Character Recognition of Rostam Yekdast and his Convergence and Hostility with Rostam Zal in Kurdish Shahnameh (Gorani)

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 2, Volume 49, Issue 2 - Serial Number 193, September 2016, Pages 53-79   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v49i2.56582

Authors

Syed Ayub Naghshbandi^{* 1}; Mir Jalaleddin Kazzazi²; Mohammad Ali Dawood Abadi Farahani³

¹Islamic Azad University of Arak, Faculty member and lecturer in Farhangian University of Kurdestan

²Allameh Tabatabaei University and Islamic Azad University of Arak

³Islamic Azad University of Arak

Abstract

1. Introduction
In epic narratives, heroes have a specific and key role in the processing of epic development. Some heroes’ roles are based on the situation in which they have been created. Thus, the epic narrator states their life journey from the beginning to the end in a vicissitude process. However, some heroes do not have a specific position in epic stories as they appear as a thunder in some scenes and disappear afterwards. The performance and characteristics of these heroes, who are present in some scenes while there is no trace of them throughout the plot, are thought-provoking and exciting. These non-fixed heroes draw attention more than the fixed heroes, according to what they do in the stories.
Rostam Yekdast who has a role in Kurdish Shahnameh has a dual identity of human and demon. However, he is more or less well-known in folk stories, but there is no trace of him in Persian epic poems. This dual-identity character has such particular features which are hardly observable in other heroes having high strength,high running power, immeasurable intelligence, and being skillful in throwing stones. Although it is not possible to assume Rostam Yekdast as a counterpart for Rostam Zal in epic stories, but they have some similarities, especially, in having high strength. He is even more skillful than Rostam Zal in some skills. Rostam Zal and Rostam Yekdast are sometimes friendly and convergent and sometimes hostil. As mentioned earlier, since Rostam Yekdast is both human and demon, he has a dual nature.
Norms and behavior of this demon-like human or in other words this human-like demon is a representation of human change and evolution during the history which exists in epics in the form of myth. He is such a character who can change from being animal to human in a moment and at the same time return from being human to animal. Sometimes, like Rostam Zal, he is chivalrous, powerful, and service provider for the king, while other times he is rough, disloyal, brutal, sly, and mocking. In addition, such mysterious wisdom is often observable in his behavior which is hardly ever observable in human being. Even Rostam Tahamtan, experienced Zal, and goodwill elders are succumbed in confronting with Rostam Yekdast. Rostam Yekdast, who is not mentioned in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is a complex and controversial character in Kurdish epics. It is most likely that the resources, in which the story of Rostam Yekdast has been mentioned, have never been available to Ferdowsi, otherwise he would have made a mention of his name in his great work. There have been no studies comparing Kurdish Shahnameh characters with other epic characters so far. It should be noted that identifying the anonymous epic characters and analyzing their personality and norms would be helpful to enrich the national epic as we can become more familiar with their character dimensions as well.
2. Methodology
This study is based on the library research. After studying and taking advantage of the available resources and collecting data, Rostam Yekdast and his convergence and hostility with Rostam Zal are presented. Kurdish Shahnameh is the main resource of this study. The features of demons in Kurdish Shahnameh have been studied in this research based on the available resources as, accordingly.
3. Results
The development process of an epic can experience ups and downs due to the performance of anonymous characters, thus, the presence of these characters makes an epic story different and exciting. Rostam Yekdast is one of the prominent and famous characters in Kurdish Shahnameh whose name has not been mentioned in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. He is a hero of dual nature whose behavior and performance show human mental and physical changes over the time. New origins can be achieved through the study of epic characters’ stories in Kurdish Shahnameh which can contribute to identifing the evolution and development of Iranian epics. In other words, it can be said that analyzing and studying the heroes’ characters such as Rostam Yekdast depicts the social and individual face of the society in the distant past. The results lead to the richness of national epic to make the reader more aware of history and epic mixture.
3. Discussion
The story of Rostam Yekdast or Rostam Kutah dast (short-hand Rostam in English) which is called “kola das” in Kurdish is famous. It is one of the eventful and exciting stories of Kurdish Shahnameh. As this character has a dual nature of human and demon, his behavior is also influenced by his dual nature. Thus, he has a dual behavior in confronting with Rostam Zal. Sometimes, he is sincere and acts like Rostam’s servant while sometimes he is one of Rostam’s toughest enemies. He is a perfect hero in two skills of throwing stones and running. He is so powerful that Rostam Zal had to play tricks on him in order to be able to entangle and arrest him. Sometimes, he acts like a moral and devoted hero while at other times he acts like a wicked and nefarious zan. Sometimes he appears in the middle of war and helps Rostam Zal, while he disappears in a moment and is seen in the demon army or Turanis fighting with Iranians.
Since Rostam Yekdast is a mixture of human and demon, therefore regarding appearance and behavior, he is a dual-nature creature. Sometimes he wants to come to humanity from being demon and include himself in human features but suddenly he turns back to his demon nature and goes far from humanity. It can be said that Rostam Yekdast story is kind of inverted change in human body and human inherent character from primitivism to humanity. The performance of this character in the story somehow reflects the human’s transition from savagery to humanity and his sudden return to savagery from humanity. His behavioral and personality paradoxes are the same as human struggle with his innate nature that he wants to control in civil and rational world.

Keywords

Kurdish Shahnameh; Rostam Yekdast; demon; Rostam Zal

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