the Textual Criticism of the SulaymÄn position and his Role in the Evolution of the Iranian Epic

• Main Author: فرزاد قائمی
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Isfahan 2015-02-01
• Series: Textual Criticism of Persian Literature
• Subjects: imbrication of national and religious elements; Shāh-nāma of Asadi; national-religious epic; Sulaymān; Shāh; nāma of Asadi; national; religious epic; oral epic
• Online Access: http://rpll.ui.ac.ir/article_19404_8d5a53edeb6340a9b31ed50bebf82ed4.pdf

The prophets of Israel became imbricatedwiththecharacters andmythsof ancient Persia, a fact which can, on the one hand, be ascribed to the efforts of Parsis and Muslims attached to ancient Persian culture to legitimise Persian mythology. On the other hand, to a gradual obliviousness to the fact that no actual historical connection existed. The appearance of holy figures in Shiism was another factor. SulaymÄn occupied a central place in this narrative imbrication because of his resemblance to Persian kingâpriests such as Jamshid. In this paper, the reasons for the imbrication of national and religious elements in the emergence of Persian epic poetry constitute âvariablesâ while the development of the figure of SulaymÄn acts as an âindex.â Through historical analysis, we trace the narrative role of SulaymÄn in Persian epic poetry back to translations of the KhodÄy-nÄma and other texts that predate Ferdowsiâs ShÄh-nÄma. After Ferdowsiâs ShÄh-nÄma, the figure of SulaymÄn evolved in popular oral lore and the songs of wandering minstrels. Influenced by the oral forms, it became fully rounded in â oral and later written â Persian epic poetry, most notably in the ShÄh-nÄma of Asadi. Finally, as the figure of âAli entered Persian epic poetry in the Safavid era and the epic lost its national(heroic) character to become historical and religious, the figure of SulaymÄn began to fade into the background.