Alexander the Great in the Shahnameh
A historical figure in a mythical world.
If you are not familiar with the Iranian epic, the Shahnameh, I will leave an introduction for you here from a previous article of mine.
I want to explore something quite fascinating in the context of the Shahnameh, something that surprised me when I first came across it. After the heroic age of Shahnameh comes to an end with the death of Rostam, we see a shift towards a more historic retelling of events, beginning around the 4th — 5th century BCE. Darius III (known as Dara in the epic), the last Achaemenid ruler, is introduced through stories about his father, Darab, and we quickly learn Ferdowsi’s retelling has created a dynamic between Darab and Alexander’s mother (called Nahid).
In the Shahnameh, Nahid and Darab are wed after Darab defeats Philip II, and they have a child who will later become Alexander himself. So very early on, history is being bent: Philip II is shown as having a daughter rather than fathering Alexander, and his daughter is the one that gives birth to Alexander through her marriage to a Persian ruler.
After a failed marriage led the newborn Alexander and his mother back to Philip II, the story begins to take a familiar shape with the historical accounts of Alexander’s upbringing. Philip II publicly announces that…
