Rostam-nameh: dastan-e mosalman shodan-e Rostam be dast-e Emam Ali

• Persian Title: رستم‌نامه: داستان منظوم مسلمان شدن رستم به دست امام علی (ع)
• Transliterated Title: Rustam-nāmah: dāstān-i musalmān shudan-i Rustam bi-dast-i Imām ʿAlī
• English Title: The Book of Rustam: A Poetic Tale of Rustam’s Conversion to Islam
• Author: Anonymous
• Editor: Sajjād Āydenlū
• Language: Persian
• ISBN: 978-964-8700-65-7
• Publication Year: 2008 (1387 A.H.)
• Pages: 125
• Format: PDF
• Category: Treatises
• Miras Maktoob Collection Code: 178

【Summary】

Rustam-nāmah is a popular verse narrative composed in two parts. The first section, consisting of 385 verses in the mathnawī form, tells the story of Rustam’s conversion to Islam through Imam ʿAlī. The second section, titled Muʿjizah-nāmah-yi Mawlā-yi Muttaqiyān, relates one of Imam ʿAlī’s miracles in 281 verses.
The poet is unknown, and internal evidence suggests that the work was composed after 1038 A.H., during the Safavid period. The source of the first part is oral tradition, which the poet reportedly heard in Najaf. Only one manuscript of this poem is known to exist, preserved in the Central Library of the University of Tehran and copied close to the time of composition.
The importance of this work lies in its subject matter: for the first time, one version of the popular and oral narratives concerning the encounter and struggle between Rustam and Imam ʿAlī entered the domain of formal Persian literature, allowing for historical, sociological, and psychological interpretations.