Mythological analysis of kings’ metahuman adjectives in the historiography of the Safavid era

Iranian historiography after Islam indicates the attribution of some metahuman characteristics to kings. This attribution could be studied concerning the culture of the target society in addition to historiographical eloquence. Meanwhile, the two factors of repetition and the existence of similar features in Iran’s ancient cosmology indicate a kind of intellectual coherence. The main issue of this article is that is there any relationship between kings’ representation in Iranian mythological contents and Safavid historiography contents? To answer this issue first, an explanation of the Iranian cosmology and king’s position in it was presented then, Safavid historiographies were considered to reveal the mythological foundations of Iranian historiographical discourse. Finding of this research indicates that the acceptable and ideal characteristics of kings in mythological cosmology determined in several specific themes such as victory in battle, dream, occult inspiration, occult relief, and order of nature is disappeared from the king’s essence, by the dissolution of elements of the ancient cosmology related to the king in Islamic cosmology has been reflected in various ways in Safavid society and historiography as the beginning of the new history of Iran.