The principles of children's rearing and education in Shahnameh

Human beings have always been preoccupied with their children’s rearing. The issue of rearing has a background of over 4000 years. The children’s rearing in Shahnameh, as a perpetual document of the Iranian culture, has earned a special status. The Iranians in general and their kings in particular devoted a special care in their children’s upbringing. According to Shahnameh, the children were named in a ceremony after their birth. Such a naming has been based on the physical or adventitious features of the child. The children were then given to baby-sitters for feeding purposes. Following the feeding stage, the children were sent to teachers so as to learn the principles of culture, religion and civil life. Then, the teachers prepared them for acquiring and mastering the teaching art.From the age of seven, the children received physical and practical training concurrent with their religious and ethical education. The physical training included horse-riding, shooting and hunting. While being trained on hunting, they learned how to use the hunting means such as hawk, greyhound and falcon. At this stage, the children received some training on how to wrestle, throw the lasses and spread the hunting net. The Iranian noblemen’s children were required to be trained on how to fight, organize the army and attack their enemies. The king and governors’ children were required to learn some other principles of education such as setting up parties and joyful ceremonies and finding better and more efficient ways of life. In this paper, samples of Ferdowsi’s poems manifesting the stages of rearing and education in the past are discussed.