About Ferdowsi

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 endeavor, 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 honor for one of the greatest poetic masterpieces of all time.

Life
Ferdowsi was born in the Iranian province of Khorasan, in a village near Tus (Baj), in 935. His father was a rich man who had great fields in his area. His great epic, the Shahnameh ("The epic of kings"), to which he devoted most of his adult life (more than thirty-five years), 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.

When he was just 23 years old, he found a “Shahnameh” written by “Abu-Mansour Almoammari” which was not poem. It was one made from the older versions ordered by “Abu-Mansour ibn Abdol-razzagh”. It made a great change in the life of this poet. During Ferdowsi’s lifetime the Samanid dynasty was conquered by the Ghaznavid Empire. Two or three years after completing the work, Ferdowsi went to “Ghaznein” the capital of Ghaznavids to present it to the king.

There are various stories in medieval texts describing the lack of interest shown by the new king, Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznavid, in Ferdowsi and his lifework. According to historians, Mahmud had promised Ferdowsi a dinar for every distich written in the Shahnameh (60000 dinars), but later retracted and presented him with dirhams (20000 dirhams), which were at that time much less valuable than dinar (every 100 dirhams worth 1 dinar).

Some think it was jealousy of other poets working at king’s court that led to this event. But the other explanation for this response is difference between the poet’s faith and that of the king. Sultan Mahmud was a Sunni, while Ferdowsi has many verses in admiration of Ali, which shows he was a Shiite.

Another fact is that Sultan Mahmud was stingy by nature and so he just gave money to king-admiring poems. Ferdowsi rejected the money and by some accounts he gave it to a poor man who sold wine. He was wandering for a time in Sistan and Mazandaran. In the end he returned to Tus with a broken heart.

Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 in poverty at the age of ninety and embittered by royal neglect, though fully confident of his work’s ultimate success and fame (clearly seen especially in last verses of his book).

Later it’s said that Mahmud re-sent the amount promised to Ferdowsi’s village, but when the messengers reached his house, he had died a few hours previous. According to legend, the gift was given to his daughter, since his son had died before father at the age of 37. However, his daughter refused to receive the amount, thus making Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh immortal.

Later the king ordered the money be used for repairing an inn in the way from Merv to Tus, named “Robat Chaheh” so that it may remain in remembrance of poet. This inn now lies in ruins, but still exists. Ferdowsi was buried at the yard of his own home, where his mausoleum now lies.

Books
Ferdowsi has also another poem book in a romantic style named “Joseph and Zoleikha”. But it has not been so popular. His masterwork, the Shahnameh, is the most popular and influential manifestation of true Iranian national epics. The Shahnameh, 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 their doings.

There are some illustrations for Shahnameh, mostly painted during the reign of Safavid kings. These pictures are of no historical value, as pre-Islamic Persian kings are shown wearing Turkish clothes. The type of architecture and decorating is also Mongolic in these pictures. Courteous nobles are sitting on the ground at the court, while this is a custom of Turkish people.
In a whole these pictures were illustrated in this fashion just to make the Turkish kings pleased.
But new illustrations, especially those of Master Mahmud Farshchian, are historical and use the best familiar theme for these stories.

An other version is that Ferdowsi was commissioned by Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznavi to write a book about his valour and conquests however, the poet though dedicating the book to the King for an agreed fee of 30 camels loaded with gold coins decided to tell the story of the Kings that had made the land of Iran/ Persia into an Empire throughout the ages, this task was to take the poet some thirty years or more upon which he included the verse " I suffered during these thirty years but, I raised a Parsi(Farsi/ Persian)/ Iranian out of this forigner, I shall not die since I am alive, as I have spread the seeds of the language", {BASI RANJ BORDAM DAR IN SAALE SI, AJAM ZENDE KARDAM AZ IN PARSI, NAMIRAM AZ IN PAS KEH MAN ZENDE'AM, KE TOKHME SOKHAN RA PARAKANDEAM}.

Upon the presentation of The Shah Nameh Sultan Mahmoud was furious for not being the subject of the book and finally out of bound of an agreement offered Ferdowsi thirty camels loaded with Silver that was refused by the poet. Heart broken and poor the poet returned to his home town of Tus, the Sultan eventually realising his error and the true value of the Shah Nameh sent the agreed fee to the poet yet, upon the arrival of the camels the Ferdowsi's coffin was being carried out through the exit gate of Tus to his grave.

Influence
Ferdowsi is one of the undisputed giants of Persian literature. After Ferdowsi's Shahnameh 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 Shahnameh, but none of them could quite achieve the same degree of fame and popularity as Ferdowsi's masterpiece.

Of all the great Iranian poets, Ferdowsi stature is the most prolific because of the strides he made in reviving and regenerating the Persian language and cultural traditions. In fact, his works are cited as a crucial component in the persistence of the Persian language, as those works allowed much of the tongue to remain codified and intact. In this respect, Ferdowsi surpasses Nezami, Khayyam, Asadi Tusi, and other seminal Persian literary figures in his impact on Persian culture and language.

(Source: Wikipedia )
 

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Shahnameh (English Translation)

Below is an English translation of Shahnameh titled "The Epic of Kings" by By Hakim Abolgasem Ferdowsi Tusi , Translated by Helen Zimmern, [1883].