Ferdowsi

Abu'l-Qasim Ferdowsi (c. 940-1019/1025 CE) was a Persian poet, born near Tus in what is now northeastern Iran, best known as the author of the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, a vast epic poem recounting the mythical and historical past of Persia from the creation of the world to the Islamic conquest. Composed over some three decades, the work drew on earlier oral and written traditions to preserve pre-Islamic Persian history, mythology and language at a time when Persian culture faced pressure from Arabic literary dominance. The Shahnameh became the great national epic of Iran and remains central to Persian identity and literature to this day.