serbian, or Calderon, or the Nibelungen; but, if we really want a pattern, we must always return to the ancient Greeks, in whose works the beauty of mankind is constantly represented. All the rest we must look at only historically; appropriating to ourselves what is good, so far as it goes. Twentieth-century efforts to compile such canons for a liberal education include Charles Eliot Downloaded by [ For an interpretation of the democratic impulses of this movement, see Lacy, Dream of a Democratic Culture.
For an overview of positions on the canon from the eighteenth century to the end of the twen- tieth, see Morrissey, Debating the Canon, and Levine, Opening of the American Mind. Gottheil, Persian Literature, vol. Wilson, in Gottheil, Persian Literature, vol. The Works of Sir William Jones, vol. Atkinson, Soohrab, x—xi. The partly rhyming, partly blank verse translation of Arthur G. Browne, Literary History of Persia, vol. Into English. The Persian Book of Kings originally published as three separate lavishly illus- trated volumes by Mage Publishers.
These include the editions of Ferdowsi by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, 8 vols. Numerous works in Persian also pursue comparison to Athenian Tragedies e. Omidsalar, Poetics and Politics, 11— In a separate monograph, Omidsalar takes the Iranian dia- Downloaded by [ See the discussion in Apter, Against World Literature, especially 1—9. Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, , line hereafter abbreviated as SN in the notes. Puhvel, Comparative Mythology, While one might surmise that since we have no surviving manuscript witness to the text of the poem until two centuries after its completion, the Shahnameh could not have been widely popular during that period.
While this seems logical, the oldest dated manuscript of any Persian work dates only to the middle of the eleventh century, and few Persian manuscripts survive from prior to the thirteenth century. The undated Beirut manuscript is probably from the mid-thirteenth to mid-four- teenth century, making it among the important early manuscript witnesses to the Shahnameh. Into Turkish.
There is a long illustration history of the text, which has been the subject of extensive scholarship. Strassburg, —; with a 2nd ed. Millenary Celebration. Fritz Wolff, a German Jew who perished eight years later in a concentration camp, contributed as a birth millennial gift, the Glossar zu Firdosis Schahname. Bertels — SN, , lines — Jeyhuni, in the introductory volume vol.
Studies such as this are scattered in numerous books and articles in various journals and collections. Bibliography Abdullaeva, Firuza, and Charles Melville. Citations herein all refer to the third edition. Amanat, Abbas. A short summary of this paper. Download Download PDF. Translate PDF. The Shahnama Book of Kings , an epic poem composed question of geographical origin, having been assigned by the poet Firdausi d.
In it, ancient his- to withdraw from attributions to a Persian court for this tory and myth mix and converge around themes of manuscript.
This tendency is due to several kingship and ethics. From around , illustrated manu- nama, and a reference in the preface to Firdausi having scripts of the Shahnama were key items in royal and stayed in India all made for a strong argument in favour elite households. Through the processes of copying, the of India as the place of production. It has been a matter them. Each of the illus- and projecting a courtly ideal of the ties between religion trations occupies approximately a third of the page or and state.
The written surfaces are comprised of four columns After a brief overview of the manuscript, addressing in the text proper and contain 27 lines on text-only codicology, palaeography and past scholarship, the dis- pages. Gold ruling can be seen on most folios, indicating cussion will focus, in particular, on the introductory the high status of the manuscript. Its colophon fol. The whole manuscript, of patronage and exact place of production.
The Indian, and north Indian versus Deccan. There is, however, textual evidence feats, wars, enthronement scenes and a variety of other that points to manuscripts produced in Iran as gifts dramas involving love, lust, death, trickery and won- designed for Indian courts, or perhaps even commis- drous experiences. Out of these, the throne scenes are sioned by them. Such exchanges, for instance, between the least frequent approximately Interior scenes comprise less than 10 percent of the illustrations in the manuscript.
IRAN 3 Figure 1. Double-page frontispiece. It is true that the illustrations can be minimal and for- In general, it is believed that during the Timurid period, mulaic. Several look like stock images, displaying only in Shahnama manuscripts produced between the death minor variations, as if they could have been used inter- of Ibrahim-Sultan in and the middle of the century, changeably.
Several it acquired its current binding, as indicated in a note on 10 Titley, Persian Miniature Painting, —7. See British Library Or.
Change of hand on a later-added folio left. Shahnama Or. Under each note there is a new margins. Several illustrations look repainted, seal: the seal underneath the purchase note belonged to especially the skies and faces. There is no writing it was acquired at some point in the nineteenth century on its golden surface. Decorations on the margin of by Jules Mohl d. The page has been Shahnama into French. He does not mention where he re-margined, but traces of writing — partly cut out acquired it.
The note on the manuscripts from his own collection for the translation, upper left and the seal underneath are crossed out, and refers to this one as MS. IRAN 5 Figure 4. Shah- Figure 5. When considering pre- a glossary. Based on these factors the manuscript has Mughal manuscripts, several factors contribute to the shifted back and forth across the obscure, binary bound- problem.
The scarcity of manuscripts tentatively attrib- aries of Persian and Sultanate, and royal and non-royal. Shahnama Figure 7. The relation- by such approaches. Empty dedication device.
The Chester Beatty manuscript view Rustam in battle with Chingish: fol. The vases were Or. Yazdani, Bidar, pls. IRAN 9 Figure Detail of double-page frontispiece showing the vase decoration motif. Figure 9. Men with bookrest between them. To show how deducing provenance from visual particular manuscript.
The painted decorations of the dated , whose detail of an Indian mahout with an mausoleum, known as that of Cem, built in for the ankus on an elephant in two of the paintings could son of Mehmed II r.
Tomb of the Bahmani ruler Ahmad Shah I d. Photo: Peyvand Firouzeh. A dausi and Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna r. Then there is another begin- the genealogies of the two men responsible for the Abu ning, leading to the story of Firdausi and Sultan Mah- Mansuri preface — the text is interrupted due to missing mud. Third comes the Abu Mansuri preface, the list of folios. Shahrukh d. After this opening section, the pre- before leaving for Tus.
Some con- 10v Figure 9, Figure 8, and Figure 1. Shahnama e islam was based on a comparison of 17 manuscript copies. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Making Sense of Muslim History and Society 2nd ed.
Vullers prepared a synthesized text of the Macan and Mohl editions, but only shhnama of shahnama e islam expected nine volumes were published. Ferdowsi followed this path not only to preserve and purify shahnama e islam Persian language, but also as a stark political statement against the Arab conquest of Persia.
Early Mystics in Turkish Literature. International Journal of Middle East Studies. The Florence manuscript is one of the earliest known copies of the Shahnamehpredating the Moghul invasion and the following destruction of important shahnama e islam and manuscript collections.
Politics, History shahnama e islam Literature. The Wall Street Journal. The prince accepts the challenge and, at the cost of showing himself to be ferocious and merciless, with great ability he transforms a male deer into a female one, by cutting off its horns with just one arrow shot. He then changes a female into a male deer, by driving two arrows into its head, as if they were horns.
But turn that doe to a buck with an arrow, and with another arrow make the buck into a doe. Centenas varii generis feras saepe in Albano secessu conficientem spectavere plerique atque etiam ex industria ita quarundam capita figentem, ut duobus ictibus quasi cornua efficeret. Nonnumquam in pueri procul stantis praebentisque pro scopulo dispansam dexterae manus palmam sagittas tanta arte derexit, ut omnes per intervalla digitorum innocue evaderent.
Through the centuries, furthermore, its general meaning came to refer to all civilisations that lie to the west of Iran, in Asia Minor and in Europe, commonly viewed by Firdausi and his contemporaries as one and continuous. It was published as the Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del Re di Serendippo by a certain Cristoforo Armeno in Venice in This was the period when European scholars began to recognize the existence of a second cultural language of the Islamic world, besides Arabic.
As the result of the mostly polemical or missionary approach of the Europeans towards the region, up to the end of the 15th century the scholarly study of Persian had been mainly the prerogative of restricted religious milieus, especially the Dominicans. Only a few isolated erudites seem to have had a less superficial perception and knowledge of Persian. The first aim of the Press was to publish books, mainly Christian works, in Oriental scripts, in order to evangelise the Muslim lands and to move closer to Oriental Christians.
Yet below the surface of the missionising project, the depth of the editorial work of the Press, which spanned the fields of linguistics, science and literature, seems to have placed the circle of scholars led by Raimondi, who came to Rome from various corners of the Mediterranean, at the heart of a closely woven network of intellectual interests and relations with the East in lateth century Italy.
Printed edition, c. Archivio di Stato, Florence. Still, Raimondi had a special devotion to Persian that comes out clearly from the breadth and depth of the projects he embarked on in this field, but which unfortunately were never carried out: they included grammars, dictionaries and a number of editions and translations of texts from the Persian literary and scientific tradition.
It is precisely in the context of the Medici Press enterprise that we can find what seems to be the oldest mention of Firdausi in Italian, and possibly the first in any European language. The manuscript, which includes only the first half of the poem — 22, verses up to the reign of Kay Khusrau — seems to originate from Turkey, among the Akhi brotherhood of Anatolia; it is dated 30th of Muharram AH, corresponding to 9 May , and is considered the oldest extant manuscript of the Shahnama.
It constitutes one of the key texts used for the publication of the most recent full edition, completed in New York in under the supervision of Jalal Khaleqi-Motlaq. Whether you show grace or draw As a prisoner, I bend my head your sword, under your assault. Oh rosebud, whose cheek makes the Never be this field empty of your spring jealous, honour! Dunque la lingua Persiana principalmente da tutti si deue perfettamente imparare. And in fact it seems to be a gift from God to mankind in order to express the conceits of Poetry.
It is here that we can read one of the first — although quite restrained — sketches related to Firdausi in a European language. This will become one of the main motifs surrounding the European acquaintance with Firdausi. Between Achilles and Rustum More generally, during that same 17th century, recognition of the Persian language was evolving in various countries in Europe the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Poland, Russia, and others as a result of a number of intersecting factors: the personal and institutional interests of travellers and merchants; the evolution of diplomatic relations with Safavid Persia; the acquisition of manuscripts by private collectors and royal libraries, and the establishment of courses in Persian in missionary language schools and universities, where Persian was taught initially as a language ancillary to Arabic.
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