Who is Rostam's ancestor? Identification of the Ancestor of the Sam dynasty based on historical-comparative linguistics

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Author
F. ghaemi
Assistant Professor, Persian Language and Literature, Literature and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
10.29252/LRR.14.2.5
Abstract
One of the vague words of Shāh-nāma is the word "Karimān" («کریمان»), in two verses as Rostam's ancestor. Contemporary literature was influenced by Moein who considered Karimān to be Karim («کریم»), but lexicographers, manuscript scribes, poets of epic poems, and linguists considered it a special name. Despite this, they have failed to explain ambiguities related to the root of the word. Using Diachronic Etymology and Comparative Linguistics, this paper examines the historical forms of the word (Kār-framān, Kahrumān and Qahramân) in comparison with similar cases in official sources and folklore (Persian, Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic). The old form of the word, " Kār-framān", in the official usage meant agent in the court in matters such as treasury and in military usage, meant the king's appointment in of the military department. For this reason, this title has been attributed to Sistani heroes, and in particular, to Rostam's ancestor. The implicit meaning of courage is also derived from the military usage of the word, used in the Arabicized form ("Qahramân"). Ferdowsi also mentioned the form of this special name as Rostam ancestor, and changed "Kahrumān" to "Karimān" in order to rhyme with Narimān. The reconstruction of the story of this character in the cycle of Sistani epics, clarified his relationship with "Hüšang-Shāh", who in Sistani sources was the third king of Iran. Therefore, the problem of Karimān's attribution to Hüšang was also solved and it became clear why he was named the third king of Iran in a hemistich from the Shāh-nāma.



1. Introduction

One of the vague words of Shāh-nāma is the word "Karimān" («کریمان»), which is mentioned in two verses of Shāh-nāma as Rostam's ancestor. In two verses, Rostam is Zal's son; Zal is the son of Sām; Sām is the son of Narimān and Narimān is the son of Karimān. While in later texts, Narimān is assumed to be the son of Garshāsp (the famous Avestan warrior). Now, the main problem of the research is to clarify, what is the origin of the word Karimān, which has been one of the mysteries of Shāh-nāma scholars? Is it a specific word or a general word? Also, what is the relationship between its semantic changes and the linguistic context of Shāh-nāma, which is about Rostam's ancestors?

Research Question(s)

1. What is the relationship between the etymology of the word Karimān and its developments in the history of the Persian language with its use in the Shāh-nāma as the name of Rostam's oldest ancestor (main question)?

2. Why, despite many uncertainties, in the manuscripts of Shāh-nāma, the word Karimān was never replaced with another word?

3. What was the reason for the difference in the meaning of the word Karimān and its Arabic form in the Arabic language?

4. In the description of Karimān in the Shāh-nāma, what was the reason for mentioning Hüšang as the third king of Iran? While he was the second king of Shāh-nāma.



2. Literature Review

Contemporary literature was influenced by M. Moein. Moin, in the dictionary of Dehkhoda and its annotations on the old dictionary of Borhān-e Qātea considered Karimān to be Karim («کریم») (Tabrizi, 1982: v.1/p.195; Dehkhoda, 1993: v.12/p.18314). But lexicographers, manuscript scribes, poets of epic poems, and linguists considered it a special name. Moin 's view has been repeated by most contemporary Iranian scholars. Despite this, they have failed to explain ambiguities related to the root of the word. But western linguists and orientalists had a different view, which is closer to the opinion of the old lexicographers. F. Yusti considered the word Karimān as a special name and mentioned him as Rostam's grandfather, Narimān's father and Hüšang's son, and considered it to be the same as Garshāsp (1963: p. 162). Another German linguist, Wolff, in the glossary of the Shāh-nāma, in addition to introducing Karimān as the father of Narimān, for the first time mentioned the repetition of this word twice in the Shāh-nāma (1965: p. 648).Meanwhile, Christensen, in the book of the Kianiān (1931), put forward the theory that Avestan Garshāsp has been transformed into three characters in national stories, named Garshāsp, Sām and Narimān, and in the Shāh-nāma, the special name Karimān, as Narimān's father. and Garshāsp's son have been added to these names (1993: pp. 130-131). Finally, the only Iranian researcher who did not repeat Moin's opinion was Akbari Mofakher who, based on the frequency of the name Karimān and its Arabic form, Qahramân, in Kurdish epic poems, considered it a special name, but mentioned it in two verses of the Shāh-nāma to two characters. He attributed separately: one is the father of Narimān and the other is the son of Hüšang (2011: pp.15-37).



3. Methodology

The problem of this research is one of the areas of application of historical linguistics in literary studies, which solves the ambiguities of classical texts by focusing on linguistic transformations at the level of meaning. The theoretical approach of the research is also based on the knowledge of "semantics" which is based on the views of F. Saussure, the founder of modern linguistics, is formed. Saussure's view in analyzing the relationship between meaning and the passage of time was more inclined to aspects of synchrony, but after Saussure, important changes occurred in this knowledge. including L. Hjelmslev, the Danish constructivist linguist, who investigated the relationship between aspects of synchrony and diachrony in the use of language, and the French linguist, E. Benveniste, in his essay "Problèmes sémantiques de la réconstruction", developed this view and combined etymological reconstruction with the examination of semantic components and the use of non-linguistic data. In this article, the theory of semantic reconstruction of language is used based on the analysis of aspects of synchrony and diachrony and the Benveniste approach.



4. Results

Finally, at the end of the article, the pattern of the structural evolution of the Middle Persian word "Kār-framān" in the form of the Dari Persian word "Karimān" in Ferdowsi's poem is shown in the form of the following schematic pattern:





In addition to the above structural model, from the point of view of semantics, the semantic evolution of the word Karimān can be seen in six layers of meaning, which starts from the origin of the word in ancient Persian and shows the path of its evolution until its use in the Shāh-nāma:

1. The general meaning of being an agent for the nobility; 2. The official job of presiding over taxes; 3. The officer of the army in the role of commander of the army; 4 and 5. The use of the third layer to name the leader of the Scythian dynasty in support of the Parthian king (in the Parthian federative system) and referring to Rostam's ancestor, with the form of the word "Kahrumān"; 6. Changing the form of the word to rhyme with Narimān in Ferdowsi's poetry



5. Discussion

The course of the word Karimān has been analyzed from the perspective of comparative linguistics in this article at several levels: 1. In Indo-European languages related to Persian (Kurdish), this word is found in two forms: Kar̊i:mân and Qahramân. 2. In non-Indo-European languages that have influenced the Persian language due to its neighborhood (Arabic, Turkish, Azeri) it is written as Qahramân. 3. In folkloric literature (Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Uzbek Turkish) it is also mentioned as Qahramân.The word "Ghahremān" in Persian, Turkish and Kurdish is associated with a hero who was the son of Tahmureth and the successor or minister of Houshang. Comparing this name with the name "Ghahremān" in Ferdowsi's Shah-nāma reveals that the root of his story was an ancient epic myth about Rostam's ancestor. The most important use of this name in popular literature is a story called Ghahremān-nāma with several variants, the original author of which is attributed to “Abu Tahir Tarsusi” in the sixth century AH. The origin of this work is folklore, so it can be related to the ancient source of the story in the cycle of Sistani epics, which had an oral form. The oldest texts of this story are in Turkish. After that, there are Persian and Kurdish versions of the work. This work, like Iskandar-nāma, is an international work related to the civilizations of the Middle East and is one of the similar important works between Persian and Turkish languages. The existing variants of this work can be divided into three parts: 1- Old Ghahremān-nāma in Turkish: The oldest part of the Ghahremān-nāma text remains in Turkish: 18 Ottoman Turkish manuscripts and three Uzbek-Uzbek manuscripts. The above 21 versions are not identical. Despite the variety in the style of writing and the details of the story, in all these manuscripts the name "Tarsus the Wise" is mentioned as the author. The plot and letters of the characters are the same in all these texts. It is also mentioned in all these texts that the work has been translated from a Persian work. Finally, this work was translated from Persian to Turkish during the Ottoman period.

2- Middle Ghahremān-nāma in Persian: The oldest Persian prose of this story is related to two manuscripts from the twelfth century AH. Due to the old linguistic context and frequent references to "Hakim Tarsus" as a writer not found in new works, the high volume of Ottoman Turkish words and homogeneity with Turkish manuscripts that are two to three centuries older than Persian manuscripts, this work must be in the Ottoman period. So the original Persian work written by Tarsousi is gone.3- New adaptation: New Persian transcripts of Middle Persian manuscripts have been made in the Qajar period, which exist in different forms in the manuscripts available in the Libraries of the Iran. Also, the abbreviated form of this work has been published in lithography in Iran many times in the last hundred years.



6. Conclusion

Using Diachronic Etymology and Comparative Linguistics, this paper examines the historical forms of the word (Kār-framān, Kahrumān and Qahramân) in comparison with similar cases in official sources and folklore literature in Persian, Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic. The old form of the word, " Kār-framān", in the official usage meant agent in the court in matters such as treasury and in military usage, meant the king's appointment in of the military department. For this reason, this title has been attributed to Sistani heroes, and in particular, to Rostam's ancestor. The implicit meaning of courage is also derived from the military usage of the word, used in the Arabicized form of the word ("Qahramân"). Ferdowsi also mentioned the form of the special name of this word as the name of Nia Rostam, and changed "Kahrumān" to "Karimān" in order to rhyme with Narimān. The reconstruction of the story of this character in the cycle of Sistani epics, clarified his relationship with "Hüšang-Shāh", who in Sistani sources was the third king of Iran. Therefore, the problem of Karimān's attribution to Hüšang was also solved and it became clear why he was named the third king of Iran in a hemistich from the Shāh-nāma.

Keywords

Subjects

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Language Related Research
Volume 14, Issue 2 - Serial Number 74
May and June 2023
Pages 151-189