Ferdowsi, the Globally Renowned Iranian Poet

By : Dr. Mohammad Reza Ebrahimi - Cultural Counsellor of the Embassy of the Islamic Republik Islam of Iran

Abul-Qasim Mansoor ibn Hasan, popularly known as Ferdowsi was born in a village named Pazh, in the district of Tabaran near Tus - the present-day Mashhad - in Khorasan in the year 940 AD. His pen name ‘Ferdowsi’, which was derived from an ancient Persian term (Paridaida), meaning “paradisal”, according to a legend, reflected his family’s profession, i.e. agriculture. According to another legend, it was given to him by his patron, Mahmoud of Ghazna (999-1030). His birthplace, Pazh, was located in a very strategic region near the border of Turan - the most famous rival of old Persian for a long - and, therefore, many Persian national epics were composed about the rivalry between the two. Moreover, Khorasan particularly Tus and Marv region had been a center of political, religious, cultural, and national movements for four centuries after the Arab conquest.

According to Nezami Aruzi Ferdowsi was an agriculturist in his own village and was considerably wealthy. Ferdowsi lived and was educated in Tus; a cultural center and a well-known cultural district in north eastern part of Iran. In the 10th century, an Iranian cultural renaissance occurred under the Samanids, which included the compilation of pre-Islamic Iranian legendary history, in neo-Persian language, i.e. Dari. Ferdowsi loved the legendary history and undertook the task of preserving the customs, culture, and national legends of ancient Iran. Moreover, Ferdowsi lived in close contact with nature and for this reason, the description of nature can be found in many parts of his masterpiece; i.e. “Shahnameh”

Ferdowsi’s “Shahnameh”, which has been translated as “The Book of Kings” is, in fact, a work about the pre-Islamic historical legends of Iran and consists of the detailed history of Persia, beginning with the first mythological king of Iran, “Keyumars”, until the advent of Islam in the seventh century. Ferdowsi revived the pre-Islamic history and culture of Persia in 60000 verses, so skillfully that no literary work can be found that has not been influenced by this unique masterpiece.

Very little information is available on the life of Ferdowsi before he began composing the Shahnameh around 977 AD on the basis of a prose work by Abu Mansur Daqiqi. It can be deduced from Shahanameh that he had a son who was born in 970 AD, a few years before he began composing his work but no more information about his family life has been recorded anywhere. Ferdowsi spent 30 years of his life composing Shahanameh and completed it on 8th March 1010, when he was 71 years old. Ferdowsi began this work mainly under the encouragement of Abul Abbas Esfarayeni, the vizier of Mahmoud of Ghazna, and was promised a grand reward. However, because of the jealousy of those who envied him and the poet’s religious orientation, it was not favorably received by Mahmoud and he was just paid 50,000 dirhams. Ferdowsi was extremely upset by this reward and went to a bathhouse and divided the money between the bath attendants. Then, fearing punishment by Mahmoud, he fled from Ghazna by night. According to Aruzi, many years later and due to certain events, Mahmoud regretted his behavior toward the poet and on the recommendation of his vizier had camel loads to the value of 20,000 dinars sent to Ferdowsi. However, as the camels were entering Tus by the Rudbar Gate, Ferdowsi’s corps was being taken out of the city, for burial, by the Razan gate.

Ferdowsi was a Shi’ite Muslim, which is apparent from Shahnameh itself and confirmed by some early resources. It is to be noted that at that time Shiism was in the minority and the Ghaznavid rulers and Baghdad Caliphate followed the Sunni school of thought.

Epic poetry had become part of the Persian literary culture and was adopted as a major vehicle to express social themes. The Samanid rulers prided themselves on their Persian identity and Ferdowsi felt responsible for the revival of Persian identity and culture through his Shahnameh.

It is usual for scholars to consider Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh comprising three periods; i.e. mythological, heroic, and historical ages, which have nearly reflected whole aspects of Persian life. The book starts, after a philosophical preface on wisdom, with the creation of the universe and continues with 51 kingdoms from “Keyumars”, the first king, to Yazdgerd the 3rd king of the Sassanid dynasty. The main body of the book deals with the history of Persia from the creation of the first human up to the advent of Islam in the mid-7th century A.D. Ferdowsi chronicles the reign of hundred kings, achievements of dozens of epic heroes and seemingly never-ending conflict between Persia and its traditional enemy, Turan. Embedded in the Shahnameh are some love stories such as Zal and Rudabeh, Bijan and Manijah, that recall the heartfelt yearnings of provincial troubadours and their ladies; tragedies of mistaken identity, hubris, irreconcilable moral obligations, and meditations on the brevity of life. Though ostensibly historical, the poem is also full of myth and legend of fairies and demons. In fact, Shahnameh is the main Persian work accepted as a masterpiece that greatly supported the Persian language and consequently the Persian identity. Moreover, this book had a remarkable influence on Persian literature in general and on Persian epic poetry in particular. Moreover, Shahnameh has had a sustained and vital influence on the cultural tradition of Iran.

After Ferdowsi, epic poetry continued in Khorasan and gradually in other parts of Persia. From the point of view of its theme, Persian epic poetry can be divided into three types: 1) national, 2) historical, and 3) religious. The national epic tradition was followed by Asadi of Tus (d. 1072-3 AD), after Ferdowsi, in his famous work, Garshasp Nameh, which can be considered the best imitation of Ferdowsi’s work. A few decades after Asadi a poet by the name of Iranshah (or Iranshan) composed two famous books: Bahman Nameh and Koush Nameh, both of which have been published. These two books mainly contain that part of Persian national history that has not been touched upon in Shahnameh. After the domination of Turks in the late 10th century AH and particularly by the Mongol invasion, the national tendencies were changed and shifted to adaptation with religious concepts, accepting a kind of mystical solution. In the meantime, the national epic was replaced by historical and religious ones and created other imitations, on the same meter and themes of Shahnameh, in two fields.

Religious Epic was established by Mohammad ibn Husam who composed his famous work, Khavaran Nameh (The Book of the East) on describing the legendary biography of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shi’ite Imam, and his battles with the enemies of Islam. After Ibn Husam, composing religious epic poetry was followed by many other Persian poets. This tendency, which had come to an end after the Iranian Constitutional Movement, had a kind of rebirth, in post post-Islamic Revolution (1979 AD) in modern Iran and developed particularly during and after Iraq’s imposed war on Iran.

The following are 3 verses of Ferdowsi’s poem, praising his splendor work:

Prosperous buildings are ruined,

By rainfall and exposure to sunlight.

Ergo, I established a towering palace of verse,

That sees no harm in either dust or rainfall.

I shall not demise as I am alive, henceforth,

For I have disseminated the seeds of discourse.