âe~Among the many national poets of historical Persia, Ferdowsi is perhaps the greatest...In this superb translation of the epic, the Western reader would not fail to discern clear equivalents of chapters in Genesis, The Odyssey, Paradise Lost or the Canterbury Tales.âe(tm) Islamic Review The Shah-nama is the national epic poem of Persia. Written in the tenth century it contains the countryâe(tm)s myths, legends and historic reminiscences. This edition makes available a valuable prose translation selecting the most representative parts of the original including the stories of Rustum, the giant hero and his son Sohrab.

‘Among the many national poets of historical Persia, Ferdowsi is perhaps the greatest...In this superb translation of the epic, the Western reader would not fail to discern clear equivalents of chapters in Genesis, The Odyssey, Paradise Lost or the Canterbury Tales.’ Islamic Review The Shah-nama is the national epic poem of Persia. Written in the tenth century it contains the country’s myths, legends and historic reminiscences. This edition makes available a valuable prose translation selecting the most representative parts of the original including the stories of Rustum, the giant hero and his son Sohrab.

A new translation of the late-tenth-century Persian epic follows its story of pre-Islamic Iran's mythic time of Creation through the seventh-century Arab invasion, tracing ancient Persia's incorporation into an expanding Islamic empire. 15,000 first printing.

The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia Firdausi - The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia (The Shahnameh) is an epic poem by the Persian poet Firdausi, written between 966 and 1010 AD. Telling the past of the Persian empire, using a mix of the mythical and historical, it is regarded as a literary masterpiece. Not only important to the Persian culture, it is also important to modern day followers of the Zoroastrianism religion. It is said that the poem was Firdausi's efforts to preserve the memory of Persia's golden days, following the fall of the Sassanid empire. The poem contains, among others, mentions of the romance of Zal and Rudba, Alexander the Great, the wars with Afrsyb, and the romance of Bijan and Manijeh.

A masterpiece of Persian Classical epic, the Shahnama or Book of Kings was composed by Abu'l-Qasem Ferdowsi at the beginning of the eleventh century. Because the Shahnama presents itself as a chronicle of the reigns of the shahs from the primordial founders to the Sasanian dynasty which ended in 651, scholarly attention has centered on the question of its historical accuracy. Addressing the literary as well as the historical and mythological aspects of the Shahnama, Olga M. Davidson makes this centerpiece of Iranian culture accessible to Western readers. Drawing on recent work in epic studies and oral poetics, Davidson considers analogies with Classical and medieval European narratives as she investigates the poem's social contexts. Her interpretation of the Shahnama focuses on both the figure of the poet himself and on his protagonists-the superhuman hero Rostam and the historical or historicized shahs. Exploring the Shahnama as an example of court poetry designed to glorify the idea of empire, Davidson identifies as a driving force of Ferdowsi's narrative a strong current of antagonism between king and hero. Ironically, she shows, it is the epic hero himself who poses the greatest threat to the concept of kingship that he is sworn to defend. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings will be welcomed by readers working in such fields as comparative literature, Middle Eastern Studies, folklore, literary theory, and comparative religion.

Immerse yourself in the distant past with this epic poem from the Persian tradition. Penned more than one thousand years ago by the famed poet Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh weaves history and myth into a lyrical, action-packed work of art that you won't be able to put down. This book is a must-read for folklore connoisseurs.

Hakim Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi Tusi, more commonly transliterated as Ferdowsi, (935-1020) was a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh (The Epic of Kings), the national epic of the Persian-speaking world as well as the entire Iranian realm. He started his composition of the Shahnameh (The Epic of Kings) in 977 A. D. After 30 years of hard work, he finished the book and went to present it to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. The latter showed lack of interest in Ferdowsi and his lifework. Ferdowsi returned to his hometown heartbroken and enraged. He died in poverty, embittered by royal neglect, though fully confident of his work's ultimate success and fame. He has a unique place in Persian history because of the strides he made in reviving and regenerating the Persian language and cultural traditions. His works are cited as a crucial component in the persistence of the Persian language, as those works allowed much of the tongue to remain codified and intact. Many modern Iranians see him as the father of the modern Persian language.