Join Tessa Gratton and me as we read the Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. We’re using the Dick Davis translation (Penguin Classics).

If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out this  AMAZING post by Rachel W in which she works out the complicated genealogy of our main and secondary characters.

This week we are again skipping over The Death of Rostam and continuing on with the first part of The Reign of Sekander. Tessa and I, with the assistance of the able Renay of blog Lady Business and podcast The Fangirl Happy Hour, recorded a 30 minute conversation about our feelings about The Death of Rostam. We will post that for your listening pleasure as soon as Renay has edited it to her satisfaction so soon. Meanwhile, we forge onward.

Synopsis: “The second part of Sekandar’s reign, during which he travels the known world, seeking knowledge and power, until he dies of illness in Babylon.”

TG: This section alone feels like it could have been 500 pages of adventuring. So much happened, so many lands and people were visited, and they were all fascinating! I caught myself several times trying to figure out what places and cultures they were referencing. Obviously the women of Harum are connected to stories of the Amazons, with their matriarchy and manly left breast. Possibly some of the naked, blue-faced barbarian fighters were Celts or Norseman? I’m most interested in the city where the “men have soft feet!” What does that mean?

Sekandar continues to use his trickster ways, which is not only fun, but a very consistent characterization. He tries yet AGAIN to gain information from a king by pretending to be his own envoy! His army must just have gotten used to it. I was especially surprised he uses trickery to kill the dragon by filling the cow-skins with poison. That doesn’t seem very heroic to me — I can’t imagine Rostam killing a dragon like that. And yet, it works, and Sekandar is praised for it.

The most interesting thing to me in all his wandering were the frequent death visions: Sekandar saw several corpses, seeming to symbolize his fate. The dead king high on the mountain, surrounded by treasure and fame, but still dead. The angel Esrafil told him his death would come soon. The speaking tree gave him a precise time of death…. it seems no matter how far Sekandar searched out answers and curiosities, he always had to be reminded that death could not be defeated or solved. He didn’t even achieve the Waters of Life (though it seems his friend Khezr does, and then we hear no more of him?!?).

It was neat to see Arestalis come back in, and bestow wisdom to Sekandar, who then listened to that wisdom absolutely, even though it was connected to his death.

And I loved that Sekandar’s final words of wisdom, which in previous episodes have been relayed from dying king to his son and heir, Sekandar gave to his mother.

I do feel like the Shahnameh is taking a big turn as we leave Sekandar behind, the “world is changing” as Sekandar keeps being told, and the time of epic heroes may be passing as we get more and more connected to real history.

Sekander kills the dragon

KE: I’m dealing with multiple things going on at the same time so I don’t have any extensive commentary except that I loved this. The whole Sekander section has fascinated me both for historical and psychological reasons, and this final segment has such a fabulist and yet also deeply philosophical aesthetic that it was a delight to read. He is always asking questions. There is, I think, a direct correlation thematically between his wanting to “conquer the world” and also to answering the big questions, including the most important one, about death, and of course there is no way to defeat death as the stories tell us over and over again.

Every episode in this sequence was amazing, from the city of women (where they allow him alone to sneak in and look around) to the wonders, and the death visions, and the final letters to his teacher and his mother.

And, yes, I can’t help but love that the only person to see through his trickster-envoy ways is still, and always, Queen Qaydafeh.

Like you, I feel that the tenor of the story must now change, that maybe we are leaving behind the mythic and entering history.

Next week: The Ashkanians

 Previously: Introduction, The First Kings, The Demon King Zahhak, Feraydun and His Three Sons, The Story of Iraj, The Vengeance of Manuchehr, Sam & The Simorgh, The Tale of Zal and Rudabeh, Rostam, the Son of Zal-Dastan, The Beginning of the War Between Iran and Turan, Rostam and His Horse Rakhsh, Rostam and Kay Qobad, Kay Kavus’s War Against the Demons of Manzanderan, The Seven Trials of Rostam, The King of Hamaveran and His Daughter Sudabeh, The Tale of Sohrab, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 1, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 2, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 3, Forud the Son of Seyavash, The Akvan Div, Bizhan and Manizheh, The Occultation of Kay Khosrow, Rostam and Esfandyar Pt. 1, Rostam and Esfandyar Pt. 2, The Story of Darab and the Fuller, Sekander’s Conquest of Persia, The Reign of Sekander Pt. 1

Join Tessa Gratton and me as we read the Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. We’re using the Dick Davis translation (Penguin Classics).

If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out this  AMAZING post by Rachel W in which she works out the complicated genealogy of our main and secondary characters.

This week we are again skipping over The Death of Rostam and continuing on with the first part of The Reign of Sekander. Tessa and I, with the assistance of the able Renay of blog Lady Business and podcast The Fangirl Happy Hour, recorded a 30 minute conversation about our feelings about The Death of Rostam. We will post that for your listening pleasure as soon as Renay has edited it to her satisfaction so soon. Meanwhile, we forge onward.

Synopsis: “The first part of Sekandar’s reign, during which he conquers several kingdoms, some with friendship, some with trickery, some with war.”

TG: I continue to find Sekandar delightful — I love that he refuses to give up his penchant for trickery and pretending to be who he’s not. It keeps him seeming youthful and very entertaining.

While the episode with Foor was pretty typical of episodes in the Shahnameh so far, the ways Sekandar allies himself with Kayd and Qaydafeh are very unique and fascinating.

Kayd’s defense of his land by giving up the four special gifts is so reminiscent of a fairy tale I could read it again and again, and yet the specifics ground it so firmly in Shahnemeh folklore and language I just am in love. The battle of wits that’s really a riddle game, the fairy princess, the goblet that will not be drained (not to mention the actual description of the rules by which that magic works! Be still my wizard heart!)… I was in heaven during this section.

And it’s about time we had a queen who not only rules and rules well, but who out-smarts Our Hero, and delights in doing so. She makes Sekandar blush, and laughs at him and her own prowess. I love Qaydafeh with all my heart.

The one thing that kept pulling me out of this was the anachronistic association between Sekandar and the cross, not to mention the explicit references to Christianity. Historical Sekandar lived ~300 years before Christ, and nothing in the Shahnameh so far has reminded me that it was written down hundreds of years after the events took place — if they took place — and that it likely stems from oral traditions unconcerned with chronology and documentation. This is also the first time, I believe, that Mecca is explicitly mentioned and as a holy city of God, not to mention the invocation of Abraham and his line of descendants. VERY interesting.

Qaydafeh taking no crap from Sekander as she shows him his lying face

KE: Yes, I really love how Sekander is portrayed in this. He is a great character (second only to Seyavash in my heart now).

But how fantastic is Qaydafeh!!! Note that she is an older woman, with grown sons, not a sexy princess available as a sexual partner. In fact, and this is really interesting to me, Sekander also communicates respectfully with Delaray, the mother of Roshanak-whom-he-marries), so there is a pattern here of showing him in relationships with older women that I find quite interesting (and not at all common either in the Shahnameh or in narrative in general).

But I have to quote from this simply adorable passage in which Qaydafeh calls out Sekander. How often have women thought (and less often said) this:

Qaydafeh laughed at his blustering manliness and his angry words. She said, “O lion-like king, don’t let yourself be led astray by your male pride!”

That she completely overturns the expected power dynamics between them is GOLD to me. GOLD. I could not stop laughing when she drops the portrait of him in his lap to let him know she knows who he really is.

Although Seyavash will always be in my heart, this may be my favorite sequence in the Book of Kings so far. Qaydafeh is never punished for being smart and wise and powerful. Her power is not upended (at least not so far). And given where part one left off (at page 500) I will be fascinated to see how she handles the apparent betrayal of her reckless and unwise younger son, Taymush, whom she has given permission to Sekander to school, as it were.

Whenever a well known historical Alexander episode pops up here I’m just so intrigued, for example the mutiny of the army and their complaint, which is a classic episode from the Western versions of his history as well.

Like you I’m fascinated by the presence of Christianity and Islam inserted into an historical period where they didn’t exist. Especially given the presence of Zoroastrianism during Esfandyar’s story. I don’t have any comment on it beyond how interesting it is to see the historical events of Sekander’s reign conflated with the present-day understanding of Ferdowsi’s world, in which the West WAS Christian and the Middle East WAS Muslim. Makes you think about how we create historical narrative in our own time, doesn’t it?

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Next week: the second part of The Reign of Sekander

 Previously: Introduction, The First Kings, The Demon King Zahhak, Feraydun and His Three Sons, The Story of Iraj, The Vengeance of Manuchehr, Sam & The Simorgh, The Tale of Zal and Rudabeh, Rostam, the Son of Zal-Dastan, The Beginning of the War Between Iran and Turan, Rostam and His Horse Rakhsh, Rostam and Kay Qobad, Kay Kavus’s War Against the Demons of Manzanderan, The Seven Trials of Rostam, The King of Hamaveran and His Daughter Sudabeh, The Tale of Sohrab, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 1, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 2, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 3, Forud the Son of Seyavash, The Akvan Div, Bizhan and Manizheh, The Occultation of Kay Khosrow, Rostam and Esfandyar Pt. 1, Rostam and Esfandyar Pt. 2, The Story of Darab and the Fuller, Sekander’s Conquest of Persia

Join Tessa Gratton and me as we read the Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. We’re using the Dick Davis translation (Penguin Classics).

If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out this  AMAZING post by Rachel W in which she works out the complicated genealogy of our main and secondary characters.

This week we are skipping The Death of Rostam and discussing the next chapter, The Story of Darab and the Fuller.

Why? you may ask. Because Tessa and I, with the assistance of the fabulous Renay of blog Lady Business and podcast The Fangirl Happy Hour, recorded a 30 minute conversation about our feelings about The Death of Rostam. We will post that for your listening pleasure as soon as Renay has edited it to her satisfaction so perhaps next week or the week after. Meanwhile, we forge onward.

THIS WEEK: The Story of Darab and the Fuller

Synopsis: “The story of King Darab, who was raised by a fuller and had an awesome mother.”

TG: All the stories about Homay, please.

Homay, daughter of Bahman, makes herself queen after her father dies. She “places the crown on her own head” and tells the whole world not only is she queen now, but she’s gonna be a great one: then she proceeds to do exactly that.

I love that this story gives her honor and glory, doesn’t try to undercut her power. And I love that she’s the first king to want to keep the throne for herself who then succeeds in doing so! The threat to her crown is her son, and instead of having him killed or banished or concocting a long-game scheme to get rid of him, she gives him to the river, with riches and guardians. It works! The people who find him raise him well enough, to be practical in addition to letting his farr develop and grow bright.

It was interesting to me that Darab’s farr shows up as beauty, a warrior’s glory and prowess, and a certain, shall we say, attitude. He feels that his parents are not his true parents, and he feels that he comes from elsewhere. His feelings make him a bit of an ass to his parents, but that’s in keeping with the behavior of famous princes and warriors like Rostam. I also see parallels to Zal a bit, who was raised by magic, because Darab WAS given to the river, and even though there’s no explicit magic there and his foster parents were humans (though humans who bend the river to their will by narrowing it), it seems like the land takes an interest in him, for it’s the wind itself protecting him from the ruins later in his life. That moment of earth magic was lovely and exciting. Of course, Zal would never turn a wife away bc she had bad breath! (I loved that story though, and really look forward to Sekandar, named after a semi-magical healing herb.)

Homay seems to change her tune when she realizes her son has come home–she’s happy to see him, according to the narrative, but tells a slightly different story. At first, when Darab was a baby, she “enjoys” the fact that she’s the queen of everything, but she tells Darab and the priests when he returns that she is so glad to turn the throne over to him because it and her wealth have “caused me such sorrow.” I want to think that she’s saving her own skin by acting apologetic and as if she did this because she HAD to, to save the kingdom for Darab. I wouldn’t put it past her.

My favorite moment of this entire section though, is when Darab forgives Homay for sending him away, because IT MAKES A BETTER STORY. He actually says to her that he’s glad she gave him to the river, because nobody will forget him now. That is delightful, and insightful of him. And also pretty meta, given that this is the Book of Kings and I’m certainly going to remember this section better than some of the others.

A last note: these kings seem to be living normal lifespans now. Growing old and sick, dying in time for their children to inherit, instead of living for hundreds of years and having to be ousted.

Homay crowns Darab, although as far as I can tell Darab is sitting the audience chamber and Homay is on a balcony observing the crowning rather than doing the crowning with her own hands

KE:  Wow, I could write a hundred pages about this story alone because there is so much of interest here.

The story has a very folk-tale like feel to it, complete in itself and with the delightful element of the baby placed in water and recovered by people who adopt it (as also seen in the stories of Moses and of Mesopotamian king Sargon). As Tessa points out, Darab’s growth reflects elements of earlier stories. Of course Darab’s high birth asserts itself despite his lowly upbringing; of course he is recognized as superior to others, etc etc. This is a trope still beloved in our modern fiction complete with the mismatched family element (Harry Potter!). These days it might also be a random gifted person, not just a descendent of noble blood, who is plucked from obscurity and returned to their rightful status as someone on top of the heap (whether that heap be rulership, art, science, or what have you). Regardless, the trope of essentialism, of “blood tells,” of Chosen Ones and the hierarchy of “natural worth” is quite interesting for how long it has been with us and how it persists even in a supposedly democratic egalitarian society.

I want to add that Darab was really a dick to his foster parents which I can in no way from the story detect that they deserved, except, I suppose, that it might be implied they should have never tried to pretend (to him) that he was really theirs. I did not like the way he treated them, and of course in a story of this kind he is never scolded, punished, or made to look bad for his rudeness and dismissiveness. Birth and farr give him the right to be the way he is.

I too loved Homay. What interested me most beyond the unusual aspect of a woman ruling alone and competently (that is, the story allowing it) was the unexplained and never explored aspect of her relationship to her father. Her father has sex with her. Because we are given a synopsis for this very unexpected situation rather than the full poetic treatment, we can’t know whether Homay is a willing participant. Is she okay with it because it gives her power? Why does her brother leave in anger? He must suspect that he’s about to get disinherited. Is there shame in Homay having a child by her father? Is that one reason for her to claim the child is dead and get rid of it (without killing it, since she seems too righteous to do that)? Is it purely ambition that drives her, knowing that she could be nothing but a regent as long as a boy child exists? And if so, then everyone would have to acknowledge that this is a child born through incest, even though there is a “custom called Pahlavi” which I looked up in iranica online:

In Zoroastrian Middle Persian (Pahlavi) texts, the term xwēdōdah (Av.xᵛaētuuadaθa) is said to refer to marital unions of father and daughter, mother and son, or brother and sister (next-of-kin or close-kin marriage, nuclear family incest), and to be one of the most pious actions possible. The models for these unions were found in the Zoroastrian cosmogony. 

The pre-Alexander Achaemenid Empire, the one he conquered, includes marriages among the noble clans that may be quite close relation. I don’t know what it means in the Zoroastrian cosmogony but politically it can sometimes make sense to marry next of kin or close kin to keep power tied tightly within the hands of a single family.

I also have to wonder if Darab and Dara have any etymological link to the King Darius whom Alexander defeated, but I just don’t know. We are falling sideways into history, and it is so interesting to see the origins of the next story which we know from a different place in Western history.

Which leads me to the next interesting thing: Hey! Alexander! How fascinating to suggest Sekander (the Persian form of Alexander) is half Persian! Why not? His origin story is fascinating. I too was bemused by Darab putting his wife aside because she has bad breath. What a curious detail.

A couple of interesting mentions regarding Filqus, named here as the king of Greece. Is Filqus related at all etymologically to Philip (Alexander’s actual father)? I have no idea. Anyway, he’s said to be in league with the king of Susa, and now after all these stories about legendary kings I do feel we are stepping firmly into history. I don’t know where Amourieh is meant to be; I found one reference to it saying it is the district between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean, in which case Filqus would not be the king of Greece (Hellas) or Macedonia but rather of what we now call Lebanon and Israel. How curious!

Narratively it feels as if Darab’s choice to send her back to her father reflects a long tradition within the Shahnameh of boys being brought up by their mother’s in their mother’s courts with no knowledge or interaction with their fathers. It’s just so interesting, and of course sets up the next story, which is Sekander’s conquest of Persia.

Randomly, as I searched for images of Homay, I found this image of the cover of a book about (as the title so clearly states) Women in the Shahnameh. Hmm. Could be interesting.

Next week: Either the podcast version of The Death of Rostam OR if that’s not ready yet, the first part of Sekander’s Conquest of Persia. JOIN US!

 Previously: Introduction, The First Kings, The Demon King Zahhak, Feraydun and His Three Sons, The Story of Iraj, The Vengeance of Manuchehr, Sam & The Simorgh, The Tale of Zal and Rudabeh, Rostam, the Son of Zal-Dastan, The Beginning of the War Between Iran and Turan, Rostam and His Horse Rakhsh, Rostam and Kay Qobad, Kay Kavus’s War Against the Demons of Manzanderan, The Seven Trials of Rostam, The King of Hamaveran and His Daughter Sudabeh, The Tale of Sohrab, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 1, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 2, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 3, Forud the Son of Seyavash, The Akvan Div, Bizhan and Manizheh, The Occultation of Kay Khosrow, Rostam and Esfandyar Pt. 1, Rostam and Esfandyar Pt. 2

Join Tessa Gratton and me as we read the Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. We’re using the Dick Davis translation (Penguin Classics).

If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out this  AMAZING post by Rachel W in which she works out the complicated genealogy of our main and secondary characters.

This week: the second half of Rostam and Esfandyar.

Synopsis: “Esfandyar nearly kills Rostam, but intervention from Zal and the Simorgh saves him and allows him to kill Esfandyar instead.”

TG: I’ll read sections with Simorgh and Zal doing magic FOREVER. It’s interesting to me that the rules governing use of magic remains so very amorphous. If you’re a good person, using magic is fine, if you’re a bad person (or a Turk), then it’s bad. That’s the only rule I can really parse out, though I’d be interested in an analysis by someone more knowledgable.

Speaking of magic, I looked up tamarisk trees on wikipedia and it’s salt cedar! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarix) It’s also all over the Old Testament and in the Epic of Gilgamesh, often planted in auspicious places, or also used as a curse. This episode of Rostam using a specific arrow to kill Esfandyar reminded me of the story from Norse mythology of only a mistletoe arrow being capable of killing the god Baldur.

I don’t have a lot to add to last week’s thoughts, to be honest, since other than the magic this continues to confuse me with regards to motivation and changing behavior. Basically everybody says one thing and does another, or feels one thing then abruptly feels another way. They really played up the prophecy that whoever kills Esfandyar will suffer, and then it went nowhere. Of course there’s always the next section, but I actually felt some tension about whether Rostam or Goshtasp would be the recipient of the torment and woe, then…nothing. They’re both doing ok!

I did like the moment Esfandyar sent his sons’ bodies home with a note reading “This is your fault, Dad, don’t pretend to be sorry!” But still have a hard time understanding why E kept up the attempts to chain Rostam when he so, so clearly disagreed with the command.

We did get a few more named women, Beh Afarid and Homay, who just lit in to Goshtasp in a really admirable way. But Pashutan then told them to shut up, basically, even though he’d literally been saying exactly the same thing three lines before hand. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Better luck next week, with THE DEATH OF ROSTAM. AW YEAH.

A bearded Rostam, mounted on his horse Rakhsh, looses the arrow that strikes the younger hero, Esfandyar (also mounted).

KE: I am bitterly disappointed that one of the sections abridged in this translation is Esfandyar’s rescue of his sisters. I don’t think any hero has rescued his sisters, or even had a relationship with a sister, not since the brief mention of Sevayash (*weeps endless tears*) hanging out with his sisters to avoid the machinations and sleazy sexual interest of Queen Sudabeh. As the endless back and forth between Rostam and Esfandyar went on, and then when he dies and the repercussions hit the Persian court, I could not help but think that we as readers would have better understood his heroic aspect (within the context of the narrative) if only we had seen him act heroically. As it is, we only see this weird bickering with Rostam which is, as you say, running by some different set of rules than those I can fully understand.

I did find this sequence really interesting though because people’s motivations are so twisty and ambivalent. It’s clear Goshtasp is not a nice man or even a particularly good king; he’s one who seems to rest upon others’ laurels, and he is a mediocre enough judge of character that he even listens to a bad advisor! At the same time, it is stated that Esfandyar tried to overthrow his father which basically goes against all societal mores. So he’s no peach either.

And, as we have already discussed, him and Rostam trying to out-dick each other is in some ways the crowning moment of this long Rostam-heavy sequence.

But it really is Goshtasp’s fault. He is smart enough to know he is at risk, and smart enough to use his son’s honor and pride against him. He machinates his son’s death in a way that no repercussions can fall on him (even if his children do blame him for it), and he gets away with it! He basically doesn’t seem to be sorry at all.

Esfandyar and Rostam are trapped by their own societal expectations, the forms of behavior they have to follow. So for me it’s a fascinating exploration of how they push and pull against their own need to not lose face, not lose reputation, and not lose honor. All things considered, it kind of sucks.

Pretty sure Bahman, renamed Ardeshir, is THE Ardeshir, a real king who took power after the death of Alexander the Great’s successors (the Seleucids) in that region. It’s fascinating to start seeing the historical element sail in.

For me there were a lot of good lines in this section (and I always love every reappearance of Zal and the Simorgh), but I was perhaps most affected by Esfandyar, on his dying breath, saying, “It was Goshtasp, my father, who destroyed me.”

That is some drama right there. His death won me over, and my abiding dislike for Rostam even softened slightly in this sequence.

Even so, I await next week: “The Death of Rostam.”

HOWEVER: it’s not yet clear whether next week’s post will go up on Friday August 20 or Friday September 2. Why? you may ask. That is because Tessa and Kate will both be at Worldcon Kansas City (Midamericon), and with the aid of Renay Williams (of the Hugo-nominated Lady Business) we hope to record a podcast for “The Death of Rostam” because we are so ready.

We will let you know as soon as we know.

To close, here is a statue of Esfandyar, holding a spear and a shield and posing with one foot forward in the classic stance. DUDE.

Previously: Introduction, The First Kings, The Demon King Zahhak, Feraydun and His Three Sons, The Story of Iraj, The Vengeance of Manuchehr, Sam & The Simorgh, The Tale of Zal and Rudabeh, Rostam, the Son of Zal-Dastan, The Beginning of the War Between Iran and Turan, Rostam and His Horse Rakhsh, Rostam and Kay Qobad, Kay Kavus’s War Against the Demons of Manzanderan, The Seven Trials of Rostam, The King of Hamaveran and His Daughter Sudabeh, The Tale of Sohrab, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 1, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 2, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 3, Forud the Son of Seyavash, The Akvan Div, Bizhan and Manizheh, The Occultation of Kay Khosrow, Rostam and Esfandyar Pt. 1

Join Tessa Gratton and me as we read the Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. We’re using the Dick Davis translation (Penguin Classics).

If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out this  AMAZING post by Rachel W in which she works out the complicated genealogy of our main and secondary characters.

This week: the first half of Rostam and Esfandyar.

Synopsis: “The Prince of Iran Esfandyar meets Rostam who has been living apart from the Persian court and the two engage in a ‘My Dick Is Bigger Than Yours’ contest” 

TG: My feelings about this section are probably pretty clear based on my summary.

At one point they even *literally* have a handshake contest. In which they squeeze blood and pus out from under each other’s fingernails. (At least the narrative is ALL IN).

My two real issues with section are:

a) nobody listens to good advice

b) wtf motivations

Both Esfandyar’s mother Katayun and his advisor Pashutan give Esfandyar good advice multiple times, but he disregards them. His only counter-point is a good one, (that it’s bad news to go against the king’s command) but I’m not sure it out weighs the legions of reasons Katayun and Pashutan offer to disregard his father’s unreasonable command. What’s the point of having advisors if you never listen to them? Only Afrasyab regularly listened to his advisor, and of course his advisor was evil and led him astray again and again.

With Katayun, at least, I’m pretty sure Esfandyar only asked her because he thought she’d tell him what he wanted to hear. When she doesn’t, he treats her terribly and regrets asking her at all. When he says those mean things to her about asking a woman’s advice I think he’s making it up, since he’s all “some guy said this” instead of having an actual citation.

As for motivations…. I think it’s interesting that Esfandyar is so interested in inheriting the throne before his time, just like Goshtasp was and did, and I can’t help but wonder what we missed thematically in the skipped-over section that might have helped us understand the shift from heirs being named only when the king was near death to this legacy situation. Is it just that Lohrasp has a living son, who has a living son, instead of sons dying tragically? Is it a shift with the coming of Zoroaster? The desire to take the crown from your father doesn’t seem like something that should sit well with the presence of farr.

The other aspect of my wtf motivations reaction is that I have mixed feelings about the kind of narrative when prophecy causes its own conclusion: If Goshtasp hadn’t had his son’s astrological chart read, would any of this happened? And when he gets the prophecy, he only momentarily tries to figure out a way to thwart it. When the councilor says you can’t change fate Goshtasp seems to decide “well, if I can’t change my son’s fate of dying at Rostam’s hand, I guess I should just give in and create a TERRIBLE SCENARIO.”

side note: HOW DO YOU NOT RECOGNIZE ZAL???

Esfandyar, wearing lamellar armor and a lovely helm, and riding a splendid black horse, wields a sword as he hunts two gray wolves (one of which has ANTLERS) in a landscape of trees and bushes.

KE: Goodness. We have finally met a man who is as obnoxious and self centered as Rostam.

The first thing that strikes me on reading Rostam and Esfandyar (the first half) is that the dispute between Khosrow and Zal isn’t really over. Zal spoke out against Khosrow’s decision to leave the kingship, and while he apologized (in a beautiful gesture) for doubting the king’s appointment of Lohrasp as his heir, in fact it now seems that Rostam and Zal have not acknowledged Lohrasp’s heir in any meaningful way. That in part is what ignites this rather dreadful story.

Once again a mother gives advice to her son and is ignored, this time with bonus sexism about women’s advice. At first I thought Esfandyar was too young to have married but he has a grown son, so it’s interesting that none of his wives/concubines are deemed important enough to influence him. Again I can’t analyze because I don’t know the cultural context but it’s fascinating to me which of our famous men are given relationships with mothers, which with wives, and which basically have no female figure to interact with as adults.

The debates between the two men are amusing as they each strive to out-dick each other using courtly flowery language mixed with stabs of insults and demands. Also, I want to note that I wrote the previous sentence before I saw Tessa’s comments, just to note that we independently came to the conclusion that Esfandyar is a dick to rival Rostam.

I was also intrigued and puzzled by the son who wants to supplant his father, in contrast to the father who (in the case of Kavus, for example) steps aside when it is time for his son (or grandson) to take his place. It does feel as if a sea change has happened, or a cultural shift. As we haven’t reached Alexander the Great’s time yet I’m not sure if all of this still exists in the “legendary past” or if any of it has any correspondence to the Achaemenid era. It doesn’t seem to, but (according to the book I mentioned last week) it’s clear the Persians have had a tradition of “Books of Kings” from before the time of Alexander and maybe as far back as the Median kings who reigned prior to Cyrus and the Achaemenids.

The thing is: given Esfandyar’s history of wanting to supplant his father, why would Goshtasp even try to stop him from getting killed by Rostam? That absolves him from the crime of killing his own son or acting against him, and rids him of an heir who will never be satisfied until his father is dead.

Oh, and yes: The handshake scene is a classic piece of dick dueling. I am sure we should be more respectful of the deep masculine profundity in all this, but I just can’t.

Next week: The second half of this story will doubtless end badly for someone whose name is Esfandyar.

Previously: Introduction, The First Kings, The Demon King Zahhak, Feraydun and His Three Sons, The Story of Iraj, The Vengeance of Manuchehr, Sam & The Simorgh, The Tale of Zal and Rudabeh, Rostam, the Son of Zal-Dastan, The Beginning of the War Between Iran and Turan, Rostam and His Horse Rakhsh, Rostam and Kay Qobad, Kay Kavus’s War Against the Demons of Manzanderan, The Seven Trials of Rostam, The King of Hamaveran and His Daughter Sudabeh, The Tale of Sohrab, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 1, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 2, The Legend of Seyavash Pt. 3, Forud the Son of Seyavash, The Akvan Div, Bizhan and Manizheh, The Occultation of Kay Khosrow

Join Tessa Gratton and me as we read the Shahnameh by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. We’re using the Dick Davis translation (Penguin Classics).

If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out this  AMAZING post by Rachel W in which she works out the complicated genealogy of our main and secondary characters.

This week we aren’t reading because Tessa has a deadline.

Next week: the first half of Rostam and Esfandyar.

Instead, a brief digression. I am reading POETICS AND POLITICS OF IRAN’S NATIONAL EPIC, THE SHAHNAMEH by Mahmoud Omidsalar. (Palgrave Macmillan)

I’m not far into it yet but basically he begins by examining, and refuting, the standard Western interpretations of the epic. I will give a report on what I’ve read on that aspect later.

For now: We’ve noted how translator Dick Davis has been skipping material, especially here in the middle. He gives some explanation of what and how he decided to abridge/leave out, and of course it is his decision to make as translator. But I was stunned to read this very emotional sequence in the introduction to Omidsalar’s book and am honestly puzzled why one would leave this out.

Seyavash, having foreseen his doom, takes his leave of Faragis, then goes to the stable and frees his favorite horse, Bihzad. This part is included, of course.

And we read (in synopsis) that the hero Giv finds Faragis and Kay Khosrow and escorts them to Iran. But what isn’t mentioned is this scene, which I will reproduce in its entirety (Omidsalar, p 4-5).

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the princess tells her son to take Bihzad’s saddle and halter to a nearby meadow where herds of horses come to drink water at midday. . . . Giv accompanies the young prince into the pastures.

The valiant lord mounted

And Giv walked in front, leading the way

They set out for a [nearby] hill

Where they could survey the fields

When the herd came by

And the horses drank their fill

Bihzad looked up, saw the prince,

And sighed piteously

He saw that saddle of Seyavash, covered in leopard’s skin

Those long stirrup leathers and the fine pommel

Resolutely, he stood at the waterhole

And did not move from where he was

Seeing his calm, Kay Khosrow

Treaded toward him with the saddle

He caressed and laid his cheek upon his face

He ran his fingers through his mane and touched him gently

Then the prince haltered and saddled him,

And remembered his [slain] father [to him].

When he mounted and steadied himself in the saddle

The colossal steed stirred

And rose like the wind.

It flew and vanished from Giv’s sight.

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And here an illustration of Kay Khosrow riding Bihzad for the first time: