The Shahnameh
SynopsisPlot
Wherever Persian influence has spread, the stories of the Shahnameh become deeply embedded in the culture, as amply attested by their appearance in such works as The Kite Runner and the love poems of Rumi and Hafez. Among the greatest works of world literature, this prodigious narrative, composed by the poet Ferdowsi in the late tenth century, tells the story of pre-Islamic Iran, beginning in the mythic time of creation and continuing forward to the Arab invasion in the seventh century. The sweep and psychological depth of the Shahnameh is nothing less than magnificent as it recounts classic tales like the tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab.
Story
About this book
The Shahnameh, composed by the poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi around the late tenth century, is one of the longest works of epic poetry ever written by a single author. It narrates the history of Iran from the creation of the world through a succession of mythical and historical kings, ending with the Arab conquest in the seventh century. The poem moves through three broad phases: a mythological age of early kings and supernatural beings, a heroic age dominated by warriors and their feuds, and a semi-historical age covering the Sasanian dynasty and its eventual fall.
Among the poem's many episodes, the story of the warrior Rostam and his son Sohrab stands out as one of its most widely known passages, a conflict built on mistaken identity and irreversible consequences. Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnameh in Persian at a time when Arabic was the dominant literary language across much of the region, and the work became central to the survival of the Persian language and its literary traditions.
This English edition, translated by Dick Davis for Penguin Classics, is described in the record as one of the most complete English-language versions of the poem. The Shahnameh has had a lasting presence across Persian-speaking cultures and appears as a cultural reference point in later Persian poetry and modern literature alike.
