An Unknown Meaning of āɣāz in the Shahnameh

The lexical difficulties in the Shahnameh extend beyond obsolete words. There are also words that, despite their apparent clarity, have unidentified semantic changes leading to misunderstandings among the editors and commentators, as well as Persian lexicographers. In this article, the authors focus on one of these words in the story of Rostam and Sohrab. They begin by reviewing different readings and interpretations of a verse containing the word in question in the most distinguished editions and commentaries of the text. By examining the various meanings of the verb gaštan (with prepositions ba, bā and sō̆y-i), and the word āward in the Shahnameh, as a key to understanding the verse, they recognize a neglected meaning of the word āγāz, that is “intention, purpose,” and support their argument by identifying two other instances in the same text. The authors argue that this āγāz is nothing more than a semantic transformation of the well-known āγāz, and is unrelated to the word āwāz, which seemingly was a rare variety of āγāz, and also appears several times in the Shahnameh in the compound preposition bar āwāz-i, meaning “in pursuit of, after”. The semantic change of āγāz took place through the following way: “to begin (to do)” → “to embark upon (to do)” → “to intend to”. This unknown meaning of āγāz has not been recorded in any of the modern Persian dictionaries.