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Heroism is one of the main themes in popular Persian prose stories. The hero in these stories has characteristics that generally belong to the mythical beliefs and traditions of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Iran. Many historical and social factors are important in the transmission of these traditions and beliefs but one of the most important ones is Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. In many cases, the actions and characteristics of the hero in the Shahnameh can be considered to be the prototype of the hero in popular Persian prose stories.
In this study, by examining four heroic prose works of Persian folklore, each belonging to a specific era, we identify and compare the heroic, political, and social characteristics of the hero-pahlavan and his comparison with the Shahnameh. The results of this research are as follows: Despite the formation of these works in the historical centuries, the hero has retained many of the mythical and epic features of the Shahnameh. Some of these actions and features are perfectly in line with the mythical and epic examples of the Shahnameh, and the narrators and writers have attempted to match the Pahlavans of popular literature with the Shahnameh. In some cases, despite similarities, there are differences between these actions and characteristics. The differences have often been due to the heroic ethics and some of the heroic and social political and social practices that result from the intellectual and cultural situation of the era of popular literature and the changes and transformations of the Ayyari system. Most of similarities can be seen in terms of appearance, combat power, type of birth, upbringing, growth stages, and the ideal years of the heroic.