The Allegorical Readings of the Shāh-nāma in Comparison with the Allegoreses of Homer’s Epics

Abstract

There is a consensus that the Greek epic does not present itself as “veiled expressions (ainos),” but in the Greek literary tradition, several episodes of Homer’s works have received allegorical readings by literary critics and philosophers. These readings are categorized according to the motivations of their authors into two groups: defensive or apologetic and appropriative or exegetical. Against this background, this paper examines the Shāh-nāma and its broader literary tradition, arguing that, first, the Shāh-nāma, too, does not present itself as a multi-layered text in need of interpretation. Second, we can identify the same two categories within the admittedly fewer allegorical readings offered for the Shāh-nāma; Ferdowsi’s prologues to some tragic stories of the Shāh-nāma resemble Homeric defensive allegoreses, whereas the allegorical readings by some Sufi poets and thinkers represent the appropriative group. Similarities and differences between the Greek and the Iranian traditions in each group will be also discussed.