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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
This essay explores Bahram Beyzaie's inter-paradigmatic reformulations of Iranian dramatic forms and Shahnameh legends in plays which highlight the voice of the periphery against the center and imbue these narratives with motifs that relate them to the present. The essay first reviews Beyzaie's work with the Shahnameh and then examines the Shahnameh cycle of Jamshid and Zahhak to provide the context for in-depth analyses of Azhdahak (1959), Karnameh-ye Bondar-e Bidakhsh (The Account of Bondar the Premier, 1996), and the first episode of Shab-e Hezar-o-Yekom (The One Thousand and First Night, 2003) in which Beyzaie reconstructs the cycle of Jamshid and Zahhak.
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12 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 44: 60–74, 51: 171–4.
13 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 52: footnotes 2 and 19.
14 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 57: 38–41.
15 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 58: 54–68.
16 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 68–9: 219–20.
17 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 70: 236–43.
18 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 127: 610.
19 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 71: 265–8 and 73: 307–10.
20 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 80: 403–9.
21 Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 82: 420–36
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35 Beyzaie, “Karnameh-ye,” 58–61.
36 Beyzaie, “Karnameh-ye,” 72.
37 Beyzaie, Bahram, Shab-e Hezar-o-Yekom (Tehran, 2003), 43–4.Google Scholar As with other cases in Beyzaie's works, this echoes an actual event, involving Abdollah Ebn-e Taher (R. 828–44), the Taherid ruler of Khorasan and a Middle Persian manuscript of Vameq and Azra. See Samarqandi, Dolatshah-e, Tazkerat-o-Shoara, ed. Brwone, Edward (Cambridge, 1900), 30.Google Scholar
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40 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 6.
41 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 8–9.
42 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 9.
43 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 10. For the origin of Beyzaie's suggestion, see Ebn-e Balkhi, Farshameh (ca. 1110) (Tehran, 2005), 11.
44 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 11.
45 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 13.
46 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 15.
47 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 15–16.
48 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 19.
49 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 23.
50 See Beyzaie, Bahram, Rishehyabi Derakht-e Kohan (Tehran, 2004), 83–116.Google Scholar
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53 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 22–4.
54 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 28–9.
55 Beyzaie, Shab-e, 34–5.
