A single poet write the world’s longest epic poem
The Shahnameh, Book of Kings, the Iranian poet Hakim Abul-Qasim Mansur who composed an epic and completed around 1010 CE. Ferdowsi means ‘from paradise’, and derived from the name Ferdous. Tusi means ‘from Tus’. In the poet’s case, the name Ferdowsi Tusi became a name and a title as the Tusi Poet from Paradise. The epic chronicles the legends and histories of Iranian (Aryan) kings from primordial times to the Arab conquest of Iran.Three successive stages are the mythical, the heroic or legendary, and the historic.
Shahnameh Introduction
Ferdowsi began the composition of the Shahnameh’s approximately 100,000 lines as 50,000* couplets /distichs (bayts). Each consisting of two hemistichs (misra), 62 stories and 990 chapters. The Samanids had Tajik-Aryan affiliation and were sympathetic to preserving Aryan heritage. It took Ferdowsi thirty-three years to complete his epic. When the rule of eastern Iran passed to the Turkoman Ghaznavids. The Shahnameh Ferdowsi written in classical Persian when the language was emerging from its Middle Persian Pahlavi roots, and at a time when Arabic was the favored language of literature. Ferdowsi seen as a national Iranian hero, re-ignited pride in Iranian culture and literature. Also established the Persian language as a language of beauty and sophistication.