Firdawsī

Poet

Little is known for certain about the life of the great Persian poet Ḥakim Abū al-Qāsim Firdawsī (his pen name) except for his authorship of the immensely popular and influential Iranian national epic the Šāh-nāmah (The Book of Kings), whose importance in Persian literature can scarcely be overstated. Consequently, the overwhelming fame accorded to Firdawsī and his masterpiece has made his life amenable to becoming shrouded in legend. The date of Firdawsī’s birth has been reliably placed ca. 329-30/940-1 from his own statement that he was 58 years of age in the year of the accession of Sulṭān Maḥmūd. Sources differ as to when Firdawsī began his writing of the Šāh-nāmah (some say no later than 370-1/980-1 while others as early as 367/977) but the completion of the epic is accepted to have occurred in 400/1010. However long Firdawsī spent in writing the Šāh-nāmah, it is clear that he devoted a large portion of his life to it and treated it as his life’s work. The dates generally accepted for the death of Firdawsī are 410/1019, 411/1020, or 416/1025.