The Persian Book of Kings - An Introduction to the Shahnameh

The Shahnameh, also called the Persian Book of Kings, is an ancient Persian epic written by the legendary poet Ferdowsi around the year 1010 AD. It was estimated that the poet began the project in 977, taking him roughly thirty years to complete. The epic remains the greatest piece of literature to emerge from Persia, and comprises approximately 50,000 rhyming couplets in Persian. The Shahnameh  follows the mythical and historical past of Iran starting from the creation of the world until the Arab conquest in the 7th century.

Famous image from the Shahnameh titled The Court of Gayumars, showing Gayumars, the first king of Persia

Ferdowsi, whose real name was Abu al-Qasim Mansur bin Hasan Tosi, wrote the Shahnameh as an original commission by Abu Mansur Muhammad, a wealthy aristocrat and governor of Tus. In the 7th century, Arabia conquered Persia, putting the Persian language at risk of extinction. He viewed the project as a service to preserve the Persian language and culture, document pre-Islamic history, and explore universal human wisdom through his complicated characters. Ferdowsi began writing the epic during the Samanid dynasty, a dynasty known for their fight to revive the culture of pre-Islamic Persians. New Persian, meaning pure Persian with the minimal use of Arabic loanwords, was used in this epic to make a statement of how the Persian language is freestanding.

The Shahnameh is split into three main eras: the mythical age, featuring early kings building civilizations, the heroic age, the most famous section with famous characters such as the warrior Rostam or the bird Simorgh, and the historical age, which feeds myth into reality, eventually ending at the fall of the Sassanid Empire. Several characters from this epic continue to impact Persian culture today, and the stories of the Shahnamhe are often referenced as a source of life lessons and wisdom. The Shahnameh is best known for preserving the Persian language, as the New Persian in which it was written conveyed the message that Persian language can endure, however it is also one of the largest epics written by a single person, and regarded as a masterpiece of world literature for its focus on human tragedy and the fight between good and evil. The Shahnameh has become a vessel for Persian identity, providing a reference that bonds Persians through shared stories of national heroes and pride.