The Shahnama of Firdausi

Volume I

Arthur George Warner, Edmond Warner

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415245388
• eBook ISBN: 9781136395123
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This is Volume IV of a collection of thirteen on Persia. Originally published in 1905, this text looks at the first part of the SHÁHNÁMA OF FIRDAUSÍ. To the vast majority of English readers the Sháhnáma seems hardly to be known even by name even though it is a great Persian Epic.

THE BEGINNING OF THE HISTORY

I
THE PISHDÁDIAN DYNASTY

ARGUMENT

The poet tells the history of the first ten Sháhs of Írán, describes the progress of the world from barbarism to culture, and the invention of the arts and sciences, and finally how the Grace departed from the Pishdádian Dynasty through the unworthiness and degeneracy of its representatives.

NOTE

The word Pishdádian, the name given to the Sháhs of the first Íránian Dynasty, means those of the old law or original dispensation. Zoroastrianism was built upon an older foundation of nature-worship, to which it bears some such relation as the New Testament bears to the Old. One of the gods of the elder faith— Ahura, the Asura of India—became the supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, of the new dispensation, and the Urmuzd of the Sháhnáma. Accordingly Gaiúmart, the first Sháh in the poem, is expressly recognised in the Zandavasta, as the first worshipper of Urmuzd.¹ Húshang, the second Sháh, institutes the worship of fire—a characteristic feature of Zoroastrianism. Urmuzd in the Zandavasta makes a covenant with Yima, the fourth Sháh, and tries to persuade him to undertake the part of lawgiver afterwards taken by Zoroaster, but Yima through modesty declines.

Zoroastrianism therefore in a sense existed before Zoroaster, with whose advent the Zandavasta ends; hence there is less anachronism than might be supposed in the allusions, often made in the earlier parts of the poem, to fire-worship, the Zandavasta, and similar matters. Zoroaster was the first recipient of the complete revelation.

I
GAIÚMART

HE REIGNED FOR THIRTY YEARS

ARGUMENT

Gaiúmart, the first Sháh and the first ruler of the world, incurs the envy of Áhriman, who sends a host of dívs to attack him, commanded by the Black Dív—the son of Áhriman. Siyámak, the son of Gaiúmart, with an army encounters the Black Dív and is slain, but is avenged by his son Húshang, who succeeds to the throne on the death of his grandfather.

NOTE

The poet in his account of Gaiúmart omits much Zoroastrian lore. In the Bundahish Urmuzd is represented as first creating two beings—the representatives of mankind, and of the animals and plants, respectively. These were Gaiúmart and the Primeval Ox. For three thousand years they lived happily and unmolested in the world of Urmuzd. At the expiration of this period Áhriman assailed the creation of Urmuzd, and slew both the Ox and Gaiúmart; but the latter survived the former by thirty years, which became the duration of the reign of the first Sháh in the poem. The Ox in dying gave origin to the plants and animals, and Gaiúmart to the first human couple—Máshya¹ and Máshyóí— who in turn produced offspring among which was Siyámak, who is represented as the son of Gaiúmart in the Sháhnáma. In the poem, too, the attack on Gaiúmart is made indirectly by means of the Black Dív, not directly by Áhriman as in the Bundahish. The reader may be reminded that the Bundahish is a Pahlaví version of the lost book of the Zandavasta known as the Dámdád or “ races produced.”

It will be noticed that Gaiúmart is stated to have made his home upon a mountain. Mountains were looked upon as sacred places in old times as being nearer heaven. Urmuzd reveals the Zandavasta to Zoroaster on the mountain of the holy Questions.¹ In the division of mankind into castes in the reign of Jamshíd the mountains are specially set apart for the priests. The mother of Farídún with her infant son takes refuge with a holy hermit who dwells on Mount Alburz, and there too Kai Kubád, the founder of the Kaiánian Dynasty, receives the news of his election to the throne.

§ 1
The Greatness of Gaiúmart and the Envy of Áhriman

What saith the rustic bard ? Who first designed

To gain the crown of power among mankind ?

V. 14 Who placed the diadem upon his brow ?

The record of those days hath perished now

Unless one, having borne in memory

Tales told by sire to son, declare to thee

Who was the first to use the royal style

And stood the head of all the mighty file.

He who compiled the ancient legendary,

And tales of paladins, saith Gaiúmart

Invented crown and throne, and was a Sháh.

This order, Grace, and lustre came to earth

When Sol was dominant in Aries

And shone so brightly that the world grew young.

Its lord was Gaiúmart, who dwelt at first

Upon a mountain; thence his throne and fortune

Rose. He and all his troop wore leopard-skins,

And under him the arts of life began,

For food and dress were in their infancy.

He reigned o’er all the earth for thirty years,

In goodness like a sun upon the throne,

And as a full moon o’er a lofty cypress

So shone he from the seat of king of kings.

The cattle and the divers beasts of prey

Grew tame before him; men stood not erect

Before his throne but bent, as though in prayer,

Awed by the splendour of his high estate,

And thence received their Faith.

He had a son

Named Siyámak, ambitious like his sire,

A youth well favoured, skilled, and fortunate,

His father’s Life, whose joy was gazing on him,

That fruitful offshoot of the ancient stem.

That Life the father cherished tenderly,

And wept for love, consumed by dread of parting.

Thus time passed onward and the kingdom prospered,

For Gaiúmart had not an enemy V. 15

Except, in secret, wicked Áhriman,

Who led by envy sought the upper hand.

He had a son too, like a savage wolf

Grown fearless, and a host of warriors.

The son assembled these and sought his sire,

Resolved to win the great Sháh’s throne and crown,

Whose fortune joined with that of Siyámak

Made the world black to him. He told his purpose

To every one and filled the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Contents
• Introduction
• THE SHÁHNÁMA
• THE BEGINNING OF THE HISTORY: THE PISHDÁDIAN DYNASTY
• INDEX