Sources of Ferdowsi’s poem “Shahnāma”

Abstract

The article explores one of the central problems of Ferdowsi Shahnāma (10th century) studies, e.g. its sources. In modern Iranian studies coexist different points of view and continues a discussion between the disciples of the theory of Ferdowsis use of prose sources and those who consider the poet rather a brilliant compiler and innovator, who transformed epic tales about kings and heroes (folklore oral poetry in the middle Persian language) into the new Persian language (dari). The discovery and accumulation of philological arguments indicating that the middle Persian epic poetry is hidden in the poem under the cover of the new Persian verse belongs to the current problems of Shahnāma studies, since this poetry was not recorded and original texts have not survived till nowadays. The arguments of supporters of both points of are briefly presented. To test the theory about the possible reliance of the Ferdowsi epic on the oral poetic tradition, a certain number of lines of the poem containing the name Ahriman were selected and analyzed using the Parry - Lord oral theory, and as a result the formulaic rhyme was discovered. The stability of rhymes and formulaic expressions in which the word Ahriman occurs in the poem allows to conclude that, apparently, there was an oral tradition of describing the Evil Spirit, dating back to the times of Ancient Iran and the creation of the Avesta, which survived until the time of Ferdowsi. This analysis supports the idea that Ferdowsis epic is based on the oral poetic tradition.

Keywords

• ferdowsi
• shahnāma
• sources
• oral poetic tradition
• epic
• formulaic rhyme