Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T20:23:11.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“If Death is Just, What is Injustice?” Illicit Rage in “Rostam and Sohrab” and “The Knight's Tale”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Cameron Cross
Cameron Cross*
Affiliation:
Persian and Arabic literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This is a comparative study of anger and narrative control in two tragic stories cast in an epic-heroic register, the “Tale of Rostam and Sohrab” of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and “The Knight's Tale” of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The narrators of both stories are heavily invested in upholding a certain normative interpretation of the events they recount, a fatalistic worldview that justifies itself through the necessarily agnostic optimism that these senseless catastrophes gain meaning when situated within a greater order that is beyond the capacity of man to comprehend. The emotional responses of outrage and grief therefore have no legitimate place in this worldview, and must be submitted to a process of rationalization and violent suppression in order to be kept in check. However, this same process also reveals the underlying aporias of its own normative logic, producing a subtextual counter-narrative that resists and undermines the dominant voice of the text. The resulting fragmentation and narrative collapse provides a fruitful opportunity to investigate how both texts respond to a crucial ontological topic in medieval literature and philosophy: what does it mean to be an autonomous subject within a divinely ordered universe, and how can one distinguish justice from tyranny in a world entirely governed by fate?

Keywords

AutonomyFatalismFerdowsiJusticeKingshipShahnamehSubjectivityTheodicy
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 3: The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi as World Literature , May 2015 , pp. 395 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aers, David. Chaucer, Langland, and the Creative Imagination. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.Google Scholar
ʿAqdāʾi, Turaj. “Ostureh-ye Zarvān.” In Ferdowsi-pazhuhi: Majmuʿeh-ye Maqālāti. Vol. 2, edited by Movahhadfard, Yāser, 135–155. Tehran: Khāneh-ye Ketāb, 1390/2011.Google Scholar
Asmussen, J. P. “Āz.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica 3/2: 168–169. Accessed September 8, 2013. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/az-iranian-demonGoogle Scholar
Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Chadwick, Henry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Banani, Amin. “Reflections on Re-Reading the Iliad and the Shahnameh.” In The Necklace of the Pleiades: Studies in Persian Literature Presented to Heshmat Moayyad on his 80th Birthday, edited by Lewis, Franklin and Sharma, Sunil, 63–68. Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2007. Reprinted Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Theseid of the Nuptials of Emilia = Teseida delle nozze di Emilia. Translated by Traversa, Vincenzo. New York: P. Lang, 2002.Google Scholar
Boethius. De consolatione philosophiae; opuscula theologica. Edited by Moreschini, Claudio. Munich: K. G. Saur, 2000. Translated by Green, Richard as The Consolation of Philosophy. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.Google Scholar
Browne, Edward Granville. A Literary History of Persia. 4 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1906–29.Google Scholar
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Prose translation by Colin Wilcockson. London: Penguin Books, 2008.Google Scholar
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Edited by Benson, Larry. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.Google Scholar
Clark, Fraser. “From Epic to Romance, via Filicide? Rustam's Character Formation.” Iranian Studies 43, no. 1 (2010): 53–70. doi:10.1080/00210860903451212CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clinton, Jerome. “The Illusion of Objectivity.” Persica 17 (2001): 27–33. doi:10.2143/PERS.17.0.497CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clinton, Jerome. “Review of Medieval Persian Court Poetry by Julie Scott Meisami.” Iranian Studies 23, no. 1/4 (1990), 116–23.Google Scholar
Clinton, Jerome. The Tragedy of Sohráb and Rostám. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996. First published in 1987.Google Scholar
Clinton, Jerome. “The Uses of Guile in the Shāhnāmah.” Iranian Studies 32, no. 2 (1999): 223–230. doi:10.2307/4311238 doi: 10.1080/00210869908701953CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dabashi, Hamid. The World of Persian Literary Humanism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Olga M. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Davis, Dick. Epic and Sedition: The Case of Ferdowsi's Shāhnāmeh. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Davis, Dick. “Rostam and Zoroastrianism.” In The Necklace of the Pleiades: Studies in Persian Literature Presented to Heshmat Moayyad on his 80th Birthday, edited by Lewis, Franklin and Sharma, Sunil, 49–61. Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2007. Reprint: Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Davis, Dick. “Rustam-i Dastan.” Iranian Studies 32, no. 2 (1999): 231–241. doi: 10.1080/00210869908701954CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Dick. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. New York: Viking, 2006.Google Scholar
Doostkhah, , Jalil, [Jalil Dustkhvāh]. Shenākhtnāmeh-ye Ferdowsi va Shāhnāmeh. Tehran: Daftar-e Pazhuhesh-hā-ye Farhangi, 1384/2005.Google Scholar
ʿEbādiān, Mahmud. “Bāvarhā-ye Zarvāni dar Shāhnāmeh.” In Dar Pirāmun-e Shāhnāmeh, edited by Razavi, Masʿud, 13–21. Tehran: Jehād-e Dāneshgāhi-ye Dāneshgāh-e Tehrān, 1369/1990.Google Scholar
Ebrāhimi, Hasan. “Taqdir va Sarnevesht dar Shāhnāmeh.” In Ferdowsi-pazhuhi: Majmuʿeh-ye Maqālāti. Vol. 1, edited by Akbari, Manuchehr, 21–30. Tehran: Khāneh-ye Ketāb, 1390/2011.Google Scholar
Esparham, Dāʾud. “Āz dar Shāhnāmeh.” In Ferdowsi-pazhuhi: Majmuʿeh-ye Maqālāti. Vol. 2, edited by Movahhadfard, Yāser, 29–57. Tehran: Khāneh-ye Ketāb, 1390/2011.Google Scholar
Ferdowsi, Abuʾl-Qāsem. Shahnameh. Edited by Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal. 8 vols. New York: Bibliotheca Persica, 1987–2008. [Cited as SN in the notes by vol:page, line no.].Google Scholar
Ferdowsi, Abuʾl-Qāsem. Shāhnāmeh-ye Ferdowsi: Tashih-e Enteqādi, Moqaddameh-ye Tahlili, Nokteh-hā-ye Nowyāfteh. Edited by Jeyhuni, Mostafā. 5 vols. Isfahan: Goruh-e Enteshārāt-e Shāhnāmeh-pazhuhi, 1379/2001.Google Scholar
Gaylord, Alan. “The Role of Saturn in the ‘Knight's Tale.’” The Chaucer Review 8, no. 3 (1974): 171–190.Google Scholar
Hatto, Arthur Thomas. “On the Excellence of the ‘Hildebrandslied’: A Comparative Study in Dynamics.” The Modern Language Review 68, no. 4 (1973): 820–838. doi: 10.2307/3726048CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidu, Peter. The Subject Medieval/Modern: Text and Governance in the Middle Ages. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Hodgson, Marshall. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. 3 vols. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jāhiz, Abu ʿUthmān ʿAmr b. Bahr al-. Rasāʾil al-Jāhiz. Edited by Hārūn, ʿAbd al-Salām Muhammad. 4 vols. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanjī, 1964.Google Scholar
Jones, Terry. Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal [Jalāl Khāleqi-Motlagh]. “Babr-e Beyān.” In Golranj-hā-ye Kohan: Bargozideh-ye Maqālāt darbāreh-ye Shāhnāmeh-ye Ferdowsi, edited by Dehbāshi, ʿAli, 283–352. Tehran: Sāles, 1388/2009.Google Scholar
Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal. “Yeki Dāstān Ast Por Āb-e Chashm.” In Golranj-hā-ye Kohan, 61–106. Tehran: Sāles, 1388/2009.Google Scholar
Kinra, Rajeev. “Fresh Words for a Fresh World: Tāza-Guʾi and the Poetics of Newness in Early Modern Indo-Persian Poetry.” Sikh Formations 3, no. 2 (2007): 125–149. doi:10.1080/17448720701733872CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Losensky, Paul. Welcoming Fighānī: Imitation and Poetic Individuality in the Safavid-Mughal Ghazal. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1998.Google Scholar
Low, Anthony. Aspects of Subjectivity: Society and Individuality from the Middle Ages to Shakespeare and Milton. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Meisami, Julie Scott. Medieval Persian Court Poetry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Mark. Philosophical Chaucer: Love, Sex, and Agency in the Canterbury Tales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Mizāni, Qobād. Negāhi beh Bakhsh-e Asātir-e Shāhnāmeh-ye Ferdowsi az Daricheh-ye Āʾin-e Keshvardāri. Tehran: Pāniz, 2008.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Edited by Horstmann, Rolf-Peter and Norman, Judith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Omidsalar, Mahmoud. Poetics and Politics of Iran's National Epic, the Shāhnāmeh. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.Google Scholar
Patterson, Lee. Chaucer and the Subject of History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Rāduyāni, Mohammad b. ʿOmar. Tarjomān al-Balāgheh. Edited by Ateş, Ahmed. 2nd ed. Tehran: Enteshārāt-e Asātir, 1362/1983.Google Scholar
Rahimi, Mostafā. Terāzhedi-ye Qodrat dar Shāhnāmeh. Tehran: Nilufar, 1369 [1990].Google Scholar
Rezā, Ahmad and Mohammadniā, Mojtabā. “Pesarkoshi dar Shāhnāmeh-ye Ferdowsi.” In Ferdowsi-pazhuhi: Majmuʿeh-ye Maqālāti. Vol. 1, edited by Akbari, Manuchehr, 195–212. Tehran: Khāneh-ye Ketāb, 1390 [2011].Google Scholar
Rigby, Stephen Henry. Wisdom and Chivalry: Chaucer's Knight's Tale and Medieval Political Theory. Leiden: Brill, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Safā, Zabihollāh. Hamāseh-sarāʾi dar Irān. 3rd ed. Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1352/1973.Google Scholar
Salter, Elizabeth. Chaucer: The Knight's Tale and the Clerk's Tale. Woodbury, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 1962.Google Scholar
Sāmāni, Jamshid. Tahlili az Shakhsiyat-hā-ye Shāhnāmeh. Tehran: Goruh-e Enteshārāt-e Shāhnāmeh-pazhuhi, 1384/2005.Google Scholar
Shafiʿi-Kadkani, Mohammad-Rezā. “Persian Literature (Belles-Lettres) from the Time of Jāmī to the Present Day.” In History of Persian Literature from the Beginning of the Islamic Period to the Present Day, edited by Morrison, George, 135–206. Handbuch der Orientalistik 4/2, no. 2. Leiden: Brill, 1981.Google Scholar
Shahbazi, A. Shapur. Ferdowsī: A Critical Biography. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, and Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 1991.Google Scholar
Shahbazi, A. Shapur. “The Parthian Origins of the House of Rostam.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute n.s. 7 (1993): 155–163.Google Scholar
Wallace, David. Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Wetherbee, Winthrop. Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century: The Literary Influence of the School of Chartres. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Yarshater, Ehsan. “Indian Style: Progress or Decline?” In Persian Literature, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan, 249–288. Albany, NY: Bibliotheca Persica, 1988.Google Scholar
Zaehner, Robert Charles. The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975.Google Scholar
Zaehner, Robert Charles. Zurvan: A Zoroastrian Dilemma. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955.Google Scholar
Zink, Michel. The Invention of Literary Subjectivity. Translated by David, Sices. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.Google Scholar