Poetry
Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings
شاهنامه
Ferdowsi · 1010
Synopsis
The history of Iran from the creation of the world and the first kings to the Arab conquest of the seventh century, which brought down the Sasanian dynasty. The poem moves from myths to heroic legends, dominated by Rostam, then to historical reigns, and sets one after another the battles against demons, the wars between Iran and Turan, love affairs, betrayals, fathers and sons pitted against one another, the greatness and fall of dynasties.
Context
The poem takes up a prose book of kings that the governor of Tus, Abu Mansur, had had compiled by scholars, and continues the verse version begun by Daqiqi, of which it keeps about a thousand couplets. The author worked on it for thirty-five years; a first draft was completed around 995, the second on 8 March 1010, dedicated to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, who according to early accounts gave him a disappointing reception. The poem comprises some sixty thousand couplets. Jules Mohl published a complete French translation of it in seven volumes from 1838 to 1878.
Who it is for
An epic of about sixty thousand couplets, to be read in episodes. It helps to know that one can approach it through selected extracts, and that the poem moves gradually from myth to history.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the national epic of Iran and as one of the great books of world literature; its illustrated manuscripts were copied again and again for sovereigns.