Shahnameh

The Shahnameh, also transliterated as Shahnama (Persian: شاهنامه‎‎ pronounced [ʃɒːhnɒːˈme], "The Book of Kings"), is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh is the world's longest epic poetry written by a single poet. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. Today Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and the greater region influenced by the Persian culture (such as Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Dagestan) celebrate this national epic.

The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of ethno-national cultural identity of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. It is also important to the contemporary adherents of Zoroastrianism, in that it traces the historical links between the beginnings of the religion with the death of the last Sassanid ruler of Persia during the Muslim conquest and an end to the Zoroastrian influence in Iran.

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.

Ferdowsi (disambiguation)

Ferdowsi, from Persian فردوسی, also romanized Firdausi, Firdusi, or Firdawsi, may refer to:

People

Places

Film

Organizations

Ferdowsi (film)

Ferdowsi (Ferdausi) (Persian title: Ferdosi- Persian: فردوسی‎‎) is a 1934 Iranian biography drama film directed by Abdolhossein Sepanta and starring Nosratollah Mohtasham, Abdolhossein Sepanta and Sohrab Pouri.

The movie is about Iranian famous poet Ferdowsi, author of Shahnameh book of epic poems.

References

External links

Ferdowsi at the Internet Movie Database