“The Earth My Throne, The Heavens My Crown”: Siyāvash as Supranational Hero in Ferdowsi’s Shāh-nāma

Abstract This article explores the Shāh-nāma’s recounting of tragic myth Prince Siyāvash and analyzes implications Siyāvash’s supranational ethical sense in an epic often closely associated with proto-nationalism a concrete Iranian identity. It proposes that Ferdowsi’s depiction evolving identity—one contains elements what we would associate today supranationalism (or cosmopolitanism) hybridity—creates subtext promotes ideals running counter to proto-nationalist tendencies outwardly espoused by epic. helped facilitate long-held view as figure great spiritual import whose plight has larger resonance than merely nation homeland. The aspects story likewise make it highly relevant for today, when exile, refugees, question nationalism versus abound both literary political discourse.