Ferdowsi

From Freepedia

Ferdowsi Tousi (فردوسی طوسی in Persian) (more commonly transliterated Firdausi, Ferdosi or Ferdusi) (935–1020) is considered to be one of the greatest Persian poets to have ever lived. Among the national heroes and literary greats of all time, Ferdowsi has a very special place. His life-long endeavour, dedication and personal sacrifices to preserve the national identity, language and heritage of his homeland put him in great hardship during his lifetime, but won him fame and honour for one of the great poetic masterpieces of all time.

Ferdowsi was born in the Iranian province of Khorasan, in a village near Tus, in 935. His great epic, the Shahnama ("The Epic of Kings"), to which he devoted most of his adult life, was originally composed for eventual presentation to the Samanid princes of Khorasan, who were the chief instigators of the revival of Iranian cultural traditions after the Arab conquest of the seventh century. During Ferdowsi's lifetime this dynasty was conquered by the Ghaznavid Empire, and there are various stories in medieval texts describing the lack of interest shown by the new ruler of Khorasan, Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznavid, in Ferdowsi and his lifework. According to historians, Mahmud had promised Ferdawsi a dinar for every word written in the Shahnama, but later retracted and presented him with dirhams, which were at that time, much less valuable than dinar. Ferdowsi rejected the money and returned home with a broken heart.Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 in poverty and embittered by royal neglect, though fully confident of his work's ultimate success and fame. Later it's said that Mahmud resent the amount promise to Ferdowsi's village, but when the messengers reached his house, he had died a few hours ago. According to legend, his daughter refused to receive the amount, thus, making Ferdowsi's Shahnama immortal.

His masterwork, the Shahnama, is the most popular and influential manifestation of true Iranian national epics. The Shahnama, or the "Book of Kings," consists of the translation of an even older Pahlavi (Middle Persian) work. It has been a work of exceptional popularity among the Persians for over a thousand years. In brief it tells the history of old Persia before Arab conquest of the region, this tale all written in poetic form and in old Persian language starts from 7000 years ago telling the story of Persian Kings and there doings.

Ferdowsi is one of the undisputed giants of Persian literature. After Ferdowsi's Shahnama a number of other works similar in nature surfaced over the centuries within the cultural sphere of the Persian language. Without exception, all such works were based in style and method on Ferdowsi's Shahnama, but none of them could quite achieve the same degree of fame and popularity as Ferdowsi's masterpiece.

See also

• Persian literature
• Firdus Square in Baghdad, Iraq is thought to be named after Ferdowsi.

Shahnameh is the name of his book. The word Shah means king as well as major and the most important and Name means any book or letter. Shahnameh means the most important book, the king of all books. Some non-experts have translated the name of his great book as the book of kings, which is completely wrong. The correct meaning of Shahnameh is absolutely king of all books. It is really so because the book is full of philosophies and ethics of Iranian manner and culture since Mitra to Zoroaster the Great. In Shahnameh (King of all books)Ferdowsi have involved a lot of basis knowledge of Iranians democracy and ancient political aspect of Sasmanians the Great. Between all Iranian poets nobody is comparable to Ferdowsi. It causes that all other high level poets like Nezami, Khayyam, Asadi Tusi, Khajoo etc. be counted as poets of second level. The Iranians know the Ferdows the Great as unique Persian culture column.