Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• marjan Barat Targhi ¹
• mehdi mohammadzadeh ²

¹ Tabriz Islamic Art University

² Tabriz Islamic Arts university

Abstract

Haft Peykar (aka Bahramnameh) is the fourth narrative of the Khamsa written by the classic Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. These stories happen during seven nights on seven planets, showing Bahram with seven princesses. Each night Bahram spends his time with a different princess who tells him a story, followed by an intercourse. This paper focuses on the fourth story known as Gonbad-e Sorkh (The Red Planet) which is based on the themes of love and sacrifice. It aims to portray the hero’s movement and its compatibility with the so-called “hero’s journey” (aka the “monomyth”); a common pattern discovered by the American mythologist Joseph Campbell in the mid-twentieth century, based on the analyses of old tales, myths and epics of different cultures. This article, moreover, adopts a descriptive-analytical method in accordance with the three parts (including seventeen stages) of the hero’s journey in order to analyse the character’s movement and his obstacles. The results show that Gonbad-e Sorkh matches the monomyth pattern, excluding the third part known as “return”. The main character, accordingly, begins his journey when he falls in love with a princess, and strengthens his goal of marrying her with the idea of saving the lives of many young men who would die throughout their deadly journeys of reaching her. He finally gains his ethical goal and becomes a just saviour that can be considered an example of hero in Persian romantic literature.

Keywords

• Haft Peykar
• Nizami Ganjavi
• Gonbad-e Sorkh
• monomyth
• Joseph Campbell