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Russians in the Medieval Iranian Epos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

N. A. Rast
N. A. Rast*
Affiliation:
Oriental Institute at Leningrad; currently in the civil service in Iran
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Extract

In the heroic epos of the old times—Iranian, Greek, German, Russian—the personal element is closely interwoven with the national. The hero is a man with his own feelings, joys and sorrows, loves and hatreds. Collectively, however, all of these heroes represent their native land. Spiritually and physically, they personify the highest ideals of their respective peoples. Defense of their land against foreign intruders is their main task. And to them belongs the glory of the faraway campaigns against foreign enemies. In time of peace, former enemies may turn to friends, and the knights of both sides who formerly had fought against each other would now revel together. It may be said that the epos of any given people reflects not only the history of that particular people but also the history of its relations with its neighbors as well as the mentality of each side.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 1955 , pp. 260 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1955

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References

1 See especially, V. V. Stasov, “Proiskhoždenie russkikh bylin” (1868), reprinted in Stasov, Sobranie sočinenij (St. Petersburg, 1894), III, 948-1259; and Miller, V. F., Ekskursy v oblasti russkogo narodnogo eposa (Moscow, 1892)Google Scholar.

2 Quotations from Shah-Namehare according to A. G. Warner and E. Warner's translation, 9 vols. (London, 1905-1925). The quotation above is from VI, 22. Rum means “Rome,” “Romans” as the Byzantines called themselves (Romaei), hence, Greece, Greeks; later specifically Greeks of Asia Minor. Failakus is Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father.

3 Ibid., VIII, 406.

4 Ibid., IX, 110.

5 See Minorsky, V. F., Hudud al-Almn (London, 1937), pp. 463-65.Google Scholar

6 Nezami, Ganjevi, Hakim, Sharaf-Nameh, in Persian ed. by Vahid Dastegardi (Teheran, 1316 [1937-38]), p. 437.