
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long
epic poem
In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...
written by the
Persian poet Ferdowsi
Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...
between and 1010 CE and is the
national epic
A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks to or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group wi ...
of
Greater Iran
Greater Iran or Greater Persia ( ), also called the Iranosphere or the Persosphere, is an expression that denotes a wide socio-cultural region comprising parts of West Asia, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia (specifica ...
. Consisting of some 50,000
distich
In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive Line (poetry), lines that rhyme and have the same Metre (poetry), metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is en ...
s or couplets (two-line verses),
the ''Shahnameh'' is one of the world's longest epic poems, and the longest epic poem created by a single author. It tells mainly the
mythical
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
and to some extent the historical past of the
Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the larg ...
from the creation of the world until the
Muslim conquest The Muslim conquests, Muslim invasions, Islamic conquests, including Arab conquests, Arab Islamic conquests, also Iranian Muslim conquests, Turkic Muslim conquests etc.
*Early Muslim conquests
**Ridda Wars
**Muslim conquest of Persia
***Muslim conq ...
in the seventh century.
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
,
Tajikistan
Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...
and the greater
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
influenced by
Persian culture such as
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
,
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
,
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...
and
Uzbekistan
, image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
, image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg
, symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem
, national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
celebrate this national epic.
The work is of central importance in Persian culture and
Persian language
Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...
. It is regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of the ethno-national cultural identity of Iran.
Composition
Ferdowsi
Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...
started writing the ''Shahnameh'' in 977 and completed it on 8 March 1010. The ''Shahnameh'' is a monument of poetry and
historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
, being mainly the poetical recast of what Ferdowsi, his contemporaries, and his predecessors regarded as the account of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
's ancient history. Many such accounts already existed in prose, an example being the
''Shahnameh'' of Abu-Mansur. A small portion of Ferdowsi's work, in passages scattered throughout the ''Shahnameh'', is entirely of his own conception.
The ''Shahnameh'' is an epic poem of over 50,000
couplets written in
Early New Persian. It is based mainly on a prose work of the same name compiled in Ferdowsi's earlier life in his native
Tus. This prose ''Shahnameh'' was in turn and for the most part the translation of a Pahlavi (
Middle Persian
Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...
) work, known as the ''
Khwadāy-Nāmag'' "Book of Kings", a late Sasanian compilation of the history of the kings and heroes of Persia from mythical times down to the reign of
Khosrow II
Khosrow II (spelled Chosroes II in classical sources; and ''Khosrau''), commonly known as Khosrow Parviz (New Persian: , "Khosrow the Victorious"), is considered to be the last great Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran, ruling from 590 ...
(590–628). The ''Khwadāy-Nāmag'' contained historical information on the later Sasanian period, but it does not appear to have drawn on any historical sources for the earlier Sasanian period (3rd to 4th centuries). Ferdowsi added material continuing the story to the overthrow of the Sasanians by the Muslim armies in the middle of the seventh century.
The first to undertake the versification of the Pahlavi chronicle was
Daqiqi, a contemporary of Ferdowsi, poet at the court of the
Samanid Empire, who came to a violent end after completing only 1,000 verses. These verses, which deal with the rise of the prophet
Zoroaster
Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian peoples, Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism ...
, were afterward incorporated by Ferdowsi, with acknowledgment, in his own poem. The style of the ''Shahnameh'' shows characteristics of both written and oral literature. Some claim that Ferdowsi also used Zoroastrian ''nasks'', such as the now-lost ''
Chihrdad,'' as sources as well.
Many other
Pahlavi sources were used in composing the epic, prominent being the ''
Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan'', which was originally written during the late Sassanid era and gave accounts of how
Ardashir I
Ardashir I (), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire, the last empire of ancient Iran. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new empire. After defeating the last Par ...
came to power which, because of its historical proximity, is thought to be highly accurate. The text is written in the late Middle Persian, which was the immediate ancestor of
Modern Persian. A great portion of the historical chronicles given in ''Shahnameh'' is based on this epic and there are in fact various phrases and words which can be matched between Ferdowsi's poem and this source, according to
Zabihollah Safa.
Content
Traditional historiography in Iran holds that Ferdowsi was grieved by the fall of the
Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...
and its subsequent rule by Arabs and Turks. The ''Shahnameh'', the argument goes, is largely his effort to preserve the memory of Persia's golden days and transmit it to a new generation, so that, by learning from it, they could acquire the knowledge needed to build a better world. Although most scholars have contended that Ferdowsi's main concern was the preservation of the pre-Islamic legacy of myth and history, a number of authors have formally challenged this view.
Mythical age

This portion of the ''Shahnameh'' is relatively short, amounting to some 2100 verses or four percent of the entire book.
After an opening in praise of God and Wisdom, the ''Shahnameh'' gives an account of the creation of the world and of man as believed by the
Sasanians
The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...
. This introduction is followed by the story of the first man,
Keyumars, who also became the first king after a period of mountain-dwelling. His grandson
Hushang, son of
Siamak, accidentally discovered fire and established the
Sadeh Feast in its honor. Stories of
Tahmuras,
Jamshid,
Zahhak
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
,
Kawa or
Kaveh,
Fereydun and his three sons
Salm,
Tur, and
Iraj, and his grandson
Manuchehr are related in this section.
Heroic age
Almost two-thirds of the ''Shahnameh'' are devoted to the age of heroes, extending from Manuchehr's reign until the conquest of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
. This age is also identified as the kingdom of the
Kayanians, which established a long history of heroic age in which myth and legend are combined. The main feature of this period is the major role played by the
Saka
The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...
or
Sistani heroes who appear as the backbone of the Empire.
Garshasp is briefly mentioned with his son
Nariman, whose own son
Sam acted as the leading paladin of Manuchehr while reigning in Sistan in his own right. His successors were his son
Zal and Zal's son
Rostam
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place = Kabulistan
, death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a we ...
, the bravest of the brave, and then Faramarz.
Among the stories described in this section are the romance of Zal and
Rudaba, the Seven Stages (or Labors) of
Rostam
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place = Kabulistan
, death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a we ...
,
Rostam and Sohrab,
Siyavash and
Sudaba, Rostam and Akvan Div, the romance of
Bijan and Manijeh, the wars with
Afrasiab,
Daqiqi's account of the story of Goshtasp and Arjasp, and Rostam and
Esfandyar.
Historical age
A brief mention of the
Arsacid dynasty follows the history of Alexander and precedes that of
Ardashir I
Ardashir I (), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire, the last empire of ancient Iran. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new empire. After defeating the last Par ...
, founder of the Sasanian Empire. After this, Sasanian history is related with a good deal of accuracy. The fall of the Sassanids and the Arab conquest of Persia are narrated romantically.
Message
According to Jalal Khaleghi Mutlaq, the ''Shahnameh'' teaches a wide variety of moral virtues, like worship of one God; religious uprightness; patriotism; love of wife, family and children; and helping the poor.
There are themes in the Shahnameh that were viewed with suspicion by the succession of Iranian regimes. During the reign of
Mohammad Reza Shah, the epic was largely ignored in favor of the more abstruse, esoteric and dryly intellectual Persian literature. Historians note that the theme of
regicide
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
and the incompetence of kings embedded in the epic did not sit well with the Iranian monarchy. Later, there were Muslim figures such as
Ali Shariati, the hero of Islamic reformist youth of the 1970s, who were also antagonistic towards the contents of the Shahnameh since it included verses critical of Islam.
These include the line: ''tofu bar to, ey charkh-i gardun, tofu!'' (spit on your face, oh heavens spit!), which Ferdowsi used as a reference to the Muslim invaders who despoiled Zoroastrianism.
Influence on Persian language
After the ''Shahnameh'', a number of other works similar in nature surfaced over the centuries within the cultural sphere of the Persian language. Without exception, all such works were based in style and method on the ''Shahnameh'', but none of them could quite achieve the same degree of fame and popularity.
Some experts believe the main reason the
Modern Persian language today is more or less the same language as that of Ferdowsi's time over 1000 years ago is due to the very existence of works like the ''Shahnameh'', which have had lasting and profound cultural and linguistic influence. In other words, the ''Shahnameh'' itself has become one of the main pillars of the modern Persian language. Studying Ferdowsi's masterpiece also became a requirement for achieving mastery of the Persian language by subsequent Persian poets, as evidenced by numerous references to the ''Shahnameh'' in their works.
Although 19th-century British Iranologist E. G. Browne has claimed that Ferdowsi purposefully avoided Arabic vocabulary, this claim has been challenged by modern scholarship, specifically Mohammed Moinfar, who has noted that there are numerous examples of Arabic words in the ''Shahnameh'' which are effectively synonyms for Persian words previously used in the text. This calls into question the idea of Ferdowsi's deliberate eschewing of Arabic words.
The ''Shahnameh'' has 62 stories, 990 chapters, and some 50,000 rhyming couplets, making it more than three times the length of
Homer's ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' and more than twelve times the length of the German ''
Nibelungenlied''. According to Ferdowsi himself, the final edition of the ''Shahnameh'' contained some sixty thousand distichs. But this is a round figure; most of the relatively reliable manuscripts have preserved a little over fifty thousand distichs.
Nizami Aruzi
Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Alī, known as Nizamī-i Arūzī-i Samarqandī () and also Arudi ("The Prosodist"), was a poet and prose writer who flourished between 1110 and 1161. He is particularly famous for his ''Chahar Maqala'' ("Four Discourses"), his ...
reports that the final edition of the ''Shahnameh'' sent to the court of Sultan
Mahmud of Ghazni
Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Sabuktigin (; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi (), was Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire, ruling from 998 to 1030. During his reign and in medieval sources, he is usuall ...
was prepared in seven volumes.
Cultural influence

The
Shirvanshah dynasty adopted many of their names from the ''Shahnameh''. The relationship between Shirvanshah and his son, Manuchihr, is mentioned in chapter eight of
Nizami's ''
Layla and Majnun''. Nizami advises the king's son to read the ''Shahnameh'' and to remember the meaningful sayings of the wise.
According to the Turkish historian
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü (December 5, 1890 – June 28, 1966), also known as Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, was a highly influential Turkish sociologist, Turkologist, scholar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of the Rep ...
:
Shah
Ismail I
Ismail I (; 17 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid period is often considered the beginn ...
(d.1524), the founder of the
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty (; , ) was one of Iran's most significant ruling dynasties reigning from Safavid Iran, 1501 to 1736. Their rule is often considered the beginning of History of Iran, modern Iranian history, as well as one of the gunpowder em ...
of Iran, was also deeply influenced by the
Persian literary tradition, particularly by the ''Shahnameh'', which probably explains the fact that he named all of his sons after ''Shahnameh'' characters. Dickson and Welch suggest that Ismail's ''Shāhnāma-i Shāhī'' was intended as a present to the young
Tahmasp. After defeating
Muhammad Shaybani's Uzbeks
The Uzbeks () are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, being among the largest Turkic ethnic groups in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakhs, Kazakh and Karakalpaks, Karakalpak ...
, Ismail asked
Hatefi, a famous poet from
Jam (Khorasan), to write a ''Shahnameh''-like epic about his victories and his newly established dynasty. Although the epic was left unfinished, it was an example of ''
mathnawi
Mathnawi ( ), also spelled masnavi, mesnevi or masnawi, is a kind of poem written in rhyming couplets, or more specifically "a poem based on independent, internally rhyming lines". Most mathnawi poems follow a Meter (poetry), meter of eleven, or o ...
s'' in the heroic style of the ''Shahnameh'' written later on for the Safavid kings.
The ''Shahnameh''
's influence has extended beyond the Persian sphere. Professor Victoria Arakelova of Yerevan University states:
On Georgian identity
Jamshid Giunashvili remarks on the connection of
Georgian culture with that of ''Shahnameh'':
Farmanfarmaian in the ''
Journal of Persianate Studies'':
On Turkic identity
Despite a belief held by some, the
Turanian of ''Shahnameh'' (whose sources are based on
Avesta
The Avesta (, Book Pahlavi: (), Persian language, Persian: ()) is the text corpus of Zoroastrian literature, religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Mod ...
and
Pahlavi texts) have no relationship with
Turks.
The Turanians of the ''Shahnameh'' are an
Iranian people representing Iranian nomads of the
Eurasian Steppe
The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...
s and have no relationship to the culture of the Turks.
[Bosworth, C.E.]
Barbarian Incursions: The Coming of the Turks into the Islamic World
". In ''Islamic Civilization'', ed. D.S. Richards. Oxford, 1973. p. 2. "Firdawsi's Turan are, of course, really Indo-European nomads of Eurasian Steppes... Hence as Kowalski has pointed out, a Turkologist seeking for information in the Shahnama on the primitive culture of the Turks would definitely be disappointed. " Turan, which is the Persian name for the areas of Central Asia beyond the Oxus up to the 7th century (where the story of the ''Shahnameh'' ends), was generally an Iranian-speaking land.
According to
Richard Frye, "The extent of influence of the Iranian epic is shown by the Turks who accepted it as their own ancient history as well as that of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
... The Turks were so much influenced by this cycle of stories that in the eleventh century AD we find the
Qarakhanid dynasty in Central Asia calling itself the 'family of Afrasiyab' and so it is known in the Islamic history."
Turks, as an ethno-linguistic group, have been influenced by the ''Shahnameh'' since the advent of
Seljuks
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture.
The founder of th ...
.
The Seljuk sultan
Toghrul III is said to have recited the ''Shahnameh'' while swinging his mace in battle.
According to
Ibn Bibi, 1221 the Seljuk sultan of
Rum
Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. Rum originated in the Caribbean in the 17th century, but today it is produced i ...
Ala' al-Din Kay-kubad decorated the walls of
Konya
Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...
and
Sivas
Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.[İl Beledi ...]
with verses from the ''Shahnameh''.
The Turks themselves connected their origin not with Turkish tribal history but with the Turanians of ''Shahnameh''.
[Schimmel, Annemarie. "Turk and Hindu: A Poetical Image and Its Application to Historical Fact". In ''Islam and Cultural Change in the Middle Ages'', ed. Speros Vryonis, Jr. Undena Publications, 1975. pp. 107–26. "In fact as much as early rulers felt themselves to be Turks, they connected their Turkish origin not with Turkish tribal history but rather with the Turan of Shahnameh: in the second generation their children bear the name of Firdosi’s heroes, and their Turkish lineage is invariably traced back to Afrasiyab—whether we read Barani in the fourteenth century or the Urdu master poet Ghalib in the nineteenth century. The poets, and through them probably most of the educated class, felt themselves to be the last outpost tied to the civilized world by the thread of Iranianism. The imagery of poetry remained exclusively Persian. "] Specifically in India, through the ''Shahnameh'', they felt themselves to be the last outpost tied to the civilized world by the thread of
Iranianism.
Legacy

Ferdowsi concludes the ''Shahnameh'' by writing:
Another translation of by Reza Jamshidi Safa:
Many Persian literary figures, historians and biographers have praised Ferdowsi and the ''Shahnameh''. The ''Shahnameh'' is considered by many to be the most important piece of work in
Persian literature.
Western writers have also praised the ''Shahnameh'' and Persian literature in general. Persian literature has been considered by such thinkers as
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
as one of the four main bodies of world literature. Goethe was inspired by Persian literature, which moved him to write his ''
West-Eastern Divan''. Goethe wrote:
Biographies
''Sargozasht-Nameh'' or biography of important poets and writers has long been a Persian tradition. Some of the biographies of Ferdowsi are now considered apocryphal, nevertheless, this shows the important impact he had in the Persian world. Among the famous biographies are:
# ''Chahar Maqaleh'' ("Four Articles") by
Nezami 'Arudi-i Samarqandi
# ''Tazkeret Al-Shu'ara'' ("The Biography of poets") by Dowlat Shah-i Samarqandi
# ''Baharestan'' ("Abode of Spring") by
Jami
# ''
Lubab ul-Albab'' by
Mohammad 'Awfi
# ''Natayej al-Afkar'' by Mowlana Muhammad Qudrat Allah
# ''Arafat Al-'Ashighin'' by
Ohadi Balyani
Poets
Famous poets of
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and the Persian tradition have praised and eulogized Ferdowsi. Many of them were heavily influenced by his writing and used his genre and stories to develop their own Persian epics, stories and poems:
*
Anvari remarked about the eloquence of the ''Shahnameh'', "He was not just a Teacher and we his students. He was like a God and we are his slaves".
*
Asadi Tusi was born in the same city as Ferdowsi. His ''Garshaspnama'' was inspired by the ''Shahnameh'' as he attests in the introduction. He praises Ferdowsi in the introduction and considers Ferdowsi the greatest poet of his time.
*
Masud Sa'ad Salman showed the influence of the ''Shahnameh'' only 80 years after its composition by reciting its poems in the
Ghaznavid
The Ghaznavid dynasty ( ''Ġaznaviyān'') was a Persianate Muslim dynasty of Turkic ''mamluk'' origin. It ruled the Ghaznavid Empire or the Empire of Ghazni from 977 to 1186, which at its greatest extent, extended from the Oxus to the Indus Va ...
court of India.
*
Othman Mokhtari, another poet at the Ghaznavid court of India, remarked, "Alive is Rustam through the epic of Ferdowsi, else there would not be a trace of him in this World".
*
Sanai
Hakim Abul-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanā'ī Ghaznavi (), more commonly known as Sanai, was a poet from Ghazni. He lived his life in the Ghaznavid Empire which is now located in Afghanistan (At that time, Ghazni was considered part of the cultura ...
believed that the foundation of poetry was really established by Ferdowsi.
*
Nizami Ganjavi
Nizami Ganjavi (; c. 1141 – 1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī,Mo'in, Muhammad(2006), "Tahlil-i Haft Paykar-i Nezami", Tehran.: p. 2: Some commentators h ...
was influenced greatly by Ferdowsi and three of his five "treasures" had to do with pre-Islamic Persia. His ''Khosro-o-Shirin'', ''
Haft Peykar'' and ''
Eskandar-nameh'' used the ''Shahnameh'' as a major source. Nizami remarks that Ferdowsi is "the wise sage of Tus" who beautified and decorated words like a new bride.
*
Khaqani, the court poet of the
Shirvanshah, wrote of Ferdowsi:
*
Attar wrote about the poetry of Ferdowsi: "Open eyes and through the sweet poetry see the heavenly eden of Ferdowsi."
* In a famous poem,
Sa'adi wrote:
* In the ''Baharestan'',
Jami wrote, "He came from Tus and his excellence, renown and perfection are well known. Yes, what need is there of the panegyrics of others to that man who has composed verses as those of the Shah-nameh?"
Many other poets, e.g.,
Hafez,
Rumi
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...
and other mystical poets, have used the imagery of ''Shahnameh'' heroes in their poetry.
Persian historiography
The ''Shahnameh''
's impact on Persian historiography was immediate, and some historians decorated their books with the verses of Shahnameh. Below is sample of ten important historians who have praised the ''Shahnameh'' and Ferdowsi:
# The unknown writer of the ''Tarikh Sistan'' ("History of
Sistan
Sistān (), also known as Sakastān (, , current name: Zabol) and Sijistan (), is a historical region in south-eastern Iran and extending across the borders of present-day south-western Afghanistan, and south-western Pakistan. Mostly correspond ...
") written around 1053
# The unknown writer of ''
Majmal al-Tawarikh wa Al-Qasas'' ()
# Mohammad Ali Ravandi, the writer of the ''Rahat al-Sodur wa Ayat al-Sorur'' ()
#
Ibn Bibi, the writer of the history book, ''Al-Awamir al-'Alaiyah'', written during the era of
'Ala ad-din KayGhobad
# Ibn Esfandyar, the writer of the ''Tarikh-e Tabarestan''
#
Muhammad Juwayni, the early historian of the Mongol era in the ''Tarikh-e Jahan Gushay'' (
Ilkhanid
The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids (), and known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (). The Ilkhanid realm was officially known ...
era)
#
Hamdollah Mostowfi Qazwini also paid much attention to the ''Shahnameh'' and wrote the ''
Zafarnamah'' based on the same style in the Ilkhanid era
#
Hafez-e Abru (1430) in the ''Majma' al-Tawarikh''
#
Khwand Mir in the ''
Habab al-Siyar'' () praised Ferdowsi and gave an extensive biography on Ferdowsi
# The Arab historian
Ibn Athir remarks in his book, ''
Al-Kamil
Al-Malik al-Kamil Nasir ad-Din Muhammad (; – 6 March 1238), titled Abu al-Maali (), was an Egyptian ruler and the fourth Ayyubid sultan of Egypt. During his tenure as sultan, the Ayyubids defeated the Fifth Crusade. He was known to the Franki ...
'', that, "If we name it the Quran of ''
'Ajam''
.e., Persians we have not said something in vain. If a poet writes poetry and the poems have many verses, or if someone writes many compositions, it will always be the case that some of their writings might not be excellent. But in the case of the ''Shahnameh'', despite having more than 40 thousand couplets, all its verses are excellent."
Alexander legends
The ''Shahnameh'' contains the
first Persian legend of Alexander the Great in the tradition of the
Alexander Romance. Three sections of the ''Shahnameh'' are dedicated to Alexander, running over 2,500 verses in total, and Alexander's life is the work's turning point between mythic and historical rulers of Persia. It also represents a turning point of Persian-language representations of Alexander, from negative in pre-Islamic Zoroastrian writings to positive.
After the ''Shahnameh'' introduced the Alexander Romance tradition into Persian, the genre would become popular and numerous Alexander legends would be composed in the language, with the most significant works owing much to the ''Shahnameh''. These include the anonymous ''
Iskandarnameh'', the
''Iskandarnameh'' of Nizami, the ''
Ayina-i Iskandari'' of
Amir Khusrau
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau, sometimes spelled as, Amir Khusrow or Amir Khusro, was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar, who lived during the period of the Delhi Sult ...
, and others.
Illustrated copies

Illustrated copies of the work are among the most sumptuous examples of
Persian miniature painting. Several copies remain intact, although two of the most famous, the
Houghton ''Shahnameh'' and the
Great Mongol ''Shahnameh'', were broken up for sheets to be sold separately in the 20th century. A single sheet from the former was sold for £904,000 in 2006. The
Baysonghori ''Shahnameh'', an
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...
of the work made in 1430 for
Prince Baysunghur, is preserved intact at
Golestan Palace in Iran. In 2007 it was inscribed in
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
's
Memory of the World International Register which lists documentary heritage of global importance.
The Mongol rulers in Iran revived and spurred the patronage of the ''Shahnameh'' in its manuscript form.
The "Great Mongol" or
Demotte ''Shahnameh'', produced during the reign of the
Ilkhanid
The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids (), and known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (). The Ilkhanid realm was officially known ...
sultan
Abu Sa'id, is one of the most illustrative and important copies of the ''Shahnameh''.
The
Timurids continued the tradition of manuscript production. For them, it was considered proper for the members of the family to have personal copies of the epic poem.
Consequently, three of
Timur
Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...
's grandsons—
Baysunghur,
Ibrahim Sultan, and
Moḥammad Juki—each commissioned such a volume.
Among these, the
Baysunghur ''Shahnameh'' is one of the most voluminous and artistic ''Shahnameh'' manuscripts.
The production of illustrated ''Shahnameh'' manuscripts in the 15th century remained vigorous
under the
Qara Qoyunlu (1380–1468) and
Aq Qoyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu or the White Sheep Turkomans (, ; ) was a culturally Persianate society, Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two trib ...
(1378–1508) Turkman dynasties.
Many of the extant illustrated copies, with more than seventy or more paintings, are attributable to
Tabriz
Tabriz (; ) is a city in the Central District (Tabriz County), Central District of Tabriz County, in the East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province of northwestern Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the distric ...
,
Shiraz
Shiraz (; ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the popu ...
, and
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
beginning in about the 1450s–60s and continuing to the end of the century.
A resurgence of ''Shahnameh'' manuscript production occurred in the
Safavid era.
Shah
Ismail I
Ismail I (; 17 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid period is often considered the beginn ...
used the epic for propaganda purposes: as a gesture of Persian patriotism, as a celebration of renewed Persian rule, and as a reassertion of Persian royal authority.
The Safavids commissioned elaborate copies of the ''Shahnameh'' to support their legitimacy. Among the high points of ''Shahnameh'' illustrations was the series of 250 miniatures commissioned by Shah Ismail for his son's
''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp. Two similar cycles of illustration of the mid-17th century, the
''Shahnameh'' of Rashida and the
Windsor ''Shahnameh'', come from the last great period of the Persian miniature.
In honour of the ''Shahnameh''
's millennial anniversary, in 2010 the
Fitzwilliam Museum
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...
in Cambridge hosted a major exhibition, called "Epic of the Persian Kings: The Art of Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh''", which ran from September 2010 to January 2011. The
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
in Washington, DC also hosted an exhibition of folios from the 14th through the 16th centuries, called "Shahnama: 1000 Years of the Persian Book of Kings", from October 2010 to April 2011.
In 2013
Hamid Rahmanian illustrated a new English translation of the ''Shahnameh'' (translated by
Ahmad Sadri) creating new imagery from old manuscripts.
Modern editions
Scholarly editions
Scholarly editions have been prepared of the ''Shahnameh''.
In 1808 Mathew Lumsden (1777–1835) undertook the work of an edition of the poem. The first of eight planned volumes was published in Kolkata in 1811. But Lumsden didn't finish any further volumes.
In 1829 Turner Macan published the first complete edition of the poem. It was based on a comparison of 17 manuscript copies.
Between 1838 and 1878, an edition appeared by French scholar
Julius von Mohl, which was based on a comparison of 30 manuscripts. After Mohl's death in 1876, the last of its seven volumes was completed by
Charles Barbier de Meynard, Mohl's successor to the chair of Persian of the College de France.
Both editions lacked critical apparatuses and were based on secondary manuscripts dated after the 15th century, much later than the original work. Between 1877 and 1884, the German scholar Johann August Vullers prepared a synthesized text of the Macan and Mohl editions under the title ''Firdusii liber regum'', but only three of its expected nine volumes were published. The Vullers edition was later completed in Tehran by the Iranian scholars S. Nafisi, Iqbal, and M. Minowi for the millennial jubilee of Ferdowsi, held between 1934 and 1936.
The first modern critical edition of the ''Shahnameh'' was prepared by a Russian team led by
E. E. Bertels, using the oldest known manuscripts at the time, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, with heavy reliance on the 1276 manuscript from the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
and the 1333 Leningrad manuscript, the latter of which has now been considered a secondary manuscript. In addition, two other manuscripts used in this edition have been so demoted. It was published in Moscow by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the
Academy of Sciences of the USSR in nine volumes between 1960 and 1971.
For many years, the Moscow edition was the standard text. In 1977, an early 1217 manuscript was rediscovered in Florence. The 1217 Florence manuscript is one of the earliest known copies of the ''Shahnameh'', predating the Mongol invasion and the following destruction of important libraries and manuscript collections. Using it as the chief text, Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh began the preparation of a new critical edition in 1990. The number of manuscripts that were consulted during the preparation of the Khaleghi-Motlagh edition goes beyond anything attempted by the Moscow team. The critical apparatus is the extensive number of variants for many parts of the poem that were recorded. The last volume was published in 2008, bringing the eight-volume enterprise to completion. According to
Dick Davis, professor of Persian at Ohio State University, it is "by far the best edition of the ''Shahnameh'' available, and it is surely likely to remain such for a very long time".
Arabic translation
The only known Arabic translation of the ''Shahnameh'' was done in by
al-Fath bin Ali al-Bundari, a Persian scholar from
Isfahan
Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...
and at the request of the
Ayyubid ruler of Damascus
Al-Mu'azzam Isa. The translation is unrhyming (''nathr'') and was largely forgotten until it was republished in full in 1932 in Egypt, by historian Abdelwahhab Azzam. This modern edition was based on incomplete and largely imprecise fragmented copies found in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, Paris, Astana, Cairo and Berlin. The latter had the most complete, least inaccurate and well-preserved Arabic version of the original translation by al-Bundari.
English translations
There have been several English translations, almost all abridged.
James Atkinson of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
's medical service undertook a translation into English in his 1832 publication for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, now part of the
Royal Asiatic Society
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encourag ...
. Between 1905 and 1925, the brothers Arthur and Edmond Warner published a translation of the complete work in nine volumes, now out of print. There are also modern abridged translations of the ''Shahnameh'':
Reuben Levy's 1967 prose version (later revised by Amin Banani), and another by Dick Davis in a mixture of poetry and prose which appeared in 2006. Also, a new English translation of the book in prose by
Ahmad Sadri was published in 2013.
Other languages
There are various translations of the ''Shahnameh'' into French and German. An Italian translation was published in eight volumes by
Italo Pizzi with the title ''Il libro dei re'' in 1886–1888 (later reissued in two volumes with a compendium in 1915).
Dastur Faramroz Kutar and his brother Ervad Mahiyar Kutar translated the ''Shahnameh'' into Gujarati verse and prose and published 10 volumes between 1914 and 1918.
A Spanish translation was published in two volumes by the Islamic Research Institute of the Tehran Branch of McGill University.
In popular culture
The Soviet Armenian composer
Sergey Balasanian and Tajik composer Sharif Bobokalonov wrote the opera ''Kova the Blacksmith'' () based on the story of
Zahhak
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
and
Kaveh from the ''Shahnameh''. It premiered in 1940 in concert with a Russian libretto, and in 1941 on stage with a Tajik-language libretto by Abulkasim Lahuti.
The ''Shahnameh'' has also been adapted to many films and animations:
*
''Shirin Farhad'' (1931), Indian
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
-language feature film based on the story of
Khosrow and Shirin
''Khosrow and Shirin'' () is a romantic Epic poetry, epic poem by the Persians, Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209). It is the second work of his set of five poems known collectively as Khamsa of Nizami, ''Khamsa''. It tells a highly el ...
, directed by
J.J. Madan and starring
Jehanara Kajjan and Master Nissar. It was the second Indian
sound film
A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...
after ''
Alam Ara'' (also released in the same year).
*
''Shirin Farhad'' (1956), Indian
romantic adventure drama film based on the story of Khosrow and Shirin, directed by Aspi Irani and starring
Madhubala and
Pradeep Kumar.
*''
Rustom Sohrab'' (1963), Indian
adventure drama film based on the story of Rustam and Sohrab, directed by
Vishram Bedekar and starring
Prithviraj Kapoor and
Premnath.
*In 1971–1976,
Tajikfilm produced a trilogy comprising ''Skazanie o Rustame'', ''Rustam i Sukhrab'' and ''Skazanie o Siyavushe''.
*''Zal & Simorgh'' (1977), Persian short animation directed by
Ali Akbar Sadeghi, narrates the story of
Zāl
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
from birth until returning to the human society.
*''Kova the Blacksmith'' (1987), a short Russian-language
cutout animation
Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's ...
made at Tajikfilm by director Munavar Mansurhojaev, based on the story of
Zahhak
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
and
Kaveh.
* ''Chehel Sarbaz'' (2007), Persian TV series directed by
Mohammad Nourizad, concurrently tells the story of
Rostam
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place = Kabulistan
, death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a we ...
and
Esfandiar, biography of
Ferdowsi
Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...
, and a few other historical events.
*''
Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi'' (2012), Indian Hindi-language
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...
film about the love affair of a middle-aged
Parsi
The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...
couple loosely based on the story of Khosrow and Shirin, directed by Bela Segal and starring
Farah Khan and
Boman Irani.
*''
The Last Fiction'' (2017), an acclaimed animated film is an adaptation of the story of
Zahhak
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
.
See also
Notes
References
Sources
*
Further reading
* Poet Moniruddin Yusuf (1919–1987) translated the full version of ''Shahnameh'' into the
Bengali language
Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...
(1963–1981). It was published by the National Organisation of
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
Bangla Academy, in six volumes, in February 1991.
* Borjian, Habib and Maryam Borjian. 2005–2006. The Story of Rostam and the White Demon in Māzandarāni. ''Nāme-ye Irān-e Bāstān'' 5/1-2 (ser. nos. 9 & 10), pp. 107–116.
* Shirzad Aghaee, ''Imazh-ha-ye mehr va mah dar Shahnama-ye Ferdousi'' (Sun and Moon in the Shahnama of
Ferdousi, Spånga, Sweden, 1997. ()
* Shirzad Aghaee, ''Nam-e kasan va ja'i-ha dar Shahnama-ye Ferdousi'' (Personalities and Places in the Shahnama of
Ferdousi, Nyköping, Sweden, 1993. ()
Eleanor Sims. 1992. ''The Illustrated Manuscripts of Firdausī's "shāhnāma" Commissioned by Princes of the House of Tīmūr'' Ars Orientalis 22. The Smithsonian Institution: 43–68.
Persian text
* A. E. Bertels (editor), ''Shāx-nāme: Kriticheskij Tekst'', nine volumes (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Nauka, 1960–71) (scholarly Persian text)
* Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh (editor), ''The Shahnameh'', six volumes of translation and two volumes of notes (New York: Bibliotheca Persica, 1987–2008) (scholarly Persian text)
** Paperback republication by Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa, CA, 2022.
Adaptations
Modern English graphic novels:
* , about the story of Rostam & Sohrab.
* , about the story of Kai-Kavous and Soodabeh.
* , the story of the evil White Deev.
* , the story of Rostam's childhood.
External links
Iraj Bashiri, ''Characters of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh'', Iran Chamber Society, 2003
*
Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English-language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encyc ...
entry o
''Baysonghori Shahnameh''Pages from the ''Illustrated Manuscript of the Shahnama''at the
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...
Folios from the Great Mongol ''Shahnama''at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
Shahnama Project, Cambridge University (includes large database of miniatures)
Ancient Iran's Geographical Position in Shah-NamehA richly illuminated and almost complete copy of the ''Shahnamah''in
Cambridge Digital Library
The Cambridge Digital Library is a project operated by the Cambridge University Library designed to make items from the unique and distinctive collections of Cambridge University Library available online. The project was initially funded by a dona ...
Resources about ''Shahnama''at the
University of Michigan Museum of Art''A King's Book of Kings: The Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp'' an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF)
Firdowsi & the Shahname , Kaveh FarrokhText of the ''Shahnameh'' in Persian, section by section; English translations by:
*
Helen Zimmern, 1883
''Iran Chamber Society''* Arthur and Edmond Warner, 1905–1925, (in nine volumes) at the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
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