Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی

Authors

• Kamran Arzhangi
• mohammadjafar yahaghi

Persian literature professor Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Faculty of Literature, Persian literature group. Mashhad.Iran

Abstract

Until today, Most scholars consider these scrolls as rooted in oral tradition and belonging to oral literature. The present thesis will argue against this position and will present evidence to support this opposition. It appears that these prose Shāhnāmehs (Tūmārs) relied on ancient sources. In addition, there is no document to prove the continuity of the chain of oral narration of these narrations. This paper, by searching in ancient written epic sources, and compare them to Zariri’s narrations, indicate that Zariri, had six major and written sources in narrating the stories of his scroll: (1) Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh. (2) Pre-Ferdowsi Shāhnāmehs-- directly or indirectly. (3) Early historical sources. (4) Epic poems. (5) Interesting narratives of adjacent countries and regions. (6) a collection of written sources that Zariri had collected to write his scroll. Accordingly, it is necessary to doubt the absolute knowledge of the sources and intermediaries of the narrations of this scroll in the stories which is shared with Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

Highlights

The study of Sources in the same Stories of Shahname Naqalan and Ferdowsi's Shahname

Kamran Arzhangi

PhD. in Persian Language and Literature

 

Mohammadjafar Yahaghi

Professor at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

Until recently, most scholars believed that naqqālī scrolls were rooted in oral tradition. It appears, however, that this view does not adequately address the whole problem of the relationship between naqqālī scrolls and oral tradition because many of the stories in naqqāls repertoires are also found in older literary sources, including some pre-Shāhnāmeh texts. A comparison of these stories as found in classical literary sources with the famous naqqāl, ‘Abbās Zariri’s version of them indicates that Zariri’s variants are informed by at least six major literary sources. These are: (1) Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh, which is itself based on an earlier literary exemplar, (2) Pre-Ferdowsi Shāhnāmehs, which are no longer extant, but have left traces of their narratives in other Persian and Arabic texts such as Tabari’s history, (3) various histories that have been referred to in Zarīrī’s scroll, (4) other epic poems that had their own independent literary sources, (5) several interesting narratives that were probably written in India or other neighboring lands and gradually found their way into Persian traditions, with their course of entry detectable in naqqālī scrolls of Safavid and Qājār periods, and (6) a collection of written tūmārs that Zariri had personally gathered in order to use in preparing his own scroll. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider the view that posits an oral origin for the scrolls of naqqāls such as Zarīrī.

Keywords: Oral epic, written sources, Shahnameh, narrative scroll, Zarīrī.

Introduction

A number of important scholars, such as Professor Muhammad Ja’far Mahjoub, have previously argued against the orality of the source of a number of stories common to many naqqālī scrolls (see Mahjoub, 1374: 81). The publication of a scholarly edition of one of the earliest scrolls led to vigorous discussion of the problem of the sources of storytellers’ tūmārs. In their introduction to their fine edition of the Haft Lashkar scroll, Afshari and Madaini argue that stories found in it belong to the oral tradition, but were later transcribed by literate individuals who were present in the audience, and assumed a literary form (Haftlashkar scroll, 1377: xxx). Later, Afshari, in his introduction to Sajjad Aidenloo’s scholarly edition of Tūmār-e Naqqālī-ye Shāhnāmeh, claimed that most of what is found in storytellers’ scrolls is the product of the storytellers’ fertile imagination (Afshari, 1390: xv-xvi). Another scholar, Professor Qa’emi of the Ferdowsi University, in his introduction to the edition of Tūmār-e Jāme’-e Naqqālī-ye Shāhnāmeh (The Comprehensive Scroll of the Stories of the Shāhnāmeh), states that during the process of transferring Iran’s national tradition from the oral into the literary form—a process that had already begun in the Sassanid period (224-651 AD)—some stories were bypassed and remained as part of the oral tradition. These stories were primarily transmitted by the naqqāls for a long time, until they too, finally crossed into written literature (Qa’emi 1396:33). However, as we pointed out earlier, the texts that we know today as “naqqālī scrolls” are primarily rooted in six significant written sources.

Materials and Methods

It would be a reasonable question to ask that given the vast number of literary sources in the Sassanid period, and given the great number of the Shāhnāmehs and other literary epics known from the Islamic period, what evidence is there to assume that naqqāls relied exclusively on the oral tradition? Furthermore, assuming the prevalence of literary sources-as the evidence requires—would it be justifiable to give as much weight to the oral tradition? It goes without saying that one cannot reasonably deny the “orality” of some of the stories in the naqqāls’ repertoires. However, rather than insist on exclusive “orality” of the naqqāls stories, it would be better to assume that Iran’s epic tradition existed in the oral and the literary forms at the same time.  I believe that in this coexistence, the literary tradition, at least during the Islamic period and the era of Persian literature’s dominance, played a greater role in forming Iran’s epic tradition than the “oral tradition” per se. It should be stressed that the prominence of the literary tradition can be demonstrated only for the Islamic period and the question of orality or literality of Iranian epics in the pre-Islamic period falls outside the scope of the present investigation.  There is no doubt that prior to the spread of literacy, the entire heroic tradition of the Iranian peoples was transmitted orally. Even later, naqqāls such as Zarīrī, composed their scrolls by conflating the literary tradition with what they found in the tūmārs of the earlier storyteller that they had collected for this purpose.   

 

 

Conclusion

This paper aims to establish the sources of about seventeen important narratives of Zarīrī’s scroll in classical and even pre-Ferdowsi sources. The narratives are: (1) the lineage of Kiomars as a descendant of Adam, (2) the story of the discovery of fire and the Sadeh Festival by Houshang, (3) the prophethood of Houshang, (4) the story of the Farr’s separation from Jamshid, (5) the identities of Shahrnaz and Arnvaz as daughters of Zahhak, (6) the explanation of the serpents on Zahhak’s shoulders as painful growths, (7) the story of the justice of Zahhak, (8) the story of Fereydoun’s ancestors, (9) the tale of Nariman’s slaying in Mount Sepand, (10) the story of Rustam’s avenging of Nariman’s murder, (11) the tale of Rustam’s killing of the white elephant, (12) the story of Rustam’s marriage to Keyqabad’s sister, (13) the tale of how Rostam’s power was increased during his fight with Sohrab to help him win, (14) the story of some features of Esfandiar’s death, (15) the tale of Faramarz’s birth, and (16) the story of Faramarz’s death, all of which are quite different from Ferdowsi’s version. These narratives are quite different in Zarīrī’s tūmār and in Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh. The rest of the differences between the Iranian national epic and Zarīrī’s scroll concern those stories that may be shown to be relatively new narratives for which a dependable chain of transmission cannot be established. A number of these stories were probably authored by Iranian authors who lived in India. Others are borrowed from the Semitic narrative tradition of neighboring peoples whose stories entered the Persian tradition through long centuries of contact. A fair number of these stories are specifically said by their authors to be “original,” and as such, probably never existed in the oral tradition per se. Putting aside the six important “literary” sources of the storytellers’ scrolls (i.e.,  pre-Ferdowsi literary sources, Ferdowsi’s poem, other classical epic poems, historical sources, adopted foreign narratives—especially those that were authored in India, earlier scrolls or earlier storytellers) we are left with not much that may be reasonably assigned either to pure “oral tradition” or even to Zarīrī himself. It appears that ‘Abbās Zarīrī relied almost entirely on written sources and even in the case of stories that differ in his narration from their Shāhnāmeh version, has not depended on oral tradition in any great extent.

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Keywords

• Oral epic
• written sources
• Shahnameh
• narrative scroll
• Zariri

Main Subjects

• . Epicical and Mythical Literature