Farāmarz, the Sistāni Hero

790 Pages·2014·4.639 MB·English

by  Marjolijn van Zutphen

Farāmarz, the Sistāni Hero
Studies in
Persian Cultural History
Editors
Charles Melville (Cambridge University)
Gabrielle van den Berg (Leiden University)
Sunil Sharma (Boston University)
VOLUME 6
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/spch
Farāmarz, the Sistāni Hero
Texts and Traditions of the Farāmarznāme
and the Persian Epic Cycle
By
Marjolijn van Zutphen
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Takhānun is killed by Farāmarz. Ms. Dorn 333, f. 325v. By kind permission of the National
Library of Russia in St Petersburg.
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
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issn 2210-3554
isbn 978-90-04-26826-5 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-26828-9 (e-book)
Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
Preface  ix
Notes on Transcription, Dates, Quotations, and Bibliographical
 Citations  xi
Chronological Table  xiv
Map of Greater Iran and Northern India  xvii
List of Tables and Figures  xviii
Introduction  1
Part 1
Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāme and the Persian Epic Cycle:
Texts and Origins
1 The History of the Kings, the Sistāni Cycle, and the Manuscript
Tradition  15
1 Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāme, Its Origins, and Supposed Sources  15
2 Parthian Origins of the Sistāni Cycle: Tentative Links to
Historical Events  31
3 Shāhnāme Manuscripts and Editions: Reconstructions and
Reinterpretations  46
2 The Persian Epic Cycle  62
1 The Later Epics as a Genre  62
2 The Poems Making Up the Persian Epic Cycle  74
3 Origins and Roles of the Sistāni Warriors  138
Part 2
Farāmarz and the Sistāni Dynasty: In the Shāhnāme,
Later Epics, and Histories
3 The Sistāni Dynasty in Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāme  147
1 The Older Generations: Rostam, Zāl, Zawāre, and Sām  147
2 The Confusing Situation of Garshāsp  158
3 Bizhan, the Son of Bānu Goshasp: The Union of
Two Noble Houses  162
4 Farāmarz’s Appearances in the Shāhnāme  168
vi contents
4 Farāmarz’s Role in Six Later Epics  191
1 The Bānu Goshaspnāme: Farāmarz’s Youth  191
2 The Shabrangnāme: Farāmarz’s First Test of War  195
3 The Jahāngirnāme: Farāmarz Saves Jahāngir’s Life  197
4 The Borzunāme  201
5 The Shahriyārnāme: Farāmarz Returns from India  207
6 The Bahmannāme  212
7 Conclusion  218
5 Farāmarz and the Sistāni Dynasty in Six Histories and
an Encyclopaedia  221
1 Ṭabari’s Universal History: Farāmarz Added to the
History of the Kings  222
2 Balʿami: The Persian Version of Ṭabari’s History  226
3 Ṡaʿālebi’s Arabic History of the Persian Kings  233
4 The Mojmal al-tawārikh wa⁠ʾl-qeṣaṣ: A Source on Persian Epic
Traditions  241
5 Shahmardān b. Abiʾl-Kheyr’s Nozhatnāme-ye ʿalāʾi: Farāmarz’s
Indian Campaign  252
6 Malek Shāh Sistāni’s Eḥyāʾ al-moluk and Its Example, the Tārikh-e
Sistān  258
7 Conclusion  271
Part 3
The Shorter and the Longer Farāmarznāme:
Manuscripts and Contents
6 Texts of the Farāmarznāme  279
1 The Shorter Farāmarznāme  280
2 The Longer Farāmarznāme: The Separate Poem  303
3 The Interpolated Longer Farāmarznāme in Four Shāhnāme
Manuscripts  323
4 The Indian Manuscripts: Two Shorter and Four Longer
Farāmarznāmes  327
5 Conclusion  330
7 The Shorter Farāmarznāme  333
1 Previous Research  333
2 The Story  341
contents vii
3 Analysis  372
4 Conclusion  410
8 The Longer Farāmarznāme  414
1 Speculations on the Poem’s Date and Sources  414
2 The Introductory Section – Two Different Versions  416
3 The Main Story – Part One: Farāmarz’s Campaign on the Indian
Mainland  434
4 The Interpolated Longer Farāmarznāme: A Retelling of the
Epic’s First Part  450
5 The Main Story – Part Two: Farāmarz’s Travels to the
Indian Islands  462
6 Analysis  487
7 Conclusion  546
Conclusion. Farāmarz, the Hero  551
1 Farāmarz, the Historical Conqueror  554
2 Farāmarz, the Epic Warrior and the Folktale Hero  561
3 Farāmarz, Hero of the Later Shāhnāme Manuscripts  566
Appendix 1. Manuscripts and Lithographs of the Shāhnāme and the
Later Epics  569
1 Manuscripts  569
2 Lithographed Editions  574
Appendix 2. Rubrics of the Shorter Farāmarznāme  575
1 The Rubrics of London (and Oxford) and Paris Compared  576
2 The Rubrics of L, BL, IO, and Leiden Compared  590
Appendix 3. Comparison of the Verses of the Texts of the Shorter
Farāmarznāme  614
Appendix 4. Rubrics of the Longer Farāmarznāme  642
Appendix 5. Comparison of the Verses of the Texts of the Longer
Farāmarznāme  690
Appendix 6. Rubrics of the Interpolated Longer Farāmarznāme  716
Bibliography  734
1 Primary Sources  734
2 Secondary Sources  738
Index  750

Preface
A previous edition of this book was printed, in just thirty copies, as my doc-
toral thesis. Relatively few changes have been made to this version, besides
the essential corrections of typographical errors and some editorial changes
to the text. In the main, certain passages have been removed that turned out
to contain incorrect information or distracted from the main argument, whilst
a number of minor additions have been made, in order for the information
presented herein to be more complete. For the rest, several sections have been
revised, so as to avoid repetitions and make the text more fluent.
The research for this book was conducted at Leiden University as part of the
Vidi project The Persian Epic Cycle and the Shahnama of Ferdowsi, which was
funded by the NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research)
and under the leadership of Dr Gabrielle van den Berg. Originally, the intention
was that my PhD research would focus on the representation of the Persian
epic cycle in the lithographic traditions. As this field of research soon turned
out to be too limited, I expanded it to the manuscript tradition. My focus came
to lie on an epic figure that features in both Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāme and a num-
ber of different poems of the Persian epic cycle, Farāmarz. Because the discus-
sion of Farāmarz as an epic character and of his role in the Persian epic cycle
involves a number of different narratives, it was necessary to investigate how
these narratives relate to the larger context of both the history of the legend-
ary Persian kings and of the epic cycle as a corpus. As a result, my dissertation,
whilst primarily focusing on Farāmarz, also came to include a general survey
of the Persian epic cycle and treat several additional epic characters.
My research was advanced through the contributions of a number of indi-
viduals. First of all, I am indebted to the curators, librarians, and other scholars
who, for the larger part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were
involved in the compilation of catalogues of various Persian manuscript col-
lections. Without their valuable work, which all too often is taken for granted,
I could not even have begun my research.
In addition, as my project supervisor, Dr Gabrielle van den Berg provided
important feedback on the draft versions of each chapter of my thesis, whilst
our conversations on the Shāhnāme and the epic cycle helped me develop
my insights on this topic. Dr Van den Berg also gave me useful information
on the Borzunāme and allowed me to read and cite her two, then still unpub-
lished, articles on Shabrang and the Shabrangnāme, of which I have gratefully
made use. Prof. Dr Ulrich Marzolph contributed during the first stages of my
research by putting his collection of lithographed Shāhnāmes at my disposal
x preface
for examination, at the Enzyklopädie des Märchens in Göttingen. My office-
mate of two years, Dr Johnny Cheung, served as my walking encyclopaedia
on various matters related to (pre-Islamic) Persian language, history, and cul-
ture, as well as helped by lending me his copy of Bahār and Gonābādi’s edition
of Balʿami’s history. I would here also like to acknowledge the contributions
of two other scholars for kindly responding to my e-mail inquiries: Dr Maria
Szuppe, who cleared up my confusion surrounding the manuscripts of the
Shahriyārnāme, and Dr Mahmoud Omidsalar, for very usefully pointing out to
me the existence of Sarmadi’s edition of the shorter Farāmarznāme.
I want to acknowledge as well Dr Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, my literature
teacher when I was a student of Persian. He introduced me to the Shāhnāme,
taught me how to interpret as well as to appreciate Persian classical poetry,
and supported my first efforts at deciphering manuscripts. Later on, Dr Seyed-
Gohrab encouraged me to pursue research and apply for the position in the
Persian Epic Cycle project.
In addition, my thanks go out to all the members of the committee that
read my thesis and were present at my doctoral defence, besides the afore-
mentioned Dr Van den Berg, Prof. Dr Marzolph, and Dr Seyed-Gohrab. I am
especially indebted to Prof. Dr Ab de Jong, Prof. Dr Johan ter Haar, and Prof. Dr
Faustina Doufikar-Aerts. Their remarks and questions prompted me to rethink
specific parts of my book and subsequently make some necessary adjustments.
I would like to make special mention of Prof. Dr Charles Melville, who, as
founder of the Cambridge Shahnama Project, may be seen as standing at the
forefront of the Persian Epic Cycle project. I am grateful as well to Prof. Dr Jan
Just Witkam for offering his support as my overall PhD advisor.
Finally, my personal thanks go out to Jan de Putter. Our discussions on mat-
ters related to our respective researches, along with his insights on philology,
literature, and history, stimulated me in the shaping and articulating of the
thoughts presented in my dissertation.