The late Polish professor’s Ph.D. dissertation (defended in 1979, published in 1995 long after his death in 1987) concerns the Cyrus Legend in the Shahnama:

Wladislaw Duleba; Polska Akademia Nauk Oddzial w Krakowie, Prace Komisji Orientalistyeznej Nr. 22, Krakow.

The book consists of two parts: the first part is about the legend of Cyrus and the threads of the Shahnama, and the second part is about the heroes and countries which are mentioned in this epical work. The author’s way of analysing is to compare the classical, mainly Greek sources with the stories and fragments of the Shahnama, which are the same or are very close to the Greek versions. The comparison is based on Herodotos’ book on the Greek-Persian war, which contains a great deal of information about Cyrus’ legendary life, wars and reign. The dissertation in chronological order from “the childhood and youth of Cyrus” to “the Babylon campaign” including the dream of Astyages, “the war for Persian liberation”, “the defeat of Astyages” and “the conquests of Cyrus”.

All these events’ counterparts the author seems to find in different chapters of the Shahnama. According to the author the chapter about “the childhood and yoputh of Cyrus” is called in the Shahnama “Seyâvash”, “the war for the Persian liberation” is called in the epic “Zahâk”, “Gershâsp”, “Kay Khusrô” and the chapter about Cyrus’ conquests is called “Kay Kâvus”, “Kay Khusrô”, and “Zahâk”.

Not deteriorating the author’s achievements we should bear in mind that the famous German scholar The Nöldeke’s work (Das iranische Nationalepos in: Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, II, Strassburg 1896-1904, 130-212) written a century ago led to similar results in these fields.

In the second part of the work the author tries to explain what the origin, the meaning and the function of such personal names as Zahâk, Frêdôn, Salm, Tur, Eraj, Afrâsyâb, or such geographical terms as Mâzandarân, Zera, Barbar, Hâmâvarân, Yaman, etc. could be.