Ferdowsi : Shahnameh

Rustam  (dying) shoots his half-brother who built the spear-pit that trapped him (1482)

300 years after Sasanian civilization was transformed by 7th Century Jihadists, the  poet, Ferdowsi, devoted his adult life to the world's longest epic poem in celebration of its emperors and heroes.   Unfortunately the entirety of that epic remains untranslated, but a substantial amount is now available, and it makes a fascinating contrast with the Hamzanama , the Indo-Persian epic that followed it.

For one thing -- it's not goofy and there's no low humor.  For another, there's no celebration of "the one true religion.  All speeches and correspondence begins with an invocation to God- but the arrival of Islam at the end of the poem is marked only by the line "and so the throne was replaced with the pulpit."  And, of course, rather than offering the enemy the options of "convert or die", that option was offered by the Muslim warlord  to the Sasanian's last great hero, who,  knowing that he was fated to lose the battle, chose "Hell and a narrow grave"

But there's also plenty that the two epics have in common, as they write about a world that celebrates bling, partying, and brute strength.  There's no warrior like Kongming ("Three Kingdoms") who triumphed by strategy. (though there is a clever vizier who learns how to play chess by simply looking at the pieces)

 Funeral of Isfandyrar  (tragically killed by Rustam) , 1330's

Qadimi (1520-1560), Turanians attack drunken Iranian camp

It's been many decades since I first saw illustrations like the above at the Met - but this is the first time I've finally read the stories they were based on.

1300-1330

There's only one fantastic/magical creature in the story -- the giant, benevolent, all-knowing Samurgh - and it, plus some other magical events is included in the stories of Rustam and his father, Zal.

But in the final centuries of Sasanian rule, the stories become more realistic, more about character and human behavior - especially the recurring problem of a battlefield hero serving an unwise and ungrateful ruler - a relationship  that also set the table for the Hamznama.

Of special note is the appearace of the egalitarian prophet, Mazdak who is presented as converting a gullible ruler until he and all his followers are buried alive, upside down in a garden by a wise prince.


But what about the prophet Mohammed ?

The introduction tells us that Ferdowsi was unquestionably Muslim -- but this epic poem seems markedly non-Islamlic.  The good kings, all pre-Islamic,  are presented as pious, true believers in one God, and the great tragedy of the entire poem is the arrival of the Prophet's armies.  It's leaders are not presented as monsters -- but their clothing is unfit for the Persian court - and as subsequent pictorializations confirm, physical appearance was highly cultivated.