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Except for hiskunya (ابوالقاسم –Abul-Qâsem, meaning 'father of Qasem') and hispen name (فِردَوسی –Ferdowsī, meaning 'paradisic'), nothing is known with any certainty about his full name. According to Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, the information given by the 13th-century authorBundari about Ferdowsi's name should be taken as the most reliable. Bundari calls the poet al-Amir al-Hakim Abu'l-Qasem Mansur ibn al-Hasan al-Ferdowsi al-Tusi.[a] From an early period on, he has been referred to by different additional names and titles, the most common one beingحکیم /Hakīm ("philosopher").[3] Based on this, his full name is given inPersian sources asحکیم ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی /Hakīm Abol-Qâsem Ferdowsī Tusī. Due to the non-standardised transliteration from Persian into English, different spellings of his name are used in English works, includingFirdawsi,Firdusi,Firdosi,Firdausi, etc. TheEncyclopaedia of Islam uses the spellingFirdawsī, based on the standardised transliteration method of theGerman Oriental Society.[2] TheEncyclopædia Iranica, which uses a modified version of the same method (with a stronger emphasis on modern Persian intonations), gives the spellingFerdowsī.[3][b] The modernTajik transliteration of his name inTajik Cyrillic isҲаким Абулқосим Фирдавсӣ Тӯсӣ (Hakim Abdulqosim Firdavsí Tŭsí).
Ferdowsi was born into a family of Iranian landowners (dehqans) in 940 in the village of Paj, near the city ofTus, in theKhorasan region of theSamanid Empire, which is located in the present-dayRazavi Khorasan province of northeasternIran.[9] Little is known about Ferdowsi's early life. The poet had a wife, who was probably literate and came from the samedehqan class.[3] Thedehqans were landowning Iranian aristocrats who had flourished under theSasanian dynasty (the last pre-Islamic dynasty to rule Iran) and whose power, though diminished, had survived into the Islamic era which followed the Islamic conquests of the 7thcentury. Thedehqans were attached to the pre-Islamic literary heritage, as their status was associated with it (so much so thatdehqan is sometimes used as a synonym for "Iranian" in theShahnameh). Thus they saw it as their task to preserve the pre-Islamic cultural traditions, including tales of legendary kings.[3][9]
He had a son, who died at the age of 37, and was mourned by the poet in an elegy which he inserted into theShahnameh.[3]
The Islamic conquests of the 7th century brought gradual linguistic and cultural changes to the Iranian Plateau. By the late 9th century, as the power of the caliphate had weakened, several local dynasties emerged in Greater Iran.[9] Ferdowsi grew up in Tus, a city under the control of one of these dynasties, the Samanids, who claimed descent from the Sassanid generalBahram Chobin[10] (whose story Ferdowsi recounts in one of the later sections of theShahnameh).[11] The Samanid bureaucracy used theNew Persian language, which had been used to bring Islam to the Eastern regions of the Iranian world and supplanted local languages, and commissioned translations ofPahlavi texts into New Persian.Abu Mansur Muhammad, adehqan and governor of Tus, had ordered his ministerAbu Mansur Mamari to invite several local scholars to compile a proseShahnameh ("Book of Kings"), which was completed in 1010.[12] Although it no longer survives, Ferdowsi used it as one of the sources of his epic. Samanid rulers were patrons of such important Persian poets asRudaki andDaqiqi, and Ferdowsi followed in the footsteps of these writers.[13]
Details about Ferdowsi's education are lacking. While it is likely that he learned Arabic in school, there is no evidence in theShahnameh that he knew either Arabic or Pahlavi.[3]
Ferdowsi was a Shiite Muslim, although varying views exist on what Shiite sect he belonged to. Khaleghi-Motlagh, followingTheodor Nöldeke, notes that Ferdowsi displays a contradictory attitude towards religion in theShahnameh: on the one hand, he shows a "lenient" attitude towards religion, but on the other hand, he believed that his sect was the "only true Islamic one." Khaleghi-Motlagh concurs with Nöldeke that Ferdowsi was "above all adeist and monotheist who at the same time kept faith with his forbears." Ferdowsi criticized philosophers and those who tried to prove the existence of God. He saw God's creation as the only evidence of His existence and believed everything in life to be the product of God's will. Khaleghi-Motlagh and others have suggested that a certainfatalism in Ferdowsi's work contradicts his "absolute faith in the unicity and might of God," and that this may have been the legacy of theZurvanism of the Sasanian period.[3]
Depiction of Ferdowsi reading the Shahnameh to Mahmud of GhazniFerdowsi and the three Ghaznavid court poets
It is possible that Ferdowsi wrote some early poems which have not survived. He began work on theShahnameh around 977, intending it as a continuation of the work of his fellow poet Daqiqi, who had been assassinated by his slave. Like Daqiqi, Ferdowsi employed the proseShahnameh of Abd-al-Razzaq as a source. He received generous patronage from the Samanid prince Mansur and completed the first version of theShahnameh in 994.[3] When the TurkicGhaznavids overthrew the Samanids in the late 990s, Ferdowsi continued to work on the poem, rewriting sections to praise the GhaznavidSultan Mahmud. Mahmud's attitude to Ferdowsi and how well he rewarded the poet are matters which have long been subject to dispute and have formed the basis of legends about the poet and his patron (see below). The Turkic Mahmud may have been less interested in tales from Iranian history than the Samanids.[9] The later sections of theShahnameh have passages which reveal Ferdowsi's fluctuating moods: in some he complains about old age, poverty, illness and the death of his son; in others, he appears happier. Ferdowsi finally completed his epic on 8 March 1010. Virtually nothing is known with any certainty about the last decade of his life.[3]
Ferdowsi was buried in his own garden, burial in the cemetery ofTus having been forbidden by a local cleric who considered him a heretic.[14] A Ghaznavid governor of Khorasan constructed a mausoleum over the grave and it became a revered site. Thetomb, which had fallen into decay, was rebuilt between 1928 and 1934 by theSociety for the National Heritage of Iran on the orders ofReza Shah, and has now become the equivalent of a national shrine.[15]
According to legend, SultanMahmud of Ghazni offered Ferdowsi a gold piece for every couplet of theShahnameh he wrote. The poet agreed to receive the money as a lump sum when he had completed the epic. He planned to use it to rebuild the dykes in his native Tus. After thirty years of work, Ferdowsi finished his masterpiece. The sultan prepared to give him 60,000 gold pieces, one for every couplet, as agreed. However, the courtier whom Mahmud had entrusted with the money despised Ferdowsi, regarding him as a heretic, and he replaced the gold coins with silver. Ferdowsi was in the bath house when he received the reward. Finding it was silver and not gold, he gave the money away to the bath-keeper, a refreshment seller, and the slave who had carried the coins. When the courtier told the sultan about Ferdowsi's behaviour, he was furious and threatened to execute him. Ferdowsi fled toKhorasan, having first written a satire on Mahmud, and spent most of the remainder of his life in exile. Mahmud eventually learned the truth about the courtier's deception and had him either banished or executed. By this time, the aged Ferdowsi had returned toTus. The sultan sent him a new gift of 60,000 gold pieces, but just as the caravan bearing the money entered the gates of Tus, a funeral procession exited the gates on the opposite side: the poet had died from a heart attack.[16]
Scenes from theShahnameh carved into reliefs at Ferdowsi's mausoleum in Tus, Iran
Ferdowsi'sShahnameh is the most popular and influentialnational epic inIran and other Persian-speaking countries. TheShahnameh is the only surviving work by Ferdowsi regarded as indisputably genuine.
He may have written poems earlier in his life but they no longer exist. A narrative poem,Yūsof o Zolaykā (Joseph and Zuleika), was once attributed to him, but scholarly consensus now rejects the idea it is his.[3]
There has also been speculation about the satire Ferdowsi allegedly wrote about Mahmud of Ghazni after the sultan failed to reward him sufficiently.Nezami Aruzi, Ferdowsi's early biographer, claimed that all but six lines had been destroyed by a well-wisher who had paid Ferdowsi a thousanddirhams for the poem. Introductions to some manuscripts of theShahnameh include verses purporting to be thesatire. Some scholars have viewed them as fabricated; others are more inclined to believe in their authenticity.[17]
The Sasanian KingKhusraw and Courtiers in a Garden, page from a manuscript of theShahnameh (Book of Kings), late 15th–early 16th century,Brooklyn Museum
Scene from theShahnameh: the Akvan Div throws the sleeping Rostam into the sea
Mausoleum of Ferdowsi in Tus, IranOne of Ferdowsi's poems: "Think for God's gratification – be intellectual and truthful", written on the wall of a school in IranFerdowsi statue inMilad Tower, Tehran, Iran
Ferdowsi is one of the undisputed giants ofPersian literature. After Ferdowsi'sShahnameh, a number of other works similar in nature surfaced over the centuries within the cultural sphere of thePersian language. Without exception, all such works were based in style and method on Ferdowsi'sShahnameh, but none of them could quite achieve the same degree of fame and popularity as Ferdowsi's masterpiece.[18]
Ferdowsi has a unique place in Persian history because of the strides he made in reviving and regenerating the Persian language and cultural traditions. His works are cited as a crucial component in the persistence of the Persian language, as those works allowed much of the tongue to remain codified and intact. In this respect, Ferdowsi surpassesNizami,Khayyam,Asadi Tusi and other seminal Persian literary figures in his impact on Persian culture and language.[citation needed] Many modern Iranians see him as the father of the modern Persian language.
Ferdowsi in fact was a motivation behind many future Persian figures. One such notable figure wasReza Shah Pahlavi, who established anAcademy of Persian Language and Literature, in order to attempt to remove Arabic and French words from the Persian language, replacing them with suitable Persian alternatives. In 1934, Reza Shah set up a ceremony inMashhad,Khorasan, celebrating a thousand years of Persian literature since the time of Ferdowsi, titled "Ferdowsi Millennial Celebration", inviting notable European as well as Iranian scholars.[19]Ferdowsi University of Mashhad is a university established in 1949 that also takes its name from Ferdowsi.
The Persians regard Ferdowsi as the greatest of their poets. For nearly a thousand years they have continued to read and to listen to recitations from his master work, theShah-nameh, in which the Persian national epic found its final and enduring form. Though written about 1,000 years ago, this work is as intelligible to the average, modern Iranian as theKing James Version of the Bible is to a modern English-speaker. The language, based as the poem is on aDari original, is pure Persian with only the slightest admixture of Arabic.
The library atWadham College, Oxford University was named the Ferdowsi Library, and contains a specialised Persian section for scholars.
^Al-Amir andal-Hakim are honorary titles.Abu'l-Qasem is akunya.Mansur is a given name.Ibn al-Hasan is a patronymic ('son of Hasan').Al-Ferdowsi is a pen name (takhallus).Al-Tusi is anisba ('from Tus').
^The spellingFerdowsi is based on the modern Iranian Persian pronunciation, whileFirdawsi reflects the historical pronunciation. The diphthongow of modern Iranian Persian was historically pronounced asaw. This is also how it is pronounced in modern Dari (Afghan Persian). The 'short' vowele of modern Iranian Persian was historically pronouncedi (modern Dari pronunciation is closer to the latter).[8]
^"Search Results – Brill Reference".referenceworks.brillonline.com. Retrieved5 January 2019.Abū l-Qāsim Firdawsī (320–416/931–1025) was a Persian poet, one of the greatest writers of epic and author of the Shāhnāma ("Book of kings").
Aghaee, Shirzad (1993).Nam-e kasan va jay-ha dar Shahnameh-ye Ferdousi [Personalities and Places in theShahnameh of Ferdousi]. Nyköping, Sweden.ISBN91-630-1959-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Aghaee, Shirzad (1997).Imazh-ha-ye mehr va mah dar Shahnameh-ye Ferdousi [Images of the Sun and Moon in theShahnameh of Ferdousi]. Spånga, Sweden.ISBN91-630-5369-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language ofIran,Tajikistan and one of the two official languages ofAfghanistan.
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