A Reflection on the Diverse Allusions to Shahnameh in the Works of the Literary Return (Bazgasht-e Adabi) Poets

Because of the significance of Shahnameh, its popularity increased during the period of Literary Return (Bazgasht-e Adabi). The poets of this period tried to resemble their works in terms of style, theme, language, and rhetoric to the poetry of prodigious poets, specifically Ferdowsi. This paper aims to study, with the analytic-descriptive approach, the allusions to Shahnameh in five divans of prominent poets of this period/school, Sohbat Lāri, Fath-Ali Khan Sabā, Qāʼāni Shirazi, Soroush Esfahani, and Dāvari Shirazi. Studying the five divans reveals that the aforementioned poets have allusions to Shahnameh in terms of imagery, panegyric, the artistic structure, the instructive and exemplary stories, mentioning poet’s personal status with the help of shahnameh stories, using shahnameh references in the parable form, and employing its narrative capacities in Shariteh of Qasideh (the prayer for the praised person in the ode). Comparing the frequency of allusions to Shahnameh in the five divans shows that Qāʼāni has used the most and Dāvari the fewest allusions amongst the five poets