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The Shahnama (The Book of Kings or The
Epic of Kings) also written Shahnameh,
written by Firdowsi around 1000 AD,
is the national epic of Persia (Iran)
and one of the definite classics of
world literature. The contents and
the poet's style in describing the
events takes the reader back a thousand
years and allows the reader to sense
and feel the events in the magical
theater of mind. It is based mainly
on an earlier prose version which
itself was a compilation of old Iranian
stories and historical facts and fables.
For over a thousand years the Persians
have continued to read and listen
to recitations from this masterwork
in which the Persian national epic
found its final and enduring form.
It is the history of Iran's past,
preserved in hypnotic and majestic
verse. Though written over 1000 years
ago, this work is very much intelligible
to the modern reader. The language
used in composing the Shahnama is
pure Persian with very few Arabic
loanwords used.
The Shahnama of Firdowsi, an epical poem
book of over 60,000 couplets, is based
mainly on a prose work of the same
name compiled in the poet's earlier
life in his native Tus. This prose
Shahnama was in turn and for the most
part the translation of a Pahlavi
(Middle Persian) work, a compilation
of the history of the kings and heroes
of Iran from mythical times down to
the reign of Khosrau II (590-628 A.D.),
but it also contains additional material
continuing the story to the overthrow
of the Sassanids by the Arabs in the
middle of the 7th century A.D. The
first to undertake the versification
of this chronicle of pre-Islamic and
legendary Persia was Daqiqi, a poet
at the court of the Samanids, who
came to a violent end after completing
only 1000 verses. These verses, which
deal with the rise of the prophet
Zoroaster, were afterward incorporated
by Firdowsi, with due acknowledgements,
in his own poem.
After Firdowsi's Shahnama 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 Firdowsi's
Shahnama, but none of them could quite
achieve the same degree of fame and
popularity.
Some experts believe the main reason
the Modern Persian language today
is more or less the same language
as that of Firdowsi's time over 1000
years ago is due to the very existence
of works like Firdowsi's Shahnama
which have had lasting and profound
cultural and linguistic influence.
In other words, the Shahnama itself
has become one of the main pillars
of the Modern Persian language. Studying
Firdowsi's masterpiece also became
an absolute requirement for achieving
mastery of the Persian language by
all the subsequent great Persian poets,
as evidenced by numerous direct and
indirect references to the Shahnama
in their works.
There are several aspects of the Shahnama
that are remarkable. One is that it
is one of the few original national
epics in the world. Many peoples of
the world have their "own"
national epics, but more often than
not, the original theme of such national
epics are borrowed from other cultures
(usually from neighbouring cultures).
This is not the case with the Shahnama,
which is based on the original Persian
stories. Another remarkable aspect
of the Shahnama is the language element
itself, which is nearly pure Persian,
and yet very much natural. After studying
the Shahnama, one can clearly see
that Firdowsi must have had a solid
command of the Pahlavi language (Middle
Persian) as well, with an astonishing
linguistic understanding of the transitional
patterns from Middle Persian to Modern
Persian. Yet another important aspect
of the Shahnama is the honesty with
which the author has delivered the
stories without allowing his personal
views enter or alter the original
story; in this regard, if he has had
something to say, he has said it on
his own account and in between the
narrations of the original stories.
The language that Firdowsi has used
is uttermost clean and free of any
vulgarism, sarcasm or offensive expressions.
That, combined with Firdowsi's unparalleled
artistic and linguistic magic, has
produced a masterpiece which has captivated
its audiences for over a thousand
years now. Many Persians (Iranians)
consider the Shahnama to be their
true certificate of national identity.The
Shahnama is remarkable for its epic
length. It has 62 stories, 990 chapters,
and contains 60,000 rhyming couplets,
making it more than seven times the
length of Homer's Iliad. There have
been a number of English translations,
almost all abridged. In 1925 the brothers
Arthur and Edmond Warner published
the complete work in nine volumes,
it is now a rare volume and out of
print, although an electronic scanned
version has recently become available.
Page Last Updated:
Saturday, December 10, 2005 23:33:22 -0500
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