Ferdowsi
Hakim Abu ʾl-Qasim Ferdowsi Tusi (940–1020 CE), or Firdawsi, was a highly revered Persian poet and the author of the epic of Shahnameh (the Persian "Book of Kings"), which is the world's longest epic poem created by a single poet, and the national epic of Iran and the Persian-speaking world. Having drafted the Shahnameh under patronage of the Samanid and the Ghaznavid courts of Persia, Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential Persian poets of all time, and an influential figure in Persian literature.
Name
Except for his kunya (ابوالقاسم - Abu'l-Qāsim) and his laqab (فردوسی - Ferdowsī, meaning "paradisic" in Persian), nothing is known with any certainty about his full name. From an early period on, he has been referred to by different additional names and titles, the most common one being حکیم / Ḥakīm ("philosopher"). Based on this, his full name is given in Persian sources as حکیم ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی / Ḥakīm Abu'l-Qāsim Firdowsī Țusī. Due to the non-standardized transliteration from Persian into English, different spellings of his name are used in English works, including Firdawsi, Firdusi, Firdosi, Firdausi, etc. The Encyclopaedia of Islam uses the spelling Firdawsī, based on the standardized transliteration method of the German Oriental Society. The Encyclopædia Iranica, which uses a modified version of the same method (with a stronger emphasis on Persian intonations), gives the spelling Ferdowsī. In both cases, the -ow and -aw are to be pronounced as a diphthong ([aʊ̯]), reflecting the original Arabic and the early New Persian pronunciation of the name. The modern Tajik transliteration of his name in Cyrillic script is Ҳаким Абулқосим Фирдавсӣ Тӯсӣ.
