The function of headers of Florence's manuscripts in rewriting Shahnameh stories

Ancient literary stories must be told in a simple and fluent language in order to be compelling and comprehensible to today's audience. The process of narrating these tales in contemporary language should be in accordance with the principles that have two main axes: First, maintaining the structure of the story and the style of the author, and second, its conforming to the audience’s language and understanding. In this regard, rewriting and returning the stories of Shahnameh to prose, in addition to paying attention to the level of the audience, also requires knowledge about Ferdowsi's style and expression. On the other hand, attention should be paid to summarizing and simplifying stories. Each of the Shahnameh's rewrites has some degrees of summarizing and omitting story or artistic effects. But the omission of some sections damages the original structure of the story, does not reveal Ferdowsi's art in composing stories for the audience. There are several ways to convey these points and the story to the audience as completely as possible. Considering the linkage of the Shahnameh headers with the structure of the story, our suggestion in this article is to use this manuscripts of the Shahnameh based on their headings. As a notable example, we have used the Florence version, which is the oldest available version of the Shahnameh and while reviewing some of the problems in rewriting this work, we have provided solutions for more accurate rewriting.