A Comparative Study of Ritualistic and Warrior-like Elements in the Shāh-nāme &Sammak-e-Ayyār

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 3, Volume 44, Issue 4 - Serial Number 175, February 2012, Pages 51-84   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v44i4.14572

Authors

Milad Ja'afarpoor^* ; Mehyar Alavi Moghaddam

Abstract

The comparative research about the common features and roots of the Shāh-nāme, the most renowned Iranian national epic and the most comprehensive and authoritative source of heroic narratives, with other works of the same nature in verse and prose is a long story and cannot be adequately addressed in a limited scope. However, the present article aims at describing one or more common aspects. One of the fundamental structures of the epic works is the struggle motif. War in these works forms an axis around which an intertwined network of elements is gathered and, depending on the types of genres involved, the motif appears with varying degrees of frequency and extent. One of these inimitable aspects is depicting the scenes of struggles, battlefields and warriors. Sammak-e-Ayyār (585 A.H) is a long heroic epic tale in prose which is the first sample of numerous works of the same nature. Evidently, this work has close affinities with the Shāh-nāme. To trace the influences of the Shāh-nāme in Sammak-e-Ayyār, this paper has attempted to show a fourfold pattern within which the allusions of the latter work to the Shāh-nāme can be studied. The study then proceeds to describe war-related elements in Sammak-e-Ayyār with reference to the samples from the Shāh-nāme in four sections examining the human, conventional, objective and behavioral aspects. Despite the whole bulk of studies conducted in the field of epic poetry, up to now, the researchers haven’t suggested any patterns. Therefore, the present research has adopted and studied the struggle motif in the four abovementioned sections. The study aims to display how the epic heritage of the Shāh-nāme is reflected in Sammak-e-Ayyār; a subject that will strike new grounds in the field of literary research. Although the influence can be detected in all epic works, Sammak-e-Ayyār is undoubtedly unique in this respect. Since Sammak-e-Ayyār has received less scholarly attention, our samples will be more taken from this work.

Keywords

Sammak-E-Ayyār; prose epic; Shāh-nāme; comparative study; human; conventional; objective and behavioral elements