Iran and Aniran

Abstract

Notions of national or ethnic identity are virtually always conceived of in terms of the past; the assumption is that we are what the past bestows upon us and constrains us to be, and the past is used to validate the ways in which we conceive of our identity vis-à-vis those who, we claim, do not share it. In the importance given to the past when questions of identity are considered, the Shahnameh is, as it were, twice blessed: It is seen as the first major literary work of the Islamic period in Iranian history (and its immense influence has contributed much toward Iran’s perceptions of the nature of its own continuing reality in the past thousand years), and it is also the chief means by which the mythology and history of pre-Islamic Iran entered the national consciousness. And although it is true that, within Iran, in the past hundred years or so, the history of pre-Islamic Iran has been substantially rewritten from other sources, our sense of its legendary and mythological legacy has been much less altered, and is still perceived, by most people who are interested in the subject, largely in the terms set out by the Shahnameh. This dual status—as the first major literary work of the Islamic period and as the virtually sole custodian of the narratives of the pre-Islamic period—has given the Shahnameh an almost iconic significance in discussions of Iranian identity. It does not seem too exaggerated a claim, to say that the Shahnameh is popularly seen as the repository of a quintessential “Iranian-ness,” or “Persian-ness,” which cannot be found elsewhere.