منتخبات شاهنامه از فردوسی تا فروغی

Shahnameh(Iranian Nation Epic), has been imitated by many of the poets and drew attentions in many cases, from the beginning, which it can be claimed no other work along with the Iranian literary history, has been imitated or has been summarized as far as Shanameh. These imitated works and anthologies, as independent Ms with titles such as: gozide, kholase, montakhab of Shahanameh which have been remained, are mentioned in Persian catalogues, or some fragments and lines as part of Persian anthologies and finally parts or lines throughout the prose Persian works, particularly historical texts, shows the significant role of Shahnameh in Persian literary process in particular and Persian language dominant in general. Every knowledge in this regard will assist for writing Persian literary history.

In this article, based on librarian method, after studying directly or listing the summaries of Shahnameh based on the cathalogues of inside and outside of Iran’s libraries, has been dealt with the historical process of the summarizing or finding the coded fragments and lines of the Shahnameh in other books, including historical texts, anthologies, etc inside and outside of Iran, particularly in Sub-continent, with the emphasize on Tarikh e delgosha ye shamshirkhani. We show the elevation and decline of pay attention to Shahnameh during the time.
I we ignore the only ‘Awfi’s word on Mas’ud sa’d’s( d. 1121) summary of the Shahnameh, it to be mentioned that the first summary of the Shahnameh, which has been known, is Ekhtiyaray by Ali ben Ahmad, which has been introduced for the first time by Taghizadeh, in Kaveh Magazine. This anthology has been composed as to be said, in 474 / 1081, dedicated to the Seljukid Malekshah. M.A. Reyahi stated that this book has been composed for Abulfath Malekshah ben Mohammad from the Rumi Selgukid, not for Malekshah of Selju, and therefore the date 574/1081 must be corrected to 574/1178(Reyahi 1382/2001:199).
The Anthology has been composed, on the whole, in 2417 lines, and 13 chapters in a particular method. More over the author himself composed 139 lines for the introduction and describing the chapters, and 61 other lines in Shahnameh’s meter and style, in the conclusion of the work on Malekshah’s praising.
The second anthology of the Shahnameh in fact is the Bondari’s Arabic translation of this book, which came to an end in Shawwal 621/Oct. 1224 in Damascus. Thus Ali ben Ahmad anthology (based on Reyahi’s point of view) and Bondari’s one hjas been composed in Asia Minor, not inside Iran.
Indian sub-continent was familiar and had a very closed tide with Shahnameh from the beginning. Shahnameh is one of the valuable works which its decorated copes has been preserved in the Indian libraries and Museums. In this regard Shahnameh can be compared easily with Mahabharata and Ramayana, two epic works belong to the Ariyan civilization in India (‘Abedi 1370/1991:337).
If the Mas’ud S’ad’s anthology has had preserved, we could claim that the first Summary of Shahnameh has been composed in sub-continent . One of the most important of the Shahnameh summaries which became important, and drew much pay attentions, is the prose summary of Shahanmeh which has been composed for Shamshirkhan the governor of Ghazne and by this reason has been called: Tarikh-e Delgosha-ye Shamshikhani as well, by a certain Tavakkol biek, in 1063/1653. Due to its reputation and importance, many handwritten copies of this book have been knows in various libraries in India(Ghasemi 1995: pp.46-57), and more than 50 copies in Pakistani libraries(Akram 1384/ 2005: p. fifteen).
In addition of this book and its summaries, which contain more than 70 copies only in Indian libraries, about 30 other summaries have been known in Indian libraries, catalogues, which most of them are selected stories from Shahnameh, especially Rostam and Sohrb, Rostam and Esfandiar and other copies contain Shahnameh’s paintings. Some of these summaries are for the army’s purposes and texts for the officers’ exams. The above mentioned copies are only part of preserved manuscripts of the Shahnameh in Indian libraries(Ghasemi 1995: 69)
The anthologies and collections are a valuable treasure which contain the Shahanameh lines. In Safineh ye Tabriz 1245 verses of this book have been selected which include Rostam and Sohrab(1020 v.), Rostam and Akvan div(186 v. ), Rostam and Esfandiyar(10v.) and 13 lines from other parts of Shahnameh. There are some other summaries from parts of Shahnameh in various of biographical sources, which have been selected according its author’s tastes.
According of Iraj Afshar’s Bibliography of Ferdowsi, the first printed summary of Shahnameh is E. G. Hagemann’s one, which have been printed in Europe between 1814 and 1926. After that between 1814 and 1926 summaries of the Shahnameh Have been published in Calcutta, Mumbai, Istanbul, Allahabad and Tashkent by Atkinson, Mohl, Vullers, Kamal, Jarret, Pizzi, Pashazadeh, and Yusef.
In Iran, the first selecting of the Shahnameh was provided by Foruzanfar for teaching in Zaraostrian High Schools (3). Nasayeh-e Ferdowsi selected by Rashid Yasami, was one of the valuable selections from Shahanameh which published in 1307S/1928 (Afshar:3535: 281-283). Then, the most valuable selections of Shahnameh in verse, which was a complete and notable one, has been provided by Mohammad Ali Foroughi in 1934. This selected in verse was a time-consuming hard work, which, in spite of his engaging with state works, has been done carefully with patience and became a pattern for the later Shahnameh selectors.
This book has possessed the first rank in compare with the Shahnameh selections so that almost the whole other selections have been inspired by it, So at present time, in spite of the fact that numerous other selections which have been provided during the long time, it can be considered as the best and most successful one.
As the particular result of this research, we can announce that until recent century, the main summaries of the Shahnameh have been provided outside Iranian present borders, but selecting of the lines of the Shahanameh have been started in other texts. Central Iran, and continued in other parts of Persian dominants. إ Being in common use of selection writings of the Shahnameh in present time, is due to Foroughi’s valuable efforts in the field of Shahnameh studies and designating the year of 1934 to honor of Ferdowsi and Shahnameh in the world. This event caused a universal activities, including publishing some new editions and some selections of the Shahnameh inside and outside of Iran.