Ferdowsi
Abu'l-Qasem Ferdowsi of Tus
- Born
- c. 940, Tus
- Died
- c. 1020, Tus
Author of the Shahnameh: thirty years of work to hold a language that was slipping away.
About
Ferdowsi was a dehqan — a smallholding landowner, the class that had kept the memory of pre-Islamic Iran. He built the Shahnameh from that class's traditions and from the Pahlavi royal chronicles.
He worked on it for thirty years and spent his fortune doing so. The story of Mahmud of Ghazna's indifference is famous and hard to verify; what is certain is that Ferdowsi died poor and the town cemetery refused him.
He was buried in his own garden. His tomb is at Tus today, and a thousand years on the Shahnameh is still read in the same Persian he wrote.
Works
The Shahnameh
Around sixty thousand lines, thirty years of work, from creation to the fall of the Sasanians. The longest epic ever written by a single poet.
Routes
Places
Experiences
- Tour
Five days, Shiraz to Tus
The whole Khorasan road with stops at Yazd, Tabas and Neyshabur; the last day at Ferdowsi's tomb.