An Investigation of Kiumars Tale in Shahnameh and Arabic Histories Influenced by Seir al-Moluks based on Genetteâs Hypertextuality

In all Pahlavi texts and remained narratives of Seir al-Moluks, Kiumars has been introduced as the first human being. According to these texts, the generation of mankind continues after the death of Kiumars in confrontation with Ahriman and the coitus of Mashy and Mashyaneh. However, Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is the only text in which Kiumars is the first king. In this text, the battle between Kiumars and Ahriman has been narrated in a different manner, too. Comparing the tale of Kiumars in Shahnameh with the texts influenced by Seir al-Moluks can lead to new results about the changes and transference of Kiumars from myth to a literary text like Shahnameh. Gerard Genette’s hypertextuality is an approach which deals with the relationship between pre-text and hyper-text. In the transference of a text to other text various changes occur which are called transformation. Based on the comparison of Kiumars tale in Shahnameh with the texts influenced by Seir al-Moluks according to Genette’s hypertextuality, the transformations of expansion, cutting and evaluation are the most important factors of changing of this tale in Ferdowsi’s narration which have been done to dramatize, demythologize and make believable this story as well as strengthen its linear relations with next stories and harmonize the events with the belief system and worldviews of Shahnameh’s addressees