Firdausi
Firdausi (Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi) (Abdul Qasim Mansur) (Firdawsi or Ferdowsi) (935-1020). One of the greatest Persian poets who is best known as the author the epic, Shahnama --The Book of Kings.
Firdausi was not on good terms with the monarch of his time, the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmud ibn Sebuktegin, not only because Firdausi was a Shi‘a, Mahmud being a Sunni, but also because the sultan showed a lack of interest in Firdausi's work and because the poet was dissatisfied with the inadequacy of his compensation.
Shahnama (The Book of Kings), amounting in several manuscripts to some 60,000 verses, speaks of the beneficial activities of the first kings of Persia on behalf of humanity and of their struggle against the demons which infest the world. The assassination of the son and successor of one of these mythical kings by two brothers started an endless cycle of wars of revenge between the Persians and the nomadic Turanians of Central Asia. The exploits of the heroes are interwoven with love-stories by which Firdausi became the founder of the romantic narrative poem which was to have such a lasting legacy in Persia. The last part of the poem is more historical and recounts the reigns of the Sasanian kings.
The tragic life of Firdausi underscores his lyrical brilliance and monumental achievement as author of the Shahnama. The Shahnama is a mathnavi -- a rhyming couplet in approximately 60,000 distichs (verses having two lines). The idiomatic Persian of the Shahnama minimizes not only non-Persian themes and people but also non-Persian, specifically Arabic, words. The Shahnama extols the importance of kingship as the most lofty status to which heroes may aspire.
Firdausi has been called the Homer of Persia. Born in the village of Bazh near Tus in Khurasan, he belonged to the landed gentry. It is clear from his own poetry that he received a sound education and was well versed in the legends and traditional history of pre-Islamic Iran. As a youth, he was a man of adequate means which enabled him to devote thirty years of his life to composing the Shahnama without the support of a royal court.
He was married at the age of 28 and some eight years later began the work for which he is most famous, the great epic poem Shahnama (or Shah nameh). The work is based on a poem by the tenth century Persian poet Dakiki. Firdausi spent 35 years writing this epic and completed it in 1010, when he was about 70 years old.
Firdausi undertook the composition of his monumental work around the year 980, shortly after the death of Abu Mansur Daqiqi, another poet from Tus, who had been composing a national epic of his own (most probably under the patronage of the Samanid amir Nun ibn Mansur) when his sudden death left the work unfinished. The Samanids had fostered a keen interest in the history of pre-Islamic Iran, and already more than one prose Shahnama, mainly based on the Pahlavi Kvadai-namag (translated into Arabic in the eighth century), had appeared. The most important version was the Abu Mansuri Shahnama which was produced in Tus in 957.
Firdausi also versified isolated episodes before he obtained Daqiqi’s work, which he incorporated into his Shahnama. At the beginning of his career, he had the support of some local dignitaries in Tus, but, living mainly on the income of his family estate, he experienced dire poverty at advanced age. His main source was the Abu Mansuri Shahnama (now lost except for the introduction), but he also used other materials, including oral traditions. The first version of Firdausi’s Shahnama was finished in 994 and the revised version in 1010.
Firdausi’s epic would have probably been received with honors at the court of the Samanids, but by the time it was finished Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna was the master of eastern Iran. Although a Turk by birth, Sultan Mahmud had gathered a large number of Persian poets at his court and was served by the vizier Isfarayini, whose patronage of Persian letters was well known. It is possible that Firdausi, as an old man badly in need, had been sending portions of his work to the court at Ghazna (probably to Isfarayini) in the hope of securing royal support. Finally, he decided to present his epic personally. However, the Shahnama was not received well by the king, who, being attuned to hearing only panegyric poetry and not familiar with the Iranian lore, could not really appreciate the value of the Shahnama. The fact that Mahmud was a fanatical Sunni and Firdausi a Shi‘ite must have laid the groundwork for the hard feelings to which the poet refers. Besides, Isfarayini, his main supporter at the court, had fallen from favor. According to an early source, an unhappy encounter with the king resulted in Firdausi’s writing a satire published only after the poet’s death. Firdausi spent the rest of his life running from the reach of Mahmud, who had threatened him with death. Finally, pardoned by the sultan, he came back to his native town, where he died a poor man.
Firdausi’s Shahnama contains 60,000 rhyming couplets, making it more than seven times the length of Homer’s Iliad. It deals first with the legendary Persian kings: Gayumart, Hoshang, Tahmuras, and the most famous of the group, Jamshid, who reigned for 500 years during the golden age of the earth. Following this happy period, came the evil rule of the Arab Dahhak, or Zohak, who was tempted by Ahriman, his own ancestor. As a result, Dahhak fell into sin, becoming more and more evil until Kavah, a smith, rebelled and established his leather apron as the banner of revolt. Finally, the tyrant was bound and confined beneath Mount Demavend on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Soon after this point in the poem, an episode of considerable beauty is inserted. It recounts the loves of Zal, of the royal line of Persia, and Rudabah, the daughter of the king of Kabul. Their union resulted in the birth of the most romantic of all the heroes of the Shahnama, Rustam, who occupies a position in Iranian legend somewhat analogous to that of Hercules in Greek and Latin literature. The epic progresses through Persian legend to historic times, tracing the reigns of the Sasanian kings down to the Muslim conquest and the death of Yazdigird III in 641. Thus, the work constitutes a valuable source for the early history of Persia, which is necessary to supplement the accounts given in the old Persian cuneiform inscriptions and the Avesta. In addition to his poetic incentive, Firdausi had a distinctly patriotic motive in writing the Shahnama. He plainly desired to keep alive in the hearts of his people the faith of their ancestors and the glories of their deeds so that the Persians would not become mere puppets under Arab domination.
The epic contains an introductory eulogy of the tenth century Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, to whom the work is dedicated. Firdausi went to Mahmud’s court to present his work as a tribute and was awarded the sum of 20,000 dihrams. The amount was less than he had been led to expect. The disappointed poet took his revenge by departing to Herat and there writing a bitter satire on Mahmud, which he sent to the sultan as a substitute for his former eulogy. Firdausi then fled to Herat, and from there to Tabaristan, where the reigning prince protected him. He later settled in Baghdad where he composed an epic of 9000 couplets, Yusuf and Zuleikha (Yusuf and Zulaykha). The work is an Arabic version of the biblical story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, a favorite theme of Asian poets. In his old age, Firdausi retired to his native town near Tus, where, according to legend, he received Mahmud’s forgiveness just before his death. The Shahnama is perhaps best known to English readers through Sohrab and Rustum, a poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold, which is based on the Persian epic.
Firdausi has had a profound and lasting influence on Persian literature and, indeed, on the spirit of the people of modern day Iran. His Shahnama was the model and inspiration for most later Muslim epic poetry.
Firdausi (Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi) (Abdul Qasim Mansur) (Firdawsi or Ferdowsi) (935-1020). One of the greatest Persian poets who is best known as the author the epic, Shahnama --The Book of Kings.
Firdausi was not on good terms with the monarch of his time, the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmud ibn Sebuktegin, not only because Firdausi was a Shi‘a, Mahmud being a Sunni, but also because the sultan showed a lack of interest in Firdausi's work and because the poet was dissatisfied with the inadequacy of his compensation.
Shahnama (The Book of Kings), amounting in several manuscripts to some 60,000 verses, speaks of the beneficial activities of the first kings of Persia on behalf of humanity and of their struggle against the demons which infest the world. The assassination of the son and successor of one of these mythical kings by two brothers started an endless cycle of wars of revenge between the Persians and the nomadic Turanians of Central Asia. The exploits of the heroes are interwoven with love-stories by which Firdausi became the founder of the romantic narrative poem which was to have such a lasting legacy in Persia. The last part of the poem is more historical and recounts the reigns of the Sasanian kings.
The tragic life of Firdausi underscores his lyrical brilliance and monumental achievement as author of the Shahnama. The Shahnama is a mathnavi -- a rhyming couplet in approximately 60,000 distichs (verses having two lines). The idiomatic Persian of the Shahnama minimizes not only non-Persian themes and people but also non-Persian, specifically Arabic, words. The Shahnama extols the importance of kingship as the most lofty status to which heroes may aspire.
Firdausi has been called the Homer of Persia. Born in the village of Bazh near Tus in Khurasan, he belonged to the landed gentry. It is clear from his own poetry that he received a sound education and was well versed in the legends and traditional history of pre-Islamic Iran. As a youth, he was a man of adequate means which enabled him to devote thirty years of his life to composing the Shahnama without the support of a royal court.
He was married at the age of 28 and some eight years later began the work for which he is most famous, the great epic poem Shahnama (or Shah nameh). The work is based on a poem by the tenth century Persian poet Dakiki. Firdausi spent 35 years writing this epic and completed it in 1010, when he was about 70 years old.
Firdausi undertook the composition of his monumental work around the year 980, shortly after the death of Abu Mansur Daqiqi, another poet from Tus, who had been composing a national epic of his own (most probably under the patronage of the Samanid amir Nun ibn Mansur) when his sudden death left the work unfinished. The Samanids had fostered a keen interest in the history of pre-Islamic Iran, and already more than one prose Shahnama, mainly based on the Pahlavi Kvadai-namag (translated into Arabic in the eighth century), had appeared. The most important version was the Abu Mansuri Shahnama which was produced in Tus in 957.
Firdausi also versified isolated episodes before he obtained Daqiqi’s work, which he incorporated into his Shahnama. At the beginning of his career, he had the support of some local dignitaries in Tus, but, living mainly on the income of his family estate, he experienced dire poverty at advanced age. His main source was the Abu Mansuri Shahnama (now lost except for the introduction), but he also used other materials, including oral traditions. The first version of Firdausi’s Shahnama was finished in 994 and the revised version in 1010.
Firdausi’s epic would have probably been received with honors at the court of the Samanids, but by the time it was finished Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna was the master of eastern Iran. Although a Turk by birth, Sultan Mahmud had gathered a large number of Persian poets at his court and was served by the vizier Isfarayini, whose patronage of Persian letters was well known. It is possible that Firdausi, as an old man badly in need, had been sending portions of his work to the court at Ghazna (probably to Isfarayini) in the hope of securing royal support. Finally, he decided to present his epic personally. However, the Shahnama was not received well by the king, who, being attuned to hearing only panegyric poetry and not familiar with the Iranian lore, could not really appreciate the value of the Shahnama. The fact that Mahmud was a fanatical Sunni and Firdausi a Shi‘ite must have laid the groundwork for the hard feelings to which the poet refers. Besides, Isfarayini, his main supporter at the court, had fallen from favor. According to an early source, an unhappy encounter with the king resulted in Firdausi’s writing a satire published only after the poet’s death. Firdausi spent the rest of his life running from the reach of Mahmud, who had threatened him with death. Finally, pardoned by the sultan, he came back to his native town, where he died a poor man.
Firdausi’s Shahnama contains 60,000 rhyming couplets, making it more than seven times the length of Homer’s Iliad. It deals first with the legendary Persian kings: Gayumart, Hoshang, Tahmuras, and the most famous of the group, Jamshid, who reigned for 500 years during the golden age of the earth. Following this happy period, came the evil rule of the Arab Dahhak, or Zohak, who was tempted by Ahriman, his own ancestor. As a result, Dahhak fell into sin, becoming more and more evil until Kavah, a smith, rebelled and established his leather apron as the banner of revolt. Finally, the tyrant was bound and confined beneath Mount Demavend on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Soon after this point in the poem, an episode of considerable beauty is inserted. It recounts the loves of Zal, of the royal line of Persia, and Rudabah, the daughter of the king of Kabul. Their union resulted in the birth of the most romantic of all the heroes of the Shahnama, Rustam, who occupies a position in Iranian legend somewhat analogous to that of Hercules in Greek and Latin literature. The epic progresses through Persian legend to historic times, tracing the reigns of the Sasanian kings down to the Muslim conquest and the death of Yazdigird III in 641. Thus, the work constitutes a valuable source for the early history of Persia, which is necessary to supplement the accounts given in the old Persian cuneiform inscriptions and the Avesta. In addition to his poetic incentive, Firdausi had a distinctly patriotic motive in writing the Shahnama. He plainly desired to keep alive in the hearts of his people the faith of their ancestors and the glories of their deeds so that the Persians would not become mere puppets under Arab domination.
The epic contains an introductory eulogy of the tenth century Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, to whom the work is dedicated. Firdausi went to Mahmud’s court to present his work as a tribute and was awarded the sum of 20,000 dihrams. The amount was less than he had been led to expect. The disappointed poet took his revenge by departing to Herat and there writing a bitter satire on Mahmud, which he sent to the sultan as a substitute for his former eulogy. Firdausi then fled to Herat, and from there to Tabaristan, where the reigning prince protected him. He later settled in Baghdad where he composed an epic of 9000 couplets, Yusuf and Zuleikha (Yusuf and Zulaykha). The work is an Arabic version of the biblical story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, a favorite theme of Asian poets. In his old age, Firdausi retired to his native town near Tus, where, according to legend, he received Mahmud’s forgiveness just before his death. The Shahnama is perhaps best known to English readers through Sohrab and Rustum, a poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold, which is based on the Persian epic.
Firdausi has had a profound and lasting influence on Persian literature and, indeed, on the spirit of the people of modern day Iran. His Shahnama was the model and inspiration for most later Muslim epic poetry.
In the scientific annals, Firdausi's Shahnama was instrumental in depicting a story about man's first attempts to fly.
The ancient Egyptians left behind many paintings demonstrating their desire to fly, depicting pharaohs soaring with wings. The Chinese and the Greeks had mythical stories and legends about flying, as did the Sassanians. Their most popular story is the one recounted by Firdausi in his Shahnama -- his Book of Kings. In Firdausi's book, a certain King Kai Kawus was tempted by evil spirits to invade heaven with the help of a flying craft that was a throne, attached to whose corners were four long poles pointing upward. Pieces of meat were placed at the top of each pole and ravenous eagles were chained to the feet of the throne. As the eagles attempted to fly up to the meat, they carried the throne up, but, inevitably, they grew tired and the throne came crashing down.
Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi see FirdausiFirdawsi see FirdausiFerdowsi see FirdausiAbdul Qasim Mansur see FirdausiMansur, Abdul Qasim see FirdausiHomer of Persia see Firdausi
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