New NaqqaliThe First Kings: Fereydoon
Chapters
- A6.1 · Fereydoon Gains the Throne48 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.2 · Jandal Goes to Yemen81 couplets · 8 notes
- A6.3 · The King of Yemen Answers Jandal48 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.4 · Fereydoon’s Sons Go to Yemen22 couplets · 4 notes
- A6.5 · Sarv Tests Fereydoon’s Sons36 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.6 · Fereydoon Tests His Sons52 couplets · 6 notes
- A6.7 · Fereydoon Divides the Realm14 couplets · 3 notes
- A6.8 · Salm Grows Envious34 couplets · 4 notes
- A6.9 · Salm and Tur Send a Message to Their Father46 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.10 · Fereydoon Answers His Sons71 couplets · 7 notes
- A6.11 · Iraj Goes to Meet His Brothers40 couplets · 4 notes
- A6.12 · Iraj Is Slain47 couplets · 6 notes
- A6.13 · Fereydoon Receives the Tragic News48 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.14 · A Daughter Is Born to Iraj14 couplets · 3 notes
- A6.15 · The Birth of Manuchehr33 couplets · 4 notes
- A6.16 · Salm and Tur Hear of the Young Heir34 couplets · 4 notes
- A6.17 · Fereydoon Receives a Message from Salm and Tur25 couplets · 3 notes
- A6.18 · Fereydoon Answers His Sons90 couplets · 8 notes
- A6.19 · Manuchehr Marches for Vengeance59 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.20 · Manuchehr Attacks the Army of Tur33 couplets · 4 notes
- A6.21 · Manuchehr Brings Vengeance25 couplets · 4 notes
- A6.22 · Fereydoon Receives News from Manuchehr25 couplets · 3 notes
- A6.23 · Gharan Takes the Castle of the Alanons54 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.24 · Kakouy Attacks the Iranians39 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.25 · Manuchehr Fights Salm and Slays Him39 couplets · 5 notes
- A6.26 · Fereydoon Receives the Head of Salm50 couplets · 6 notes
- A6.27 · The Death of Fereydoon24 couplets · 4 notes
About this commentary
A divided world, a broken household
Twenty-seven chapters, 1,131 English couplets and 130 commentary entries. All 2,262 English lines are preserved unchanged. The reign moves from celebration and dynastic marriage through fratricide and vengeance to a father’s mourning of all three sons.
Read the comparison method and source limits
F&R is an English verse translation; Moscow, Mohl and Khaleghi are edited Persian texts; Ganjoor is a digital presentation. These are five comparison texts, not five independent manuscript witnesses. Related presentations do not supply independent manuscript votes.
Parallel blocks align coherent units of sense. Each English couplet appears once in the reading text and falls within one commentary entry. All 898 couplets of Ganjoor’s twenty Fereydoon sections are represented once. G f1–f20 retain their digital section and local couplet numbers. Modern summaries and reader comments are excluded.
Where the English carries fuller printed episodes, the Persian side supplies explicitly labeled selected excerpts rather than a fabricated one-to-one counterpart or a silently composite Persian edition. Those rows are evidence anchors, not a full transcription of each longer printed passage. Equal totals and adjacent blocks do not assert line-by-line verbal identity. Quoted orthography and spacing are lightly normalized.
Main text, square brackets and apparatus preservation are identified separately at significant points. The scans were consulted for narrative extent and selected local readings. This is a comparative literary commentary, not an exhaustive manuscript collation or a complete transcription of the modern apparatuses.
The notes distinguish narrator, character, envoy and quoted letter. They explain supported English choices and record local semantic, agency and sequencing differences without silently revising the verse. Mythic reign lengths, army sizes and geography remain in their epic setting.
Principal findings. The Yemen tests, dragon scene and Kakouy combat have printed Persian support despite gaps in Ganjoor. Khaleghi retains substantial narrative that Ganjoor omits. Mohl supports the English’s Jupiter/Sun astrology; Khaleghi supports its earth/fire image. Naming versus betrothal, initial fortress-planning agency and the final investiture sequence receive specific qualifications.
Evidence behind the comparison
Bibliography and consulted presentations
| Text | Edition and access |
|---|---|
| F&R English | Farzad and Rhonda Dibachi, Shahnameh, A6.1–A6.27, New Naqqali. Captured website text: 1,131 couplets / 2,262 lines. |
| Moscow | Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: Critical Text, vol. I, under E. E. Bertels. Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1960. Fereydoon reign, printed pp 79–134. Image number = printed page + 1. Narrative extent, bracketed passages and selected apparatus locations are distinguished locally. |
| Mohl | Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, ed. Jules Mohl, vol. I. Tehran pocket reprint, Sherkat-e Sahami-ye Ketabha-ye Jibi with Franklin Publications, second printing 1354 SH. Relevant printed pp 58–106. This is the inspected Persian reprint, not the first Paris impression. In this span PDF page = printed page + 4. |
| Ganjoor | Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, Fereydoon sh1–sh20. Captured poem-body counts: 48, 70, 35, 24, 13, 111, 38, 19, 21, 43, 50, 40, 128, 59, 16, 17, 23, 23, 45, 75; total 898. |
| Khaleghi | Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, ed. Jalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, vol. I. Tehran: Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia, sixth printing 1396 SH. Relevant printed pp 89–157. The scan is the Tehran printing, not the first New York impression. PDF page = printed page + 16. Main text, brackets and apparatus are kept distinct. |
Alignment and coverage
All 1,131 English couplets and all 898 Ganjoor reference couplets are accounted for once. Printed excerpts mark fuller episodes and supplement the digital reference; they do not claim a complete transcription of every printed or apparatus line.
| Chapter | Scope | Reference distribution |
|---|---|---|
| A6.1 | 48 English / 48 G | f1 1–48 |
| A6.2 | 81 English / 70 G | f2 1–70 |
| A6.3 | 48 English / 35 G | f3 1–35 |
| A6.4 | 22 English / 10 G | f4 1–10 |
| A6.5 | 36 English / 14 G | f4 11–24 |
| A6.6 | 52 English / 0 G | No Ganjoor counterpart; selected printed excerpts. |
| A6.7 | 14 English / 13 G | f5 1–13 |
| A6.8 | 34 English / 33 G | f6 1–33 |
| A6.9 | 46 English / 44 G | f6 34–77 |
| A6.10 | 71 English / 72 G | f6 78–111; f7 1–38 |
| A6.11 | 40 English / 40 G | f8 1–19; f9 1–21 |
| A6.12 | 47 English / 43 G | f10 1–43 |
| A6.13 | 48 English / 50 G | f11 1–50 |
| A6.14 | 14 English / 10 G | f12 1–10 |
| A6.15 | 33 English / 30 G | f12 11–40 |
| A6.16 | 34 English / 33 G | f13 1–33 |
| A6.17 | 25 English / 24 G | f13 34–57 |
| A6.18 | 90 English / 71 G | f13 58–128 |
| A6.19 | 59 English / 59 G | f14 1–59 |
| A6.20 | 33 English / 33 G | f15 1–16; f16 1–17 |
| A6.21 | 25 English / 23 G | f17 1–23 |
| A6.22 | 25 English / 23 G | f18 1–23 |
| A6.23 | 54 English / 45 G | f19 1–45 |
| A6.24 | 39 English / 0 G | No Ganjoor counterpart; selected printed excerpts. |
| A6.25 | 39 English / 39 G | f20 1–39 |
| A6.26 | 50 English / 25 G | f20 40–64 |
| A6.27 | 24 English / 11 G | f20 65–75 |
Textual findings and qualifications
| Passage | Finding | Record |
|---|---|---|
| A6.1.11 | Local semantic difference | بکوش, “strive,” becomes “Seek ease.” The festival setting explains the direction but does not make the words lexically equivalent. |
| A6.1.47 | Place-name support | Mohl’s Kus supports the English against Ganjoor’s Gush. |
| A6.2.5, 47 | Naming and betrothal | The English substitutes marital status for explicit naming language; the later naming scene is preserved separately. |
| A6.3–A6.5 | Yemen tests supported | Mohl preserves briefing, identification and frost. Khaleghi brackets the briefing but prints the enacted identification and frost trial in the main narrative. Ganjoor omits them. |
| A6.5.33–34 | A distinct ethical voice | The narrator’s equal valuation of worthy female and male children answers Sarv’s complaint; it is not another assertion by Sarv. Khaleghi brackets the maxim. |
| A6.6.37 | Earth/fire variant | Khaleghi supports the English image; Mohl has water/fire. |
| A6.6.48–50 | Planetary variants | Mohl supports Sagittarius/Jupiter and Leo/Sun; Khaleghi instead prints Saturn and Mars. For Iraj, Mohl has Cancer/Moon while Khaleghi prints Aries/Moon. |
| A6.9.17 | Parentage formula | English literal shared-mother wording is stronger than the source’s equality-of-birth claim. The elder pair and all three brothers must not be conflated. |
| A6.10–A6.13 | Competing ethical positions | Iraj’s renunciation, the brothers’ violence and the father’s vengeance prayer retain different voices and moral intentions. |
| A6.12.30 | Ant plea supported | Mohl prints میازار موری; Khaleghi retains a مکش موری formulation. Ganjoor has no separate ant couplet. |
| A6.13–A6.15 | Sight and restoration | The grief sequence has a bodily dimension completed by restored sight at the descendant’s birth. |
| A6.19 | Female-line legitimacy | Tur’s taunt attacks the heir’s maternal descent; the reply affirms Iraj as ancestor and Fereydoon as witness. |
| A6.23.4–10 | Planning agency | English gives Manuchehr the first strategic thought; Ganjoor gives it to Gharan. |
| A6.23.45–54 | Timing and number supported | Mohl supports the nightfall signal and twelve thousand dead against Ganjoor’s dawn and uncounted dead. |
| A6.24 | Kakouy retained in print | Mohl and Khaleghi print the combat. Ganjoor omits it; Moscow’s p 128 note 20 registers the omitted episode. |
| A6.25 | Restraint after victory | The ordinary army’s plea and the prohibition of needless killing limit vengeance to the guilty principals. |
| A6.26 | A fuller handoff; local reordering | The second letter and Sahm’s guardianship have printed support. English and Ganjoor differ in order and agency around treasure distribution and enthronement. |
| A6.27 | The transmitted longer close | Mohl supports longer lament, public mourning and ethical coda; Khaleghi preserves some additional close in the apparatus, while Ganjoor ends earlier. |
Attribution and reuse
The English is reproduced for its authors’ requested project. Persian reference text and selected printed quotations are attributed locally. Full scans and modern apparatuses are linked rather than embedded. The publication-clearance qualifications recorded in the Prologue remain applicable.