The Influence of Sufi elements on Shahnameh Narrative Texts

Although the narrative tradition in its specific sense probably existed in Iran, several hundred years before the Safavid rule, it is widely believed to date back to the Safavid era. The narrator was divided into different types such as: Parde-khani, Hamzeh-khani, Shamayel-khani, Sourat-khani, Ghavvali and Rozeh-khani ; But the most important and attractive type of narration can be considered as the narration of Shahnameh and epic stories. Although the roots of such narrative stories (Shahnameh and heroic stories narration) come from the traditions and narrations of ancient Persian heroism; But their main and obvious characteristic is being influenced by the beliefs, convictions and values of the narrators and the audience of such narrations. Among these beliefs are the values of Sufism, which due to the prevalence of Sufism in the Safavid and Qajar eras (narration period), and the narration of such stories by the Sufis of the Ajam and Khaksariyeh sects, they have entered in Narrative texts of Shahnameh. By examining the written narrations, one can clearly see the influence of the traditions and concepts of Sufi literature on them; Traditions and concepts such as: wearing a darvish clothings, repentance, asceticism, austerity, voluntary death, and various miracles by some epic heroes and kings.