Some questions about Central Asian contributions to Shāhnāme

Abstract

In the history of studies, this question has been tackled first and foremost by internal criticism of the text (Markwardt, Nöldeke, Christensen, Boyce). For a long time, the focus has been on the Arsacid period, which is said to have witnessed the eruption of oral narratives in aristocratic readings, involving characters who renewed the Avestian stock, and a competition between the great Parthian families; each would have pushed forward a putative ancestor, hero of the wars that had pitted the young empire against the Saka ("Gōdarzian" cycle) or hero of the Saka themselves ("Sistanian" cycle promoted by the Sūrēn family, who in effect assumed the function of tāj-bakhsh attributed to Rostam). We're also now considering a resourcing that occurred in the Middle Sassanid period, perhaps in conjunction with the temporary recovery of Bactria. The Turanians and in particular their king Afrāsiāb offer a fairly faithful, if composite, picture of the masters of Central Asia from the^5th to the 7th^century. Their kingdom doesn't seem any more particularly nomadic than Iran's; they're not complete foreigners, they're genealogically cousins gone wrong.

On the other hand, neither Rostam, nor his father Zāl, nor his descendants appear in the Avesta. Mas'ūdī mentions a specific cycle, the Saghēsarān ("Chiefs of the Saka", a people present since the ^1stc. BC in Sistān Sakastān), who would have been introduced into the national legendarium while continuing to pursue an independent career.

From 1958 onwards, the question of Rostam was revived by the discovery in Punjikent of an episode of his exploits transposed as an illustrated banner on a mural painting [22]. Two other cycles featuring Rostam have since been identified in Punjikent (see M. Shenkar's presentation here). In these paintings, executed around 740, Rostam's physical features, copied from those of^{fifth-century}Hephtalite rulers, continue to demonstrate his links with the ancient nomads of the southern Hindukush. The onomastics of Rostam (<*rautas-tahma- "strong as a river") and his mother Rudābe ("from river water") clearly refer to the aquatic element, giving rise to various hypotheses: a comparison with Bhīṣma, son of the Ganges in the Mahābhārata (Skjaervø), or, more convincingly, with the origin stories of Scythian royalty (see I.V. Pyankov, "Scythian genealogical legend in "Rustamiada"", in M. Compareti, P. Raffetta and G. Scarcia (eds.), Ērān ud Anērān, Venice, Cafoscarina, 2006, pp. 505-511: the first Scythian king is begotten by the union of Zeus or Herakles with the daughter of the river Borysthenes; according to the version handed down by Valerius Flaccus, Argonautics VI.48-68, the founder of the priestly class is an albino, reminiscent of Zāl, father of Rostam).