TEHRAN - There are numerous cities and geographical areas in Ferdowsi’s masterpiece Shahnameh that can be the starting point for archaeological studies, Iranian scholar and expert on Shahnameh, Mohammad Rasouli, has said.

Questions about the origins and significance of that Persian literary masterpiece have long persisted. Consider, for instance:

Is Shahnameh a legend or a reality? In his book, did Ferdowsi narrate the history of Iran or did he present a legendary narrative of Iran and its characters based on his own thoughts? The answers to these questions are very difficult, and Shahnameh scholars do not agree on them.

Are there any historical remains and ancient sites in Shahnameh that would encourage archaeologists to search for historical signs?

Rasouli is also the author of 20 books regarding Shahnameh, the latest of which is titled ‘The Complete History of Iran Based on Shahnameh and Ancient Texts’ and was recently published,

Speaking in a press conference on the subject of Shahnameh which was held at the Bozorgmehr Hakim Cultural and Studies Institute in Tehran, he said that Shahnameh is a completely historical text, and Ferdowsi has written the narrative of Iranian history in it in his own language.

In response to ILNA's question whether Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, like the reading of Achaemenid tablets by ancient language experts and the translation of these tablets by Professor Abdolmajid Arfai, led to the discovery of hundreds of ancient sites and cities and villages from the Achaemenid period in Iran, of which no trace remains and which can currently be explored by archaeologists as an ancient site, does it contain any traces of Iranian historical cities and sites that can be used to identify unknown points within this book? he said: “This is definitely the case in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh.”

Where Ferdowsi speaks of Iranovich or where he mentions earthquake-prone areas in Iran, he is talking about areas that had continuous earthquakes and archaeologists can find these areas from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and study them.

Mohammad Rasouli said that one of the main and very helpful issues for in-depth archaeological research of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is that if archaeologists are convinced that Shahnameh narrates the history of Iran and not a collection of stories derived from legend, then we can witness the beginning of in-depth research in the field of Shahnameh archaeology.

This Iranian university professor pointed out that Shahnameh was written by Ferdowsi almost simultaneously with the writing of the Hindu Rig Veda and the Zoroastrian Avesta.

He added that in the Avesta, a region called ‘Var’ is also mentioned, which was an underground city, and even the method of its construction is described. 

“This issue is also present in the Shahnameh, and finding the cities or historical regions where the events of the Shahnameh took place, and the names and addresses of some of them, incidentally, are in the Shahnameh, is within the scope of archaeologists' work. Ultimately, the prerequisite for carrying out archaeological activities on the Shahnameh texts is that archaeologists are convinced that the Shahnameh is history, not myths and fictional stories.”

He added: “Some cities whose names are mentioned in Shahnameh or places where, for example, Jamshid, one of the characters in the Shahnameh, spoke of flying in his flying throne in Hamun, which was a flat plain, or where it contains the addresses of Damavand and Sabalan, may not exist currently, but it is obvious that these were the places that Ferdowsi spoke of based on the existence of these cities or areas mentioned in Shahnameh.”

Therefore, the archaeologists can begin archaeological studies to find the lost history based on Ferdowsi's Shahnameh by carefully studying it and extracting the addresses that he specifically announced in this book, Rasouli pointed out.

The historian announced that the investigation and study of some geographical points specified in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is the work of archaeologists.
He added that if archaeologists seriously enter the subject of archaeology in Shahnameh, an important step will be taken in proving the theory that Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is a historical book and not a text based on legend and imagination.

KD