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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 ancient Iran, mubeds were always among the most prominent authorities of the country and were highly influential in kings’ courts. This role is well depicted in Iran’s most famous national epic, and it is of such an importance that by examining their roles and positions in Shahnameh, one can find how religion and government were closely related in ancient Iran. In Shahnameh, the mubads’ responsibilities were not just limited to conducting religious ceremonies and rites. They enjoyed power and authority in country’s administration and were the most educated people of their age. They were responsible for the education and also narrated ancient stories. Observing the economic affairs and bearing the flag in battles were other responsibilities of the mubeds which are also well depicted in Shahnameh. It should be noted that “mubed” in Shahnameh is used as a generic term and it is not always used to mean a “clergy”. Rather, its meanings had expanded and the term was attributed to wise and erudite people. In this paper, the authors attempt to explain the functions and hierarchies of mubeds according to Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

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One of the main events of the Sassanid's period is the battles of Piruz against the Hephthalites, which despite the great efforts of the Iranians in these wars, they ended with their defeat and a huge tribute to be given to the Hephthalites. To compensate for his failure, Piruz the tyrant king waged another war against the Hephthalites. However, not only he achieved nothing, but he also lost his life. After these defeats, the Hephthalites used to intervene in the Iranians’affairs for a long time, until they finally disappeared during the reign of Anushiravan. Nonetheless, the bitter memories of these defeats never left the Persians' minds. So after these events, the Iranians manipulated some facts to maintain their dignity. They made some stories about those events and one of the stories was about a hero named Sufra who fought against the Hephthalites and eventually defeated them and brought back all that the Iranians had lost to them. These narratives most likely were present in the many Khodaynameh(s) of the Sassanid's period to enter then the history of the Islamic era. This article first examines Shahnameh and other historical narratives for Piruz's and Sufra's battles against the Hephthalites, and then shows the main distortions which entered Khodaynameh(s) in the Sassanid's period.

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Recounting or reading a story, a tale, or an anecdote in ceremonies has a long history in Iranian culture. A type of this tradition has been widespread in Ferdowsi’s era which emerged in the form of public reading of Shahnameh. Ferdowsi has acted masterfully in choosing words of special speech sounds being aware of his subject and audiences and thus has made listening to Shahnameh being read a delightful experience for the listeners. This research is both analytic and descriptive in method and shows that Ferdowsi has selected his diction with a special regard  for its sound effect. These words either had the very widespread semantic scope or Ferdowsi himself expanded their semantic scope and thus attracted the attention of the listeners and made them attentive to finding the source of the sounds’ production. The researcher admits that the method of choosing diction which has been discussed in this article is not the only method which results in waiting and listening to the reading of Shahnameh has many other artistic methods to encourage anticipation in this huge work. This article studies Ferdowsi’s skill and innovation in making his language pleasant and effective and the reading of Shahnameh such an exciting and hilarious experience for both readers and listeners.

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This study examines the narrative approach of Shahnameh by Ferdowsi based on Bakhtin’s dialogism. The logic of dialogue, a narrative that describes the relationship between different views through dialogue and interaction and considers dialogue as the only way of communication. Dialogism is supplemented by concepts such as "polyphony", "the other voice" and "Carnival". One of the necessary constituents of carnivalistic life is laughter. In Shahnameh there are three kinds of laughter, one of which is considered closer to Bakhtin’s laughter; it is a laughter that causes ridicule and humiliation. Other types of laughter are those of joy and an analogy of nature. In this article the carnivalistic laughter and laughter in Shahnameh are compared with each other to find out the correspondence between dialogism and Shahnameh. In this study, we attempt to study the word "laughter" and its derivatives in Shahnameh using descriptive-analytic method and evaluate it on the basis of Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, and also find out its similarities and differences with Bakhtin's carnivalistic laughter.

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Non-verbal communications could be a part of visual signs that, because of their importance in interpersonal relationships and transition of meaning, are highly regarded by psychologists and sociologists. One of the major subdivisions of this topic is called "Body Language" that has existed in all human societies since ancient times. These non-verbal signs, some thousands of years old, have cultural and rhetorical functions, with common and sometimes conflicting aspects, in the cultures and social traditions of different tribes. The more ancient and comprehensive the literary context of a piece of research is, the more valuable that analysis in explaining the cultural, social, and even aesthetic aspects of texts will be. Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, as a representative of Iranian culture and thought in prehistoric age up until the Islamic era, can be the best representation of metalingual communicative performance in Iranian cultural history. Due to the prototypic nature of characters in Shahnameh, many of their non-verbal signs can also be considered the archetypal source of the behavioral interactions or body language of the Iranian people when in the context of epic their national and social identities as Iranians are formed. In this article, attempts has been made to decode these obscure and complex cultural concepts by exploring the "body language" in non-linguistic acts of main characters in Shahnameh. The results of this research demonstrate that the body language of characters in Shahnameh is not accidental but totally conscious. Indeed, the purpose has been to draw the attention of the readers to rethink the patterns of individual and social behavior of Iranian and non-Iranian ethnicities so to recognize the cultural identity mainly through irony and symbolism.

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Masterplot is a group of plots that are widely repeated among different ethnic groups and cultures. The purpose of this paper is to discover the structure of universal masterplot of “deal with the Devil” in two narratives of “Zahhak” in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and Dr. Faust by Goethe. In the present study, we have tried to answer two questions by descriptive-analytical method: First, what is the repetitive structure that governs this masterplot; second, what are the similarities and differences between the narratives of Ferdowsi and Goethe in this masterplot in different sections such as the reasons for dealing with the Devil, the motives of the deal, the actions of the heroes, how the Devil appeared to the heroes and their fate. The results show that the structure of this masterplot has a repetitive pattern in this form: Devil’s deal with individuals having superior characteristics, selling one’s soul to the Devil, performing similar kinds of functions after dealing with the Devil, and a complete downfall or return to salvation after suffering the painful consequences of wrongdoing. The differences between these two narratives from a single story include the motives of making a deal, which in Faust is the full enjoyment of material and worldly pleasures, and in Zahhak’s story is power-seeking (domineering). Another difference is in the actions of the heroes after the deal which in Faust involves false testimony and acceptance of stolen property, but in Zahhak it includes murder and illegitimate sex, which are common in both narratives. How the devil appears to these two is also different. In Faust, the devil appears in the form of a dog, a hippopotamus, and a scholar seeker, and in Zahhak, he appears in the form of a well-wishing man, a cook, and a physician. The end of the deal in Faust, after enduring many difficulties, is salvation and in Zahhak leads to his imprisonment at the bottom of a cave. Based on this research, one can speculate the possibility that Goethe was influenced by Ferdowsi.