Quoting the Shāhnāme in monumental epigraphy. Literary culture and legitimisation strategies across the Persianate world (11th-13th c.)

Viola Allegranzi (1)

1 OeAW - Austrian Academy of Sciences

The paper investigates the use of Firdawsī's Shāhnāma as a source of inspiration for monumental inscriptions produced during the three centuries following its composition (11th-13th c.). Although the Persian epic is relatively seldom transposed to epigraphy, evidence spanning from Afghanistan to Anatolia demonstrates that the poem could be adapted to convey both legitimising and ethical messages. Such a survey opens up new perspectives on the reception and transformation of themes echoing back to the pre Islamic past of Iran, and on their assimilation to the visual and material culture of the medieval Persianate world.

Mots clés: Shahname; Ferdowsi; Islamic epigraphy; Turko-Iranian dynasties; Persianate world; Persian literature; Legitimisation strategies

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Art et histoire de l'art; Littératures

Viola Allegranzi. Quoting the Shāhnāme in monumental epigraphy. Literary culture and legitimisation strategies across the Persianate world (11th-13th c.). Leonardo Capezzone. Before Archaeology. The Meaning of the Past in the Islamic Pre-Modern Thought (and After), Artemide, pp.127-142, 2020, 9788875753665. ⟨halshs-03998736⟩