The impact of heroic chants in the formation of Persian epic stories

The basis of the epic stories among different human ethnic groups is known to be the chants and scattered oral narratives told by the minstrels and public entertainers. Often accompanied by music and dramatic, theatrical and ritual movements, these narratives were performed for the aristocrats and for the people and sometimes sur place underwent fundamental transformations. In this article first the views of the scholars regarding the oral chants and their narrators among different nations and the role of these poems in the formation of grand epic works were dealt with. Then evidence regarding the oral history of these narrations in ancient Iran and the social and artistic role of Ashkani minstrels who had the major part in the realization of this oral tradition has been presented. Finally, the tradition of recording these oral narratives reaching its peaks in the Sassanid era has been investigated. This created a trend whose continuation in the Islamic era in terms of translation of these works into Farsi and Arabic and their poetic recreation by the Iranian poets has produced the movement of the composition of Shahnameh in the Eastern Iran, and later on led to the formation of the rich Persian literature treasury.