Manifestation of “ Ayari “ in Iranian Culture

Abstract

“ Ayars “ and their ritual, from ages before the advent of Islam up to the contemporary era, have been pervasively present in the community, written and verbal literature, arts, rituals, Zourkhanei sports and folk beliefs in Iran.<br /> There are numerous instances of this multi-figure hero in other cultures: from Japanese samurai to Robin Hood and to King Arthur's the knights of the Round Table in England, from Arabian Saalik to the French knights, from the Kakehs of Afganistan and Alfetes of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to Ahdaths of Syria.<br /> Apart from supposing either social or religious roots for it, the following features are nearly common in all of the figures: courage and celerity, honesty, benevolence, generosity, hospitality, and so on.<br /> This research, with a descriptive- analytic approach, is in search of the causes of comprehensive presence of “ ayar “ and “ ayari “ in various cultures, especially in different cultural as well as social skeletons of Iran. In this regard, it is researching into different embodiments of the intangible cultural heritage, concentrating on literature in Iran, and subsequently proposes three possibilities to explain similarities and to find out the causes of this repeated pattern and all of the three possibilities, it is believed that the same origin for the issue does exist.