The Axes of Women’s Love for Men in Persian Folktales and Literary Stories

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mohammad Amir Mashhadi ¹
• Mohammad Choharmahali ²
• Hossein Sadeghi ¹

¹ University of Sistan and Baluchestan

² Farhangian University of Ahvaz Hazrat Rasul Akram

10.22067/jls.v48i3.35809

Abstract

1. Introduction
Persian folktales and literary stories are full of love relationships which add to the structural richness of the story. In most of these stories, love commences on part of the male character. However, there are instances in which women or girls initiate love. These kinds of love create adventures which are admirable in themselves. The commencement of love and the way a lover establishes a relationship with the beloved are different in each story. Female characters create incidents which are considered as the elements which form the identity of the stories. In other words, women are the initiators of love and are not the “secondary” gender anymore. They sometimes stand against their father’s requests for marrying a man whom they do not love and instead, they choose their husband themselves. Hence, in such stories, women are often rebellious, dynamic and active and they are no longer passive individuals.
2. Methodology
The current study aims to address the following research questions through an analytical method:
1. What aspects may be considered for the stories containing the love of women and girls towards men?
2. What message may be taken from the analysis of these stories?
3. Discussion
Iranian folktales and literary stories which are written about the love of women towards men contain some features of the commencement of love on part of women and its form. This finding is the result of analyzing 69 short and long stories from different sources. Regarding the language, the sources analyzed in this study can be divided into two sections: 1- literary sources, 2- folktale sources. Since the themes of these sources are similar with regard to their nature, type and symbolic property, the researchers have analyzed and described them from four main thematic aspects. The reason for considering these different aspects is to demonstrate the difference in the form and quality of love relationships. For instance, the nature of pure love relationship is totally different from impure love relationship. Also, a love which roots back to a dream by the symbolic and predictive woman character gives rise to different actions as compared to a love relationship which results from actual meeting of the two characters. In all these stories, the inner attraction of women towards men is dominant and one of the points in this categorization is the centralization of the woman characters. In other words, the nature of the love is determined based on the personality of the woman and the nature and manner of love. A woman character that has evil goals in order to establish a relationship with the man he wants, no matter what the means are, would finally become infamous and punished, but a woman who has dignity and is honorable, would ultimately reach salvation, although she may be damned at the beginning of the story. Due to the structure of some stories, their academic categorization should be taken into consideration. For instance, the love story of Zulaykha and Joseph has been considered as combined and rising love. However, based on the predictive and symbolic character of Zoleykha, it could also be discussed in the fourth axis. The groupings of women’s love for men in the current study with regard to language and thematic aspects has been done based on the contents of a book entitled 100 Persian romantic poems (Zolfaghari, 1392: 48-55). Considering the main and mutual theme of Persian folktales and literary story sources, that is the theme of women’s love for men, these sources can be investigated from different aspects such as the nature, namely pure, impure, combined and rising, and their nature can also be determined. The type of nature in the first axis refers to worldliness and heavenliness of the love. In the second axis, the impurity of the action or the behavior of the female character is considered, which includes: lust, through guile and charm and one-way with treason and eventually evil actions. In the third axis, a combination of these two types of love which is mixed with an element of ignominy and refinement would be discussed. Finally, the fourth axis would be analyzed based on the commencement of love on part of the predicting woman in a story and her symbolic expression. The analysis of the sample indicated that the authors of such stories put more emphasis on the two-way nature of love and the balance of relations between men and women.
The folktales and literary stories that were investigated for the purpose of this study are presented below:
A) Literary Stories
Qaboosnameh: the story of Hussein ibn Ali and shahrbanoo; Shahnameh: Bijan and Manizhe, Shapur and Malekeh story; Kalila and Dimna: Beautiful woman of the merchant and the painter and the story of the carpenter’s wife and her neighbor; Sindbad name: beautiful wife of the farmer and the shop assistant; Bahmannameh: Tales of katayun Kashmiri with pearl; Old stories: story of Abbaseh and ja’far, story of a slave’s love for Mutawakkil ; Seven Orang: Joseph and Zuleikha; A tragedy: the story of a woman’s love for Ayaz and the story of a woman in love with the beautiful princess; Homa and Homayun : story of Shamse Khavari’s love to Homa and the story of semen to Homa; Khorshid and Jamshid: the story of the love of King Jinal’s daughter for jamshid; lyrics: Jamshid and Khorshid, Homay and Homayun and Joseph and Zulaikha.
B) Folk Stories
Samak Ayar: May mermaid daughter of King Faghfour. Amir Arsalan rumi and Empress Farrokh liqaa.Forty parrots: love of businesswoman to the neighbor’s young son. Ferdowsi nameh: Tahmine and Rustam, Farangez marriage with Siavash, fourth narrative: daughter of Garsiyooz, third narrative: Jarireh marriage and the birth of Forood, Katauon and Goshtasb, Sam's and the daughter of the Emperor of China, Soodabe and Siavash. Legendary culture of the Iranian people: high stories, Mongolian girls, the God destiny, Sleep Story , palan dooz daughter and the head of the thieves, the daughter of the king, crazy Mohammad , Mongol girl, Sabzali and Sabz ghaba, Aunt Beetle, Aunt Ghz and fleas, the Tales of fortune 3, Fish Diem, oh, guile women (1), the daughter of businessman and son of King fairy, pulleys and spindles and needle, beautiful daughter of seamstress, the daughter of Khar Kesh, daughter of Karim Khayat, guile and cunning of woman 2, Moonlight, poor and Fatima, man jewelry and daughter of king, innocent and flower fairy, two Brother , GolBreeze ,Gol Breeze 2, Sultan Ibrahim, Shah Rukh and Narpry, daughter with crooked fortune, Sousse Khiar, daughter of king bergamot, the daughter of a tailor and son of king traders 1, Mohammad gol badam. Tales of Mashdi Galin Khanum: Korea Marine, Darwish and daughter of the king of China 2, fish sale girl and the shoe. People Saga: Flower twittering, King Jamshid and daughter of the king, Black Pony.
4. Conclusion
Based on what has been said previously, in Persian folktales and literary stories about women’s love for men, women and girls are more active and dynamic as compared to stories in which the male character falls in love with the female character. Just like today’s women, the female characters in these stories have the right to choose their love partner and nothing is imposed on them. This activeness and dynamicity of women is such that sometimes, the name of the story is derived from the name of the female character, such as “the daughter of Tailor Karim” or “Moonlight”. Based on the beginning of the stories and the nature of the love, four axes exist in these stories. The content structure of these stories can be understood according to these axes. This content structure is so strong that it forms the identity of the stories. The authors of this paper have attempted to analytically and descriptively explain the issue of women’s love for men in several Persian sources. The findings indicate that from the distant past to the contemporary era, the authors of such tales have sought to create a balance between men and women relations and their main emphasis is on the two-way nature of the love between male and female characters.
Keywords: Persian folktales and literary stories, The axes of love, Women and girls, Men

Keywords

• Persian literary and folk stories
• aspects of love
• women and Girls
• men

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