1100 years ago on January 27, a man was born who would preserve the Persian myths, legends, historical data, as well as the Persian language in the masterpiece Shahnameh. The man behind the Shahnameh or “Book of Kings” is the poet Ferdowsi and on this day the Ferdowsi Foundation is celebrating one of the Persian Empire’s most influential people. Video clips are being shown throughout Tehran’s busy metro stations honoring the decades Ferdowsi devoted to producing this classic.

Even today most Iranians can find their names in the Shahnameh and each name represents a hero, a King, a Queen, and so on. It has become Iran’s national epic like Greece’s Odyssey or Iliad. While the previously mentioned Greek epics are centered around either a person or a war the Shahnameh differs in that it covers a time period that starts with the very first King Kiumars and ends with the Arab conquest. Ferdowsi’s compilation makes all Farsi speaking people of the world stand tall and proud knowing that the Shahnameh is highly respected among every well-educated person in the world!

The fact that there is limited Arabic usage in the Shahnameh has not only served as a way to preserve the language but also showed that it was a product of something entirely Persian.

Today the Shahnameh can be found all over the internet each story perfectly intact and eagerly waiting to be read.

Poetry did not end with Ferdowsi. Iranians are still making their voices heard and recently it was announced that poets Nima Yushij, Sohrab Sepehri, Qeisar Aminpur, Tahereh Saffarzadeh, and Mehdi Akhavan-Salis are having their works translated into English, Urdu, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.

Although Ferdowsi has long since passed away time has made it eminently clear that he will truly be forever immortal.

kiana sadeghi