Shahnameh
Iran's national epic by Ferdowsi, recounting the mythical and historical kings and heroes of Iran from creation to the Arab conquest.
Read in context →At a glance
- Poet
- Ferdowsi of Tus
- Completed
- 1010 CE (~30 years)
- Length
- ~50,000 couplets
- Central hero
- Rostam
Detail
The Shahnameh ('Book of Kings') is the national epic of Iran and one of the world's longest epic poems composed by a single author, written by Hakim Abolqasem Ferdowsi Tusi over some thirty years and completed in 1010 CE. With nearly 50,000 couplets, it narrates the mythical, heroic, and partly historical past of Iran from the creation of the world to the fall of the Sasanians and the Muslim conquest. The Shahnameh is filled with the immortal tales of kings and heroes such as Jamshid, Fereydun, Zahhak, Rostam and Sohrab, and Siyavash, with themes of the struggle between good and evil, justice, wisdom, and destiny. By composing it in Persian, Ferdowsi played an incomparable role in preserving the Iranian language and identity after Islam, and the Shahnameh remains a pillar of Iranian literature and cultural memory.
Related entities
Also appears in
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Iranica — 'Šāh-nāma'
- Britannica — 'Shahnameh'
- Library of Congress — 'The Epic of Shahnameh'