Rostam and Sohrab

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rostam weeps Sohrab ( Persian miniature painting )

Rostam and Sohrab ( Persian رستم و سهراب, DMG Rostam o Sohrāb ) is a legend from the heroic epic “ Shāhnāme ”, the life work of the Persian poet Abū ʾl-Qāsim Firdausī (940 / 41-1020).

content

Rostam , the greatest hero of the Old Persian Empire , goes hunting with his horse, Rachsch . In doing so, he crosses the Persian border towards Turan . During the night his horse is stolen from him and taken to a stud farm in Samangan. The next morning Rostam went to the nearby border town of Samangan to look for his horse . He is greeted happily, promised to look for his horse and given a feast in his honor. During the night Tahmine , the daughter of the King of Samangan, comes to his bedchamber. Rostam has a Zoroastrian priest brought in and asked the king for the daughter's hand. He is delighted to have chosen his daughter to marry. Rostam and Tahmine spend the night together. The next day, Rachsch, Rostam's horse is found. Rostam leaves Tahmine and gives her a bangle to say goodbye.

Nine months later, Tahmine gives birth to a son whom she names Sohrab . The son follows his father and is invincible in battle even as a boy. Grown up, Sohrab asks Tahmine about his father. She reveals to him that his father is none other than Rostam, and on this occasion she hands him the bracelet that Rostam had once given her. Sohrab immediately decides to move to Persia and look for his father. He asks his grandfather, the King of Samangan, to equip an army for him. With this army he wants to remove Kay Ka'us , the Shah of Persia, from the throne and Rostam, his father, as the new Shah. When father and son are then united, they could also depose Afrasiab , the Shah of Turan, and unite Turan and Persia into one empire.

Sohrab is assembling an army. Afrasiab, who learns about Sohrab's military campaign, comes up with a diabolical plan. He sends his confidante Baruman with another army to reinforce Sohrab. He wants Sohrab and Rostam to fight and get each other out of the way. Baruman should make sure that Sohrab does not get to know his father as such.

Sohrab invades Persia with his army and conquers the border castle, called the white castle. He takes Hodjir prisoner. The news that Sohrab had invaded Persia reached Shah Kay Ka'us. He gathers an army and has Rostam called. However, he takes a few days to answer Kay Ka'u's call, which in turn annoys him. When Rostam arrives, there is a dispute and Rostam initially leaves, offended. Rostam only gives in and leads the Persian army after being persuaded by the Persian princes.

When the Persian Army arrives at the White Castle, a camp is set up first. Sohrab has the captured Hodschir fetched and from afar he calls himself the Persian military leader. Only Rostam is denied by Hodjir because he suspects a trap. He describes Rostam as an unknown fighter whom Kay Ka'us recruited. Rostam had quarreled with Kay Ka'us and therefore did not take part in the campaign.

In the evening Rostam secretly goes to the white castle to observe the Turan general Sohrab, who is unknown to him, up close. In the castle Rostam kills Send, Sohrab's cousin, who was sent by Tahmine to show Sohrab his father Rostam. Before he is discovered, Rostam returns to the Persian army camp. Sohrab vows to avenge his cousin's murderer.

The next day the armies meet for the first time, with the two leaders Rostam and Sohrab fighting each other. Rostam, who has never been defeated in battle, is amazed at the young man's strength. Sohrab, who suspects the fighter might be his father Rostam, and asks him his name, receives no answer from Rostam, as Rostam suspects a trap behind the question. Since neither of the two fighters won that day, they agreed to meet for a decisive duel for the following day.

The next day the two fighters meet on the battlefield, the two armies in the background. Sohrab, who suspects that the fighter he does not know to be his father, speaks directly to Rostam and offers him to give up the fight and to come to an understanding peacefully. But Rostam wants the fight. In the following ring, Rostam falls to the ground and Sohrab draws his dagger for a fatal blow. Rostam can stop him with a ruse by convincing Sohrab that after a lost duel, the fatal blow can only be set at the second defeat. If you want to be considered a man of honor, you have to give the initially inferior a second chance. Sohrab agrees and gives Rostam free.

Rostam leaves the battlefield and goes to a mountain stream where a mountain spirit lives, with whom he left part of his superhuman strength many years ago. The mountain spirit gives him back his strength and Rostam now faces the further duel as if rejuvenated. With this superhuman strength Rostam now forces Sohrab to the ground and gives him a fatal blow with his dagger. As he dies, Sohrab reveals to him that he is Rostam's son and shows him the bracelet that Tahmine gave him to identify his father. He threatens the still unknown with the fatal revenge of his father Rostam. Rostam, horrified by his bloody deed, roars like a wondrous lion and faints. Sohrab now realizes that he was mortally wounded by his own father.

The approaching Persian military leaders are initially relieved that Rostam is alive, but are then informed by Rostam that he had just killed his son in the fight for Persia. Horror spreads. A messenger is sent to persuade Kay Ka'us to help Sohrab with a life-saving elixir . But he refuses if Rostam does not ask him personally. Sohrab is dying happily saying goodbye to his father Rostam. He absolves his father of any guilt for his death. Fate would have it that he was born to die through his father. He asks the father to let the two armies go and keep peace.

Rostam overcomes his pride and wants to ask Kay Ka'us for the elixir of life, but Sohrab has passed away in the meantime. After a moving funeral service, Rostam has Sohrab's body brought to his crypt in Zabulistan . Rostam's brother, informs Tahmine of her son's death. He himself does not dare to return to his homeland and moves to the desert to mourn.

Motive in European literature

The legend of the duel between father and son can also be found in the German literature of the 9th century, in the so-called Hildebrandslied . The Hildebrandslied is one of the earliest poetic testimonies in German from the 9th century . It is the only surviving text testimony to a Germanic hero song in German literature and, moreover, generally the oldest surviving Germanic hero song. It is only preserved in fragments. The text breaks off when father and son face each other in a duel.

Since the end of the plot has not been handed down, it cannot be said with absolute certainty whether the ending was tragic. One can assume, however, because the text is based on the climax of the duel in its dramaturgical composition . Through the psychological design of the exchange of words between father and son; Hildebrand's conflict between the father's attempt at affection and rapprochement and maintaining his honor and self-evident position as a warrior intensifies the tragedy of the plot. The so-called "Hildebrand's Death Song" in the Old Norse Fornaldarsaga Ásmundar saga kappabana from the 13th century is evidence of this . The Death Song is a fragmentary song in the Eddic style within the prose text of the saga.

In the German Younger Hildebrandslied , the father also wins, but the two recognize each other in time. This text is clearly influenced by the Middle Ages, in that the duel shows the nature of the knightly tournament, in the form of a quasi-sporting competition. A later variant (only preserved in manuscripts between the 15th and 17th centuries in Germany) offers a conciliatory variant: in the middle of the fight, the arguing turn away from each other, the son recognizes the father, and they embrace. This version ends with a kiss from the father on the forehead of the son and the words: "Thank God, we are both healthy." As early as the 13th century, this conciliatory variant reached Scandinavia from Germany and was incorporated into the Thidrek saga ( oldest surviving manuscript already around 1280), a thematic translation of German sagas from the circle around Dietrich von Bern.

The Irish hero Cú Chulainn also kills his son Connla (Cú Chulainn) without recognizing him in a duel.

Reception history

The story of Rostam and Sohrab is one of the best-known stories in the Persian-speaking world. Friedrich Rückert first published this story in a widely acclaimed adaption in 1838, making it accessible to a wider German readership. For Rückert the story of Rostam and Sohrab obviously formed the beginning of a planned Schahname translation. Rückert worked on this translation throughout his life, but was unable to finish it.

Loris Tjeknavorian , an Armenian composer who studied with Carl Orff , wrote an opera entitled “Rostam and Sohrab”. Behrouz Gharibpour, a well-known Iranian director, has turned Tjeknavorian's opera into a puppet show with music.

Film adaptations

  • 1972: The battle in the valley of the white tulips ( Tajik Рустам ва Сӯҳроб , Rustam wa Suhrob , Tajik film )

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Battle of the Valley of the White Tulips. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used