Sabaye Kashani’s Imitations of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh in Khodavandnameh

Abstract

Khodavandnameh book of poetry has been written by Fathali Khan Sabaye Kashani, the Persian poet of the Literary Restoration School in late twelfth and early thirteenth century. This religious epic which consists of 12000 verses has been composed as an imitation of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh for describing the life of Prophet of Islam, his miracles and the battles of Imam Ali. Composing this book of poems, the poet has borrowed the words and expressions of Shahnameh. By manipulating the expressions of Shahnameh, the poet sometimes coins new expressions. He has used the marvelous and bombastic language of Shahnameh (Khorasani style) which was the aim of Restoration poets for reviving the ancient language and stopping the deterioration of language. The composer of Khodavandnameh has not shown any innovation in creating the imagery (like metaphor and simile) and he has used the imagery of Shahnameh. This article tries to explain Saba’s imitations of Ferdowsi via mentioning a number of examples in the fields of vocabulary, syntax, imagery (metaphor and simile), expression, idioms etc.

Keywords

• Sabaye Kashani
• Khodavandnameh
• imitation
• Ferdowsi
• Shahnameh
• Literary Restoration