#roudabeh and zaal

[learning-persian]

Today I want to tell you about an interesting story from Ferdowsi’s Shahname (977-1010 CE). It’s a love story between Roudabeh رودابه and Zaal زال.

The interesting part in this story is the scene that seems to have inspired the German fairytale Rapunzel.

Roudabeh is the princess of a nearby land and Zaal is the prince of another land. Their relationship is in secret because Zaal’s father doesn’t approve of it (because Roudabeh’s father is a descendant of Zahhak ضحاک, an evil king that ruled over Persia for a thousand years and killed young men to feed the two snakes on his shoulders— I will tell you about this in another post)

But Zaal, deeply in love as he is, doesn’t care about such politics and keeps sending Roudabeh love letters and one day he actually goes to her palace to see her.

Roudabeh comes to the window and throws her long black hair down, telling Zaal to grab the hair and climb inside.

But unlike the prince in Rapunzel, Zaal refuses to grab his beloved’s hair, saying he would never do something that would hurt her. Instead he uses his rope to climb the wall and get into the princess’ bedroom.

Ultimately they do get married and Roudabeh gives birth to Rostam رستم, a very notable character in Shahnameh and an iconic figure in Persian literature.