The methods of power transferring in Iranian Folktales

. Introduction
   King, prince, and queen are among the most frequently used words in Iranian folktales. Several folktales are about theses fictional characters. Real events of society have been fictionalized by the creators of the folktales. Commonalties, as the listeners and supporters of these tales for over thousands of years, wanted to hear about their pains, insufficiencies, as well as the beauties and gifts of their society and everyday life in these tales. Therefore, the dedicated and talented narrators of folktales were continuously moving with the times and synchronizing themselves. In this way, folktales are a huge and unique collection of cultural and historical facts of Iranian society.
   Folklore of each society are usually the result of the experiences and events of ordinary people of that society (Tamimdari 2011, p.22). Folklore is the logical continuation of social activities, and is, therefore, not luxury and fancy, and completes the work and social activities, and is a perfect tool to improve the quality of life (Zolfaqhari 2015, p.16). Obviously, the most important function of folktales, besides their entertaining feature, is their educational role (Tamimdari 2011, pp.56-57; Zolfaqhari 2015, p.16).
  The content of folktales is very realistic (Zolfaqhari 2015, p.16; Jafari-Qanavati 2007, pp.82-87) and shows adventures of ordinary people in society. On the other hand, these tales narrate the stories of people fighting against the tyrants and powerful people (Zolfaqhari 2015, p.102); therefore, they rightfully reflect people’s desire and ambition for freedom and justice (Zolfaqhari 2015, p.17). That is the reason why these folktales would shed light on the social and cultural dark sides of this country’s history. Former studies have shown very good agreement between the events which happen in folktales with those that happen in societies.
The ways in which they happen are a great part of collected history of Iran. Most likely, different ways of gaining power are mentioned in Iranian folktales, However, there has not been a study about this subject in folktales.
 
2. Methodology
In this paper, we want to study the power transition in folktales and compare them with the documented events in the history of Iran. The Iranian folktales used in this study are from the eastern, western, northern, southern and central regions of this country.
Different ways of power transitions in Iranian folktales are by inheritance (from father to his son or daughter), marrying the monarch’s daughter, conquest, coup, soft coup and flying the Homa. By studying the history of Iran, one could find different examples for all these different methods, except for reaching to power by flying the Homa.
 
3. Discussion
It is said in many folktales that a person enters a city, while people were gathered in a place. The newcomer finds out that the monarch of the land is dead, and the gathering is for choosing the new monarch. The tradition of that city to choose the new monarch was to fly a bird, and everyone would accept the monarchy of the person whom the bird will land on.
Flying the Homa is the weirdest way of choosing a monarch in folktales. One cannot easily find a similar case in history. To do so, we should look at the beliefs of our forebearers. In ancient Iran, there was a belief that a person deserves to be a monarch who has charisma. Companionship of charisma with monarch, was not only the proof of legitimacy of his reign, but also guarantied his victory against enemies and his success in managing the society. In case of not having charisma, one’s efforts will not pay off; if he was not monarch, he would not become one, and if he was, the foundations of his reign would become loose and weak and would be defeated by someone who has charisma.
Deep influence of Zurvani Faith on Iranian beliefs is of great importance. The most important course of this faith, which has had a great influence on function of all Iranian society, is true belief in fate and determinism (Zaehner 2005, pp.379-397). Believers in Zurvan accepted that the results of each action has been determined before and could not be changed; so one has to be satisfied and happy with one’s share in life, control one’s emotions and let destiny play its role until it's time to pass away (Ibid, p.410). In this way, accepting fate, makes one happy and guaranties stability of the society.
If it is written in one’s destiny that he is supposed to be the monarch, this means that he has charisma, and without doubt, he will become the monarch. Accepting the fact that you cannot fight against fate is very important and deserves attention. As sitting on a throne is fate and destiny of the person who has became the monarch, the whole society should accept his reign and should not try to dethrone him, as there is no way to change the destiny.
In general, bird is the symbol of the celestial world (Chevalier & Gheerbrant 2009, vol. 2, p. 197). Moreover, every bird is representative of other symbols, for example, Hawk represents the Sun (Ibd, vol 2: 23) and Sun is a symbol of empire (Ibd, vol. 3, p.120); dream of an eagle or its observation, was a symbol of a mighty emperor (Ibd, vol. 4, p.296); in the Medes and Persis eras, eagle was the symbol of victory (Ibd, vol. 4, p.294-295); in the standard of the Achaemenid empire was a golden eagle with tighten wings on a spear, which showed the power of Persians in winning the wars (Ibd, vol. 4, p. 295). Homa is a mythical bird, the decrypting of which relates to the concepts of the government and luck. Homa was the manifestation of charisma (Ibd, vol. 5, pp. 588-589). Head, is the symbol of activity of the active principle, consisting of the governing and commanding forces. Moreover, Head is the most noble part of human body and is where the king puts the crown on (Ibd, vol. 3, p.526). Sky is the symbol of mavara (supernatural world), power, survival and sanctity (Ibd, vol. 1, p. 186).
Therefore, considering the belief in unchangeable fate and destiny in Zurvani Faith, which certainly majority of the society believed in for many decades, justifies choosing a monarch by flying and landing the Homa, which has been repeated in folktales for many times. Flying the Homa, and its intended landing (symbol of unchangeable destiny) from sky (symbol of mavara and sanctity) on head (the most noble part of the human body, where the crown is putted and the symbol of power of reign) of a person who has just entered a fictional city, points to the fact that the commonalties must know it was destiny that made him the monarch and it was a god blessing, and as he is their monarch now, not only should they not protest against him, but they should also welcome him and pretend to be happy.
These folktales have high frequency. Maybe the reason is to make people accept changes and try not to dethrone a monarch, after being chosen. Therefore, the rulers always immaterially supported these kinds of folktales. As the result of this kind of logic, the commonalties and even the elites of the society did not respect their will and in the power conflicts, not only did they not act actively, they did act very passively.
It is obvious that in these kinds of tales, people are waiting for the entrance of a person, who could have defeated the last monarch. The gathering is not for choosing the new monarch but is for declaring royalty and happiness for the fortune of the newcomer.
 
4. Conclusion
   It is told in folktales that the power transition, besides becoming the monarch by inheritance from father to his son or daughter, or even son-in-law, could be by conquest or coup. There are many similarities between events and their frequencies in folktales and real history of this country. Flying the Homa is such an example in the tales. The effect of Zurvani beliefs, e.g. the unchangeable fate and destiny, is a very important fact in power transition, which has an obvious manifestation in folktales. When people can accept the transition of power from one group to the other, and accept that as destiny, it is clear that the transition of power from father to one of his sons or from a king to one of his relatives would be accepted more easily.
 
Keywords: Iranian languages, Khotanese, Weighing, Units of length, Units of Width and distance