Born: January 3rd, 940
A.D in Bazh, a village in near Tabaran, the main district
of the old city of Toos, in the province of Khorasan
Died: 1020 A.D.
Other Names: Full
Name was Hakim Abul Ghasem Ferdosi Tousi
Occupation: Poet, Teacher, Historian,
Story-teller and National Hero
Claim to Fame: Shahnameh,
the national epic known
in English as the Book of Kings, taking him over 25 years
to complete
featuring 60,000
couplets,
or double verses. Ferdosi also created the "rubai"
(quatrain) epochal style of historical poems.
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Biography
Early Years:
 The son of a noble landowner
(dehghan), Ferdosi was born around January 3rd, 940 A.D.
in a small
village by the name of Bazh, near Toos. For centuries after
the fall of the Sassanian
Empire, the
last Iranian dynasty overthrown in the Arab invasion,
the
dehghans remained the source of Persian pride.
They worked hard to preserve memories
of a perished empire and a glorious past including heroic
traditions and the cultural heritage of the country.
The term
"dehghan" became synonymous with a proud “Iranian”,
planting the first seeds of national pride in young Ferdosi.
After receiving his education in Persian history, literature
and story-telling, Ferdosi became a poet. By the age
of 30, he had married and produced a son. Throughout
his life, Ferdosi had a profound appreciation for knowledge,
beauty, and wisdom, which he believed to be the keys
to salvation.
The Perserver
of Persia:
The best-known and most
influential work of this great poet is the Shahnameh,
or the Book of Kinds. Ferdosi spent years pouring
his soul and imagination into
fantastic,
meaningful,
and descriptive poetry, which first and foremost aimed
to preserve the beauty of the Persian Language. An impressive
collection of poetry and historiography, which took
over thirty years to compile, the Shahnameh is regarded
as the account of Iran’s
history. The book, based on ancient sources
that interweave Persian myths, legends, and historical
events,
had the purpose of preserving Iran's history from
the creation of the world to the Arab conquest in the
seventh century. Even
today, story tellers known as naghals can recount large
parts of Shahnameh from memory and do so in the squares
of Iranian cities for young and old to hear. Since its
creation, the stories of the Shahnameh have become an
anchoring fabric that weaves the Iranian people together
with classics such as the stories of Rostam & Sohrab
and Rostam and Div-e Sefeed.
 Written in pure Persian,
with minimal use of Arabic words, the Shahnameh starts
with Gayumarth, the first man ever created,
and
ends
with his
fiftieth
successor,
Yazdegerd III, spanning 600 years of history.
Ferdosi was commissioned by the Samanid princes of
Khorasan, with the task of saving culture, language and
history, the
cornerstones
of the Persian identity.
Needless to say, he succeeded in a way that no other
historian has, either before or after him. The Shahnameh
was based mainly on a prose work of the same name, which
the poet had compiled earlier from a Pahlavi
(Middle Persian) work, the Khvatay-namak. This book of
history was the story of the kings of Persia from mythical
times down to the reign of Khosrow II (590-628 CE). Indeed,
another poet Daqiqi from the Samanid court has attempted
to versify this chronicle
of pre-Islamic
and
legendary Persia. Daqiqi's attempt came
to a violent end after completing only 1,000 verses.
These verses, which deal with the
rise of the prophet Zoroaster, were afterward included
by Ferdosi, with due acknowledgements, in his own poem.
Ferdosi
is said to have died around 1020 CE
in his place of birth. He remains a legendary
figure in Persian history and is remembered as a man
with a lively and optimistic nature. He lived much in
the
same
way,
as
did his Sassanian
ancestors,
with prosperity and joy. It is said that he enjoyed
horseback riding, playing games, feasting
and drinking
wine, and listening to music and songs. He was a lover
of love and life and was a kind and good-natured man,
who will forever preserve the memories
of Iran’s glorious past.
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Famous Iranians
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