From: derek@locus.com (Dariush Keyani-Yazdi)
Subject: Re: A few pure Persian words from Shah-Nama
Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Los Angeles, California
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 22:40:20 GMT

I wrote:

>> Let's start with what is in Shahnameh, a bunch of stories. Great stories.
>> I think we can agree on that. The power in mythical stories lies in the
>> fact that they implicitly engage all manners of our humanity while 
>> seducing us with the passion and promise inherent in narrative. This way
>> they are far more effective vehicles for transformation than volumes of
>> didactic and theoretical material.

To which Naghmeh responds:

> Why do people find it hard to question such "Great Stories"?  What makes such
> Stories so great that they "seduce us with the passion and promise inherent in
> narrative"? As a twentieth century person, who has at least heard about 
> different socialist and populist movements, I can logically question how much 
> of a "great epic" CULTURALLY can the SHAHNAMEH be?  Notice that I don't mean 
> as a literary work, but rather as this great symbol of culture. Even without
> knowing anything about this book, logically you can conclude that a book 
> written FOR the kings, as an
> ode to them can not be much sympathetic to the values that I, an immigrant
> female in 1993 can adhere to. 

Let me address your last assertion first. Shahnameh, although literally means
The Book of Kings, is not about kings (as in royalty), nor is it for them.
Keep in mind that in Persian mythology the first human (or in general
humanity) is referred to as Shah. So, I invite you to take a drastic turn
with me and when we talk about Shahnameh think of the Shah in that word
as a more encompassing word, think of it as the great one, as the one
who has all the bliss and heavenly joy, think of it as humanity.

So the culture I am talking about is not the culture you have in mind.
The culture I am talking about, and invite you to seek in Shahnameh, has
nothing to do with the government system, has nothing to do with royalty,
or sepcific characters or events in our history. The culture I am talking 
about is about the value system that is so subtly set forth in Shahnameh. 
So subtle that the untrained mind might miss, but the unconscious won't.
That is Shahnameh's secret.

In the opening pages of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell
writes:

	It would not be too much to say that the myth is the secret opening
	through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into
	human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the
	social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in
	science and thechnology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil
	up from the basic, magic ring of myth.

Campbell has observed how mythology serves four major functions:

	1. It provides a bridging  between one's local consciousness and the
	sheer, vast, overwhelming environment of being.

	2. Myth provides an interpretive image of the relationship between
	local and universal consciousness.

	3. Myth empowers the moral order and brings about a reconciliation
	between the individual and his or her environment, climate, geography,
	culture, and social group.

	4. Most importantly, myth fosters the centering and unfolding of
	the individual in integrity, with himself (the microcosm), his
	culture (the mesocosm), the universe (the macrocosom), and finally
	with the ultimate creative mystery that is both beyond and within
	himself and all things.

Naghmeh asks what makes stories in the Shahnameh so great? She further asserts
that no story is Great Story by virtue of its nature, and that we are the
ones who have come to see them that way.

My answer: the stories in Shahnameh are great because they are the mythology
of the Persian people (whether Naghmeh Khanom likes it or not!), and as
such, they serve the four purposes that Campbell outlines. To paraphrase,
Shahnameh is not great becuase one day Ferdowsi decided to write a book
about kings and then the monarchy in Iran "drove it into our heads since
Ferdowsi knows when", Shahnameh is great becuase it springs from the
collective unconscious of the Persian people, it is the history of their
beliefs, struggles, pains, victories, and defeats, value systems, and
everythings that can be representative of a people, all collected  and
magnificently expressed in the Shahnameh, thanks to genious of Ferdowsi.

I agree with you, Naghmeh, that we give these stories their greatness, but
not the way you explain it, not because we were forced to, or becuase we
have unquestioning faith, but because the humanity in us is disarmed by
Ferdowsi. Because Ferdowsi talks in a language that everybody from our
grandmothers (with little or no formal training) to a college educated
person can enjoy and get some value out of it. You have to observe that
although the government system in Iran is no longer monarchy, academic
research on Shahnameh has considerably increased, both inside and outside 
Iran. For examplee, see Mazes of Mystery (mAzhAy-e rAz) by Mir Jalal al-din
Kazzazi. Dr. Khaleghi-Motlagh has spent the last twenty years editing a
new release of the Shahnameh, which is the most scientifically edited
and researched Shahnameh yet.

--
Dariush
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian