Studies in Ancient Persian History (RLE Iran A) by P. Kershasp

Author:P. Kershasp [Kershasp, P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136841408
Google: Ap9IaX-C8msC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-05-23T04:41:54+00:00

V

Persian Chivalry and its Influences

IT is interesting to institute a parallel between the mediæval chivalry of Europe and the manners of the heroic age as reflected in the Persian Epic.

Cornish has written an admirable monograph on chivalry in the Social Science Series, and his propositions may be accepted without demur. He defines chivalry as the moral and social law and custom of the noble and gentle class in Europe during the later middle ages, and the results of that law and custom in action. The principal factors were war, religion, and the love of ladies—the principles of service to God, the feudal suzerain, and lady, underlay everything. The knight was bred up to think much of ceremony, i.e. courtesies of daily life and ceremony of consecration to knighthood, and his bearing in battle and tournament. Connected with heraldry and ceremony were the laws and usages of the feudal system, the tenure of land by knight service, and consequent fealty to the lord. A knight's leisure time was spent in hawking and hunting, or in music and amorous poetry. In the course of the eleventh century the development of feudal-ism regularised the institution, but it was still in a barbarous and violent stage. The crusades, there is a consensus of opinion, introduced new features. In the earlier crusades Cornish finds one element wanting— the love of ladies. Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, the gallantry of Arabs altered all the relations of social life. Chivalry upheld courage and enterprise, and glorified the virtues of liberality, good faith, unselfishness, and courtesy, and above all, courtesy to women. “From the end of the thirteenth century,”says St. Palaye, “the chivalrous ideal was modified under the influence of advancing civilisation and the romances of the Round Table.” Gallantry and softened and refined manners replace the brutalities of the earlier period, and this change, Cornish insists, is traceable to Moorish influences. Courtesy was never carried so far as in Spain, Cornish tells us.

Almost all the elements just shadowed forth are painted in their concrete forms in vivid colours and in a harmonious setting on the ample canvas of the “Shahnameh.” Malcolm makes these pithy comments: “A spirit of chivalry prevailed throughout the country from the commencement till the end of the Kayanian dynasty. Courage was held higher than generosity and humanity, If we credit Firdausi, most of the laws of honour appear to have been understood and practised. The great respect in which the female sex was held was the principal cause of progress in civilisation. They had an honourable place in society, and we must conclude that an equal rank with the males, secured to them by the ordinances of Zoroaster, belonged to them long before the time of the reformer.”

Only a cursory sketch of the tableau unfurled by the Epic in the pre-historic portions can be here drawn. Heroes, princes, and generals march in a stately procession before our eyes, the common roturiers being in the background. Nariman, Salm, Zal, and Rustom, who rule

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