Rahim Rezazadeh Malek was a researcher with a wide range of cultural and literary interests. He studied the history of chronology in Iran; had very specific views regarding the Persian language and literature; wrote books about the constitutional revolution, studied Khayyam’s thoughts, and read Shahnameh along with this. Rezazadeh studied accounting and financial and economic management.
His academic studies were accounting and financial and economic management. However, in whatever he wrote and researched he tried to say something new and avoid repeating what was said by others. This insistence on “representing new ideas” meant viewpoints that were difficult for other Shahnameh researchers to accept. For this reason, the following judgement has been made about the results of research made by Malek, in the Shahnameh: “Malek’s theories about the analogical correction of words and verses of the Shahnameh, the discarding verses from stories, the order and sequence of verses and the meaning of some verses that they have put forward in their writings, can be criticized since they are not found exactly according to scientific standards of this technology. (Dr. Sajjad Aydinlou in the book “Azerbaijan and Shahnameh,” p.525).
Despite all this, Malek’s interest in the Shahnameh and his knowledge in this field was much more than some whose profession is literature. As evidence, let us mention a memory from Malek himself, which is told in one of his writings and is both interesting and a cause of regret. He writes: “When, in the winter of 1261, I went to the house of my teacher, M.M., who had retired after being honored the title “Outstanding professor” from the faculty of literature of Tehran University, (and beside me, Ali Hasouri was also invited)in the midst of our conversation he said to the Professor “Well, Professor, now that you no longer have an administrative or university job, you must be busy with arranging the notes that you have prepared during many years of teaching and studying.” In my answer, He said: “To retire is a blessing in disguise since I now have the opportunity to achieve my long-standing dream of reading the Shahnameh while arranging and decorating my collection of owl statues!” And I was shocked! (Book “Shahnameh, King of Letters,” procedure 8). In other words, that prominent professor of the Faculty of Literature, whose name Malek did not want to mention, had not read the Shahnameh even once in all his years of teaching literature!!
Continuous reading of the Shahnameh
Regarding his knowledge of Shahnameh and about his reading it verse-by-verse, with care, Rezazadeh Malek said that during his military service in the winter of 1340, at the age of twenty-one, he heard the stories of the Shahnameh from his commander in the snow-covered mountains of Maragheh. During a conversation with him, Malek discovered that he has a copy of this book with him. From that day onwards, until he was transferred to another place, Malek read the whole of the Shahnameh. In the summer of 1346 (1967), Dr. Mohammad Debirsiyaghi entrusted Malek with reading the Shahnameh and numbering its verses (to provide the Shahnameh search engine). Thus, he once again resumed reading the Shahnameh from beginning to end. This reading of the Shahnameh continued in the following years, and Rezazadeh Malik, as he said, looked through each part of the Shahnameh “with due care,” and whenever he came across a point, a word or a reference that he did not know the meaning of or the meanings that were given he did not like, and put a question mark next to it and tried to find an answer to the difficult parts of the Shahnameh. Malek writes: “As an interested Persian speaking person, I had read the Shahnameh from the beginning to the end and some parts of it several times, until 1361 (1982). This work continued in the remaining years of his fruitful life, and Shahnameh was his constant companion.”
Rezazadeh Malek’s Shahnameh studies resulted in two books and several essays. One is the book “The Crystal of Ferdowsi’s Words,” “seven quests about Ferdowsi and Shahnameh studies, and the other is “Shahnameh, the king of all books”. The latter was a collection of articles that were compiled by his friends after the death of Malek and published by Tahuri Publications, in 2014. Much is to be said about Malek’s research in the Shahnameh. It is enough to point out that he used a harsh language when criticizing other’s works and believed that every writing that claims to be research should be knowingly criticized. That is why he wrote: “Reading the Shahnameh is difficult, and printing the Shahnameh is much, much, much more difficult. Shahnameh is not read and printed like the story of “Hossein Kord Shabestari”. If you don’t have the knowledge of studying and printing the Shahnameh, it is more useful for the Persian-speaking society that you become a mason. (Foreword of the book “Shahnameh, King of Letters,” p. 10).
Rahim Rezazadeh Malek finally passed away in Tir 1389 (2010) after a life full of knowledge and awareness. He considered the Shahnameh “a multifaceted manifesto of Iranian culture.” He said: “To deal with the Shahnameh, one must know Iranian culture in all its breadth and depth.” *Reference: “Rahim Rezazadeh Malek” written by Kaveh Bayat (“Jahan Ketab” magazine, 1389, number 257); The book “Azerbaijan and Shahnameh” written by Dr. Sajjad Aydinlou (Dr. Afshar Endowment Publications, 1399); the book “Shahnameh, the king of letters” (Tahouri Publications, 1393).
