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This article revisits 'brag' and 'bragging' in the battle field in Ferdowsi's Shahname. To this end, in the first section, the denotative and idiomatic meanings of brag and bragging are examined and their historical background in ancient Greek, Arab and Iranian as well as the literature of the fourth and fifth centuries are briefly illustrated. The second section aims at exploring Ferdowsi's artistry in dealing with the techniques of bragging in the battle field by Shahname's champions and presents an evaluation of functions and the rhetorical values of bragging as utilized in ferdowsi's story-telling discourse.

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In the novel Savushun, the subjects and social, historical, and epic aspects are expressed with a poetic language in the form of a fiction. The epic aspect of the novel is so strong that qualifies it to be in the rank of epic artifacts. The manifestation of national spirit, the existence of an abstract value, representing the public beliefs, necessity of kindness and enmity, the existence of an undefeatable person or a superman, and sharing borders with history are elements of epics, which are present in this novel. The author intends to show, through such a hero, the undefeatable nature of Iran at the time of industrial and military invasion of the west, neutrality of the press, internal turmoil, dependence of the government, ignorance of people and the clergy and the opportunist nature of the parties which pave the way for threatening the country΄s independence. The purpose of the present paper is to indicate similarities of this novel with other epic works and to examine the features of epics in the novel and finally to explain its epic aspects.       

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Seven ordeals is one of the important topics in Persian myth. The movements in seven ordeals do not have a historical nature so that they cannot be generalized to historical movements. As myths are derived from mankind’s active mind, seven ordeals are also the result of mental needs of people and a society and are derived from the historical challenges of a nation. Seven ordeals can be considered as the outcome of the imagination and fantasy of a nation who are threatened. It can be said that seven ordeals have goals consistent with divine regulation and epic moral values.  In Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, interactions among the heroes and champions have been depicted in a very fascinating way. These heroes face various exams during their adventurous lives. These exams can be referred to as ordeals. Sometimes, these ordeals develop and some other characteristics have been added to them and have been made into a complete story. These stories are referred to as seven ordeals. It is just here that myth enters the realm of story. Our aim is here to investigate the key points and common elements of exams, ordeals, seven ordeals and seven ordeals of Shahnameh’s heroes and other epics. This is carried out on the basis of a structuralist, comparative mythology. 

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Zarrin-gabā Nāmeh is one of the unknown epic poems, which has been named Asadi’s Shāhnameh, Rostam and Soleymān and Zarrin-gabāye Haft Lashkar in three different manuscripts. Its Shiite poet is unknown and probably wrote the poem in the Safavid period. The events of the story happen during Keykhosrow’s reign in Iran and the life of Soleyman the Prophet. It begins with the arrival of Zarrin-gabā, Soleyman’s messenger, to Iran to call the Iranians to accept the religion of Soleyman. Zarrin-gabā Nāmehis written in 23533 lines and it is mainly about Rostam and his sons including his grandchild Zarrin-gabā. The structure of these verses is narrative and folkloric.

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Narratologists often make a distinction between classical and modern narratives and contend that classical fiction mainly focuses on characteristics such as the intention of the author, the single and fixed meaning of the narrative, and its closure. In contrast, in modern fiction certain other elements are emphasized like the centrality of the reader, lack of closure, plurality of meaning, and intertextuality. However, with a glance at some classical texts like Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh this distinction can be challenged. For example, Ferdowsi employs certain mythological and symbolic narratives in his epic which had no place in classical literature and at the same time he warns the reader not to restrict himself to the surface meaning of the story. Thus he lifts the addressee to narrative addressee and makes his stories open-ended and open to interpretation

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The Jungian evaluation theory has not been fully used as a standard in analyzing the subject of the seven adventures (or Haft Khan) in Shahnameh. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the psychological theory in the seven adventures of Rostam and of Esfandiar. By using it, we have attempted to find out the hidden aspects of the evolution of the hero’s personality in his adventures and consequently know the nature of the Jungian archetypes in the Persian epic. Therefore, the article tries to find out the relationship between the supreme Persian subject matters and Jungian theory. Moreover, the research has analyzed each of the basic Jungian elements (i.e. archetype, shadow, anima and animus, persona, etc.) in the seven adventures of Rostam and of Esfandiar, and then each of the elementary concepts in the two adventures have been decoded on the basis of the Jungian theory. It is concluded that all of the elements of the theory can be fully seen in the seven adventures of Rostam, repeatedly in some cases. The hero meets all of the Jungian archetypes in his seven adventures, and after winning them, he finally reaches the stage of individuation. On the contrary, the pattern does not have a regular order in the adventures of Esfandiar and there is no a clear reference to the archetype “Animus” in this adventure. Therefore, the seven adventures of Rostam, in comparison to that of Esfandiar, reflects the entire archetypes of Jungian theory.

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The "Mour" is an elegiac dirge in Laki – an ancient language still spoken in regions as diverse as Lorestan, Hamadan, Ilam, and Kermanshah. Sung in an elegiac non-rhythmic tune and just in one distich in memory of a dead person, these wistful melodies have a rather long history. The purpose of this article, which is descriptive-analytical and library-based, is to explore the relationship between the distiches of Mour and the socioeconomic status of Laki-speaking men. In this regard, it has been pointed out that in Mour dirges, men’s bravery, magnanimity and hospitality, as well as their economic and social status, physical strength, etc. are often described. The frequency of these descriptions indicate the position of epic, elegy, and narrative in verses of Laki poetry that often in just one distich capture the most outstanding feature of warriors, thanes, tribal sheriffs, farmers and herdsmen.

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The concept of happiness has always been a subject of morality and mysticism. It has been studied in philosophy from two perspectives: Epicurean hedonism and Aristotelian bliss. Epicurus (341-270 BC), a philosopher of the Hellenistic period of ancient Greece, considered lasting pleasure as the ultimate good of man and presented a practical method that leads to happiness and is sustainable. For Rumi (1207-1273 AD), happiness is similarly sustainable and does not decline with external and internal factors. In this article, an attempt has been made to investigate whether there is a connection between Epicurean hedonism and Rumi’s hedonism through library study and data comparison and analysis. We compared several features from Epicurean and Rumi’s perspectives on happiness based on historical genealogy. The results showed that pleasure from Epicurus’s perspective is lasting and expressed in the end as eudaimonia or happiness (bliss). The goal of his philosophy is to achieve lasting happiness. In this way, man tries to achieve ataraxia by creating limits to his temporary and unstable pleasures. On the other hand, Epicurus’s practical philosophy expresses features that have commonalities with some of the views of Muslim mystics, including those of Rumi.