Abstract
Dominique Barthélemy has read the Shāhnāme as part of his comparative research on the warrior elites of medieval Europe and Asia (IUF). He discusses its developments in Western and Japanese history, before offering a few observations on the Iranian case.
Like many other warrior elites, the one described, imagined or reconstituted in the Shāhnāme indulges in vengeance in a familial or patriotic manner, and has what Dominique Barthélemy proposes to call a chivalric tropism insofar as in this vindicatory framework it is more interested in its opponent of the same superior status than in its auxiliaries of lesser rank. And yet, from discernment and esteem between enemies to peace talks and the establishment of genuine connivances, the shift is, if not easy, at least possible: so wouldn't a chivalric mutation lie in wait for the pahlavān? In fact, here, against a backdrop of sacrificial ideals and in the course of tragic narratives of itineraries quickly interrupted by the death of young warriors of royal nobility, episodes similar to those woven into properly chivalric narratives in 11th- and12th-century France are occasionally introduced. There are phases of friendship between former enemies, playful tests of strength and skill; singular battles punctuate the stories of Siyāvush, Forud, and above all Bijan, who has the rare privilege of fulfilling himself without dying in the text. Yet there is no room here for true knightly sociability, due in particular to the relative strength of royalty, the absence of any real female instigation to vengeance or exploit, and the place taken by hunting. But these characteristics should not, of course, be described as obstacles, nor should the ideals and practices of noble warfare in Iran be characterized by any kind of incompleteness. It is the very method of comparatism that requires the historian to underline what a given society and culture are not, in order to better describe and attempt to explain what they are, and Dominique Barthélemy finds, in particular, the relationship of the pahlavān to the prestigious prey of their hunts particularly suggestive, a point echoed for a moment by Gilles Authier in his presentation the following hour.
