Samak the Ayyar
A Tale of Ancient Persia
Jordan Mechner translator Freydoon Rassouli translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:3rd Aug '21
Should be back in stock very soon
The adventures of Samak, a trickster-warrior hero of Persia’s thousand-year-old oral storytelling tradition, are beloved in Iran. Samak is an ayyar, a warrior who comes from the common people and embodies the ideals of loyalty, selflessness, and honor—a figure that recalls samurai, ronin, and knights yet is distinctive to Persian legend. His exploits—set against an epic background of palace intrigue, battlefield heroics, and star-crossed romance between a noble prince and princess—are as deeply rooted in Persian culture as are the stories of Robin Hood and King Arthur in the West. However, this majestic tale has remained little known outside Iran.
Translated from the original Persian by Freydoon Rassouli and adapted by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, this timeless masterwork can now be enjoyed by English-speaking readers. A thrilling and suspenseful saga, Samak the Ayyar also offers a vivid portrait of Persia a thousand years ago. Within an epic quest narrative teeming with action and supernatural forces, it sheds light on the lives of ordinary people and their social worlds. This is the first complete English-language version of a treasure of world culture. The translation is grounded in the twelfth-century Persian text while paying homage to the dynamic culture of storytelling from which it arose.
This ancient Persian tale of adventure and romance comes to marvelous life in Jordan Mechner’s fluent, fast-paced rendering of Freydoon Rassouli’s modern translation. Epic in its sweep and human passions, it conjures a captivating world of warriors, princesses, renegades, viziers and witches. A treasure of world literature to place beside Gilgamesh, The Odyssey and the Thousand and One Nights. -- Eric Jager, author of The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France
This medieval Persian romance which enjoys enormous popularity in the Persian-speaking world is translated in a very attractive way, following the Persian technique of storytelling. Conveying the spirit of the original, Mechner and Rassouli are an exceptional match to carry out this difficult task. Samak the Ayyar will attract a broad readership with different cultural backgrounds. -- Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, author of Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry
[F]ast-paced, exciting narratives which retain the interest of the readers and make them wish for more . . . highly recommended. * Asian Review of Books *
The text while being very simple and close to spoken language is of particular interest due to the large number of rare and archaic Persian words. * Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies *
The first major English-language rendering of these tales, Samak reveals a charmed world fit for a blockbuster HBO series, but more than that, it shows a sweep of heroism, betrayal, and friendship worthy of Gilgamesh or the Odyssey. -- Kevin Blankinship * Los Angeles Review of Books *
ISBN: 9780231198790
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
464 pages