Review of the Shahnameh Verses – “hom” or “ham”

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 4, Volume 43, Issue 1, May 2010, Pages 135-146   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v43i1.8410

Author

Mortaza Charmgi Omrani^*

Abstract

Although researchers have always been trying to remove the veils of mysteries from it‚ Shahnameh‚ the Iranian ethnical and cultural identification record‚ has continued to remain vague and mysterious in the field of beliefs, symbols and philology. On the other hand‚ Shahnameh is a rich treasury due to the amount of Persian words, and it is the secret of the existence of the Persian language and literature. There are many words used in the Shahnameh, which,with the same pronunciation or with some variation of it, are still used in the speech of the villages of the Greater Khorasan. In this article an effort has been made to review the Shahnameh verses in order to correct the faults that the Shahnameh researchers, stylists, and rhyme experts have found with it. In this article we first present the various records of it in its multiple versions by the Moscow publisher and Jalal Khaleqi Motlaq‚ and then different philologists’ views have been given. In the second part of the article the record of “hom” has been preferred over the record of “ham.” In the third part‚ however‚ the writer of the article reads the rhyme not as the philologists do‚ but as “hom” rhyming with “dom‚” that is “hom.” The reason for this preference and the different meanings of the word “hom,” which is still used in Gonabad and its surrounding villages‚ is explained and illustrated by citing examples from the text.

Key Words: Shahnameh Ferdowsi‚ Gonabadi dialect, version differences: “hom” or “ham”