Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:06:42.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Khargāh and Other Terms for Tents in Firdawsī’s Shāh-nāmah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

David Durand-Guédy*
Affiliation:
Based in Tehran Tehran with research interest in the medieval history of Iran

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the wider debate on the historicity of the Shāh-nāmah by focusing on the way Firdawsī uses the word khargāh. The word, which is first attested in Rūdakī poetry, has not been dealt with adequately in previous scholarship dedicated to the Shāh-nāmah. An analysis of all the occurrences in the text provides results consistent with those obtained from contemporary sources: the khargāh appeared in Central Asia (here, Tūrān); it was the standard dwelling of Turkic-speaking pastoral nomads (here, Tūrānians), whatever their social rank; and it was adopted later as a status symbol by non-Turkish elites (here, during Kay-Khusraw’s reign). In Firdawsī’s Shāh-nāmah khargāh should therefore also be understood as the type of framed tent known as “trellis tent” (the so-called yurt).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

He is grateful to Peter Andrews and also to the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier version of this text. However, the author is solely responsible for the errors that remain. Transliteration throughout is in accordance with the style of the International Journal of Middle East Studies.

References

Amedroz, H. F., and Margoliouth, David Samuel, eds. The Eclipse of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate. 7 vols. Oxford–London: Basil Blackwell, 1920–21.Google Scholar
Andrews, Peter A.The White House of Khurasan.” Iran 11 (1973): 93110. doi: 10.2307/4300487CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, Peter A.Yurtči.” In Encylopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition. Supplement, 838839. Leiden: Brill, 2004.Google Scholar
Andrews, Peter A. Nomad Tent Types in the Middle East. Part I. Framed Tents (Beihefte zum TAVO—A IX 5). 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1997.Google Scholar
Andrews, Peter A. Felt Tents and Pavilions. The Nomadic Tradition and its Interaction with Princely Tentage. 2 vols. London: Melisende, 1999.Google Scholar
Atābakī, Parvīz. Vāzhah-nāmah-yi Shāh-nāmah [Lexicon of the Shāh-nāmah]. Tehran: Āthār-i millī Farzān, 1379sh/2000.Google Scholar
Baghdādī, ʿAbd al-Qādir. Lughat-i Shāh-nāmah. Edited by Zaleman, Karl, Lexicon Šahnâmianum. Saint Petersburg: Eggers, 1885.Google Scholar
al-Balādhūrī. Futūh al-buldān. Edited by Goeje, Michael de, Liber expugnationis regionum. Leiden: Brill, 1866.Google Scholar
Barthold, Vladimir. Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion. 3rd augmented ed., edited by Bosworth, C. E. London: Luzac, 1968.Google Scholar
al-Bundārī. al-Shāhnāmah. Edited by al-Wahhāb ‘Azzām, ‘Abd. 2 vols. Cairo, 1350AH/1932; reprinted in one volume, Tehran: Asadi, 1970. Translated by ‘Abd al-Muhammad Āyatī, Tehran: Anjuman-i āthār u mafākhir-i farhangī, 1380sh./2001.Google Scholar
Bromberger, Christian. “Habitation.” In Dictionnaire de l’ethnologie et de l’anthropologie, edited by Bonte, Pierre and Izard, Michel. Paris: PUF, 1991.Google Scholar
Canby, Sheila. The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp. The Persian Book of Kings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Charmagī-ʿUmrānī, Murtadā. “Barrisī-yi nām-i jāy-i ‘Rūdābad’ dar Shāh-nāmah-i Firdawsī.” [Study on the toponym Rūd-ābād in Firdawsī’s Shāh-nāmah] Nashriyya-yi adab ū zabān-i dānishkadah-i adabiyāt ū ʿulūm-i insānī dānishgāh-i shahīd Bāhunar Kirmān 41 (1396sh.): 139160.Google Scholar
Chavannes, Edouard. Documents sur les Tou Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. St. Petersburg: Académie Impériale des Sciences, 1903.Google Scholar
Clinton, Jerome W.Ferdowsi and the Illustration of the Shahnameh.” In Islamic Art and Literature, edited by Grabar, Oleg and Robinson, Cynthia, 5778. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001.Google Scholar
Darrī, Zahrā. “Khaymah va khargāh dar adab-i fārsī.” Āmūzish-i zabān va adab-i fārsī 64, 16th year (1381sh.): 5657.Google Scholar
Davis, Dick. The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. 3 vols. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 2004–9.Google Scholar
De la Vaissière, Etienne. Samarcande et Samarra. Élites d’Asie centrale dans l’empire abbasside. Paris: Association pour l’avancement des études iraniennes, 2007.Google Scholar
Digard, Jean-Pierre. Techniques des nomades Baxtyâri d’Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Paris: Éd. de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 1981.Google Scholar
Durand-Guédy, David. “The Tents of the Saljuqs.” In Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City Life, edited by Durand-Guédy, David, 149189. Leiden: Brill, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durand-Guédy, David. “Khargāh. Inquiry on the Diffusion of ‘Turkish’ Trellis Tent within the ‘Abbāsid World up to the Saljuq Conquest (mid. 2nd/8th–early 5th/11th Centuries).” BSOAS 79, no. 1 (2016): 5785. doi: 10.1017/S0041977X16000021CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durand-Guédy, David. “Note about the Persian Word Khargāh (Trellis Tent) in a Turko-Sogdian Context.” Eurasian Studies 15, no. 1 (2017): 125141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firdawsī. Shāh-nāmah. Edited by Khāliqī-Muṭlaq, Jalāl. 8 vols. Tehran: Markaz-i dāyirat al-ma‘ārif-i buzurg-i islāmī, 1386–9sh.Google Scholar
Firdawsī. Shāh-nāmah. Edited and translated by Mohl, Jules, Le Livre des Rois par Abou’lkasim Firdousi. 8 vols. Paris: Jean Maisonneuve, 1838–78, reprint 1976.Google Scholar
Golden, Peter. “The Ethnogonic Tales of the Turks.” The Medieval History Journal 21/2 (2018): 291327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horn, Paul. “Šâhnâme 64, 48.” ZDMG 59 (1903): 176.Google Scholar
Hudūd al-ʿālam. Edited by Sutūdah, Manūchihr, Tehran: Intishārāt-i dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1340sh./1962.Google Scholar
Faḍlān, Ibn. Risāla. Edited by Valıdi Togan, A. Z., “Ibn Faḍlān’s Reisebericht.” Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 24 (1939).Google Scholar
al-Faqīh, Ibn. Mukhtasar kitāb akhbār al-buldān. Edited by de Goeje, Michael Jan. 2nd ed. Bibliotheca Geographicorum Arabicorum, V. Leiden: Brill, 1967.Google Scholar
al-Istakhrī. Kitāb al-masālik wa’l-mamālik. Edited by de Goeje, Michael Jan. Bibliotheca geographicorum arabicorum, I. Leiden: Brill, 1870.Google Scholar
Hawqal, Ibn. Kitāb ṣurat al-ʿard. Edited by de Goeje, M.. 2nd ed. revised by Kramers, J. H., Bibliotheca geographicorum arabicorum, II. Leiden: Brill, 1967.Google Scholar
Kazzāzī, Mīr Jalāl al-Dīn. Nāmah-yi bāstān. Vīrāyish va guzārish-i Shāh-nāmah-yi Firdawsī. 8 vols. Tehran: Sāzimān-i mutāliʿah va tadwīn-i kutub-i ʿulūm-i insānī-yi dānishgāh-hā, 1379–91sh./2000–11.Google Scholar
Khāliqī-Mutlaq, Jalāl. Yāddāsht-hā-yi Shāh-nāmah. 3 vols. (numbered 9–11). Tehran: Markaz-i Dāyirat al-ma‘ārif-i buzurg-i islāmī 1386–9sh.Google Scholar
Khāliqī-Mutlaq, Jalāl. “Bār va āʾīn-i ān dar Īrān.” Īrān-nāmah 5, no. 3 (1366sh./1987): 391438 and 6, no. 1 (1366sh./1987): 34–75.Google Scholar
Khaleghi-Motlagh, Jalāl. “Bār.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan, 3, 730737. London and New York, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988.Google Scholar
Kowalski, Tadeusz. “Les Turcs dans le Shah-name.” Rocznik orjentalistyczny 15 (1939–49): 8499. Translated by P. Simpson, “The Turks in the Shāh-nāma.” In The Turks in the Early Islamic World, edited by C. E. Bosworth, 121–134. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.Google Scholar
Levy, Reuben. The Epic of the Kings. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Minorsky, Vladimir. “Tamim ibn Baḥr’s Journey to the Uyghurs.” BSOAS 12, no. 2 (1948): 275305. doi: 10.1017/S0041977X00080228CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minorsky, Vladimir. Abu-Dulaf Mis‘ar Ibn Muhalhil’s travels in Iran (circa A.D. 950 ). Cairo: Cairo University Press, 1955.Google Scholar
Minorsky, Vladimir. Ḥudud al-‘Ālam, “The Regions of the World”: A Persian Geography, 372 A.H.–982 A.D. 2nd ed., edited by Bosworth, C. E. London: Luzac, 1970.Google Scholar
Ravāqī, ‘Alī. Farhang-i Shāh-nāmah. 2 vols. Tehran: Matn, 1389sh/2010.Google Scholar
al-Samʿānī. al-Ansāb. Edited by ʿAtā, M. ʿA.-Q.. 6 vols. Beirut: dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya 1419AH/1998.Google Scholar
Ibn al-Jawzī, Sibt. Mirʾāt al-zamān. Edited by Sevim, Ali, Sibt b. Cevzı (al-Ğawzī), Mi’râtü’z-Zeman fï Tarihi’l-Ayan. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi, 1968.Google Scholar
al-Tabarī. Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk, edited by de Goeje, Michael. 15 vols. Leiden, 1879–1901. Translated under the direction of E. Yarshater, The History of al-Ṭabari. 40 vols. New York: State University of New York Press, 1985–2007.Google Scholar
Tomaschek, Wilhelm. Centralasiatische Studien I. Sogdiana. Vienna: Carl Gerold’s Sohn, 1877.Google Scholar
al-ʿUtbī. Kitāb al-yamīnī. Edited by Dhunūn al-Thāmirī, Ihsān. Beirut: Dār al-Ṭalīʿa, 2004.Google Scholar
Van Zutphen, Marjolijn. “Faramarz’s Expedition to Qannuj and Khargah: Mutual Influences of the Shahnama and the Longer Faramarznama.” In Shahnama Studies II. The Reception of Firdausi’s Shahnama, edited by Melville, Charles and van den Berg, Gabriel, 4978. Leiden: Brill, 2012.Google Scholar
Von Rohr-Sauer, Alfred. Des Abû Dulaf Bericht über seine Reise nach Turkestân, China und Indien: neu übersetz und untersucht. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1939.Google Scholar
Wolff, Fritz. Glossar zu Firdosis Schahname. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhanldung, 1965.Google Scholar
al-Yāqūt. Muʿjam al-buldān. Edited by Wüstenfeld, F., Jaqut’s Geographisches Wörterbuch. 6 vols. Leipzig: in comm. bei F. A. Brockhaus, 1866–73.Google Scholar
Zanjānī, Mahmūd. Farhang-i jāmiʿ Shāh-nāmah. Tehran: ʿAtaʾī, 1372sh/1993.Google Scholar