A Preliminary Study on KUSH-NAMEH, an Ancient Persian Epic and Its Description on Silla

Medieval Persian literature has a long and rich epic tradition. reaching back for its major sources to the pre-Islamic era and continuing in a weakened form into the Safavid(16~18th C.) and even early Qajar(19th C.) periods. The epics about pre-Islamic material are the most significant and there are strong indications that an oral epic tradition existed in pre-Islamic Iran. This research is to introduce and report new facts on ancient Silla-Iran relations based on Kush-nameh, newly discovered and analyzed Persian epic. Kush-nameh, an pre-Islamic Persian epic which is re-interpreted by an Iranian scholar Dr.Daryoosh Akbarzadeh, gives us surprisingly many remarkable description on Silla Kingdom of the 6~8th centuries. Among total 10.129 couples, 3914 couples between No.2011~5925 deal with such Silla contents as its society, China-Iran-Silla relations, military cooperation between Silla and Iran, Iranian settlement in Silla society, marriage of Iranian price with Silla princess, immigration of Iranian peoples to Baghdad through sea routes, excellent living condition of Silla. Of course, Long before the advent of Islam, Korea and the Middle East were trading by sea and by such overland routes as the Silk Road. Documented references are few and far between, but sufficient remain to give proof of substantial commerce between Korea and the Middle East. One example is the glass cups excavated from ancient tombs in Kyong-ju, the capital of Shilla Kingdom. Most of the glass cups unearthed from the tombs were either from Arabia or Persia in 5-6th century. In addition, silver bowl on which the Persian goddess Anahita was inscribed, small bead inscribed human figuration from Palestine, clay busts and figures representing Middle Eastern merchants were excavated. Moreover, the Samguksagi, an official chronicle of the Three Kingdoms compiled in 1145, has a detailed account of commercial items which were mainly transacted by the Muslim merchants and widely used in the Shilla society. With advent of Islam, Korean-Muslim cultural contacts are more accelerated as a outcome of ancient China-Middle East commercial relations through sea-routes. The contacts are believed to be initiated as early as the middle of the 7th century. The direct contacts between Muslims and Koreans in the Korean peninsula can be borne out by references to Korea found in 20 Islamic sources written between the 9-16th century by 17 Muslim scholars such as Ibn Khurdadbih, Sulaiman al-Tajir, Mas'udi, etc. Ibn Khurdadbih was the first Arab who informed of Muslims' residence in the Unified Shilla Kingdom(661-935AD). But till now, no documents or epic are found to show ancient relations between Iran and Silla. In this sense the finding of Kush-nameh and its re-interpretation shall contribute a lot to Korean academic society to open new dimension in making research for Silla's foreign relations and more realistic approaches on Silla society. This study is only focussed on preliminary introduction of Kush-nameh to Korean academia. By more systemic and long term research projects, the wide range of rich contents on Silla described in Kush-nameh can be enlightened hopefully