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Author of the Shahnama, the national epic of Iran, and one of the greatest poets of Persian literature. His kunya was Abu al-Qasim, his title Fakhr al-Din and his pen name Firdawsi.
He was born in the village of Baj (Baz) in Tabaran, a dependency of the city of Tus. Since he says he was fifty-eight when Mahmud of Ghazna came to the throne (387/997), he must have been born in 329 (940). His father was an estate owner (dihqan) on the Abrahe stream, which branches off from the river of Tus. The sources say almost nothing about his childhood and education.
In the period in which he grew up, certain works in Pahlavi on Iran's pre-Islamic history had come to light and were beginning to be translated into New Persian; in particular, shahnamas had been written on the basis of the Khuday-nama compiled under the Sasanian king Yazdegerd III (632-651). Firdawsi, who probably at first wrote ghazals and odes like other poets, developed a keen interest in Pahlavi works on ancient Iranian history and learned the language from his father or from Zoroastrian priests. He also knew enough Arabic to write poetry. At twenty-seven or twenty-eight he had a son, and then a daughter. He lived comfortably until forty; his later years were spent in hardship.
Most probably he began writing the Shahnama in 370 (980) or 380 (990); who supported him is unknown. In some manuscripts the governors of Tus Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Abd al-Razzaq and Huyayy-i Qutayba are named among his patrons; since the former died twenty years before the work was written, only the latter's help can be meant. With additions linking the epics he had composed piece by piece, he completed the first redaction in 394 (1003-1004); in the same year he lost his thirty-seven-year-old son. Wishing to dedicate the work to a great ruler, he was introduced to Sultan Mahmud through the vizier Abu al-Abbas Fadl ibn Ahmad al-Isfara'ini and the sultan's brother Nasr ibn Sebüktigin, and probably at their urging completed a second redaction. But just as he was about to present it, his patron Fadl died (404/1014). The Shahnama took its final form after 408 (1018).
There are differing reports about how the work was presented to the sultan. According to one, Firdawsi went to Ghazna and presented it himself, but the sultan, influenced also by his new vizier Ahmad ibn Hasan-i Maymandi, did not give him a reward worthy of it; the poet gave 20.000 of the 60.000 dirhams he received to the sultan's favourite Ayaz, 20.000 to the bath-keeper and 20.000 to the beer-seller or tavern-keeper, and wrote a satire on the sultan. According to another, when the sultan said of the epic hero Rustam, "In my army there are many stronger than he," the poet replied, "But God never created another like Rustam"; to escape the angered sultan he went to Herat and wrote a 100-couplet poem satirizing him. According to yet another, he went to Tabaristan and took refuge with the Ispahbad Shahriyar of the Bavandid dynasty, who, out of respect for the sultan, bought the satire and burned it.
Firdawsi later returned to Tus, spent the rest of his life in poverty and died there. His death is given in some sources as 411 (1020) and in others as 416 (1025).
His Poetry and Sufi Line — Firdawsi's line is that of the epic poet. The Shahnama narrates Iran's epic history blended with historical fact, from the creation of the first man, Kayumars, to the era of Arab rule over Iran, treating events of the Pishdadian, Kayanian, Ashkanian and Sasanian ages. Its sources are oral tradition, the prose Khuday-nama, the work of Abu al-Mu'ayyad-i Balkhi, the prose shahnama commissioned by Abu Mansur, governor of Tus, and the verse shahnamas of Daqiqi and Mas'udi-yi Marwazi. Figures such as Jamshid, Zahhak, Kava the blacksmith, Faridun, Rustam son of Zal, Afrasiyab king of Turan (Alp Er Tonga), Kay Khusraw, Isfandiyar and Alexander appear in it. It is written in the mathnawi form in the mutaqarib metre; according to the manuscripts the number of couplets ranges between 48.000 and 52.000. It contains few Arabic words. The two most imitated works of Persian literature are Sa'di's Gulistan and the Shahnama; the Ottoman sultans too had shehnames written for themselves on its model. Firdawsi traces the Turanians and the Iranians to Tur and Iraj, sons of Faridun, thus counting the two peoples as brothers; in the Shahnama he extols Mahmud of Ghazna to the skies and names him the true heir of the Kayanian throne.
His Works — His principal work is the Shahnama. In the XII century the Ayyubid historian al-Bundari translated it into Arabic. Turner Macan produced the first edition (I-IV, Calcutta 1829), followed by more than twenty editions. Of Necati Lugal's Turkish translation, based on the Vullers edition (Leiden 1877-1884), only four volumes appeared (Istanbul 1945-1955). Until recently a mathnawi titled Yusuf u Zulaykha was also attributed to him (see Multiple Perspectives).
Differing Scholarly Views
The source articles were written in the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam. The points on which the source diverges are set out side by side below; the atlas takes no side.
His name and his father's name — The poet's name appears in the sources as Ahmad, Hasan and Mansur, and his father's as Ali Fakhr al-Din, Ahmad and Ishaq. The source states that which of these is correct has not been established.
Dates of birth and death — The birth year (329/940) is an estimate calculated from the poet's own statement. The article's heading gives the death as 411/1020 with a question mark; the body sets Dawlatshah's 411 (1020) beside al-Mustawfi's 416 (1025). The atlas does not choose between them.
His confession — The source presents Firdawsi as a Shi'i and records that he praised the four caliphs in the Shahnama.
His relationship with Sultan Mahmud — The stories of the reward and the satire are reports. As the source relates, some researchers on Firdawsi try to explain Sultan Mahmud's attitude by the sultan being a Sunni and the poet a Shi'i, by the sultan's antipathy towards the ancient kings as the son of a slave, or by the presence in the work of expressions belittling the Turks. According to another report, as the poet's funeral left by one gate of the city, a caravan of twelve camels laden with indigo worth 60.000 gold pieces, sent by the sultan once he had grasped the work's value, entered by the other. The source, however, says that such reports suggest the work may have been presented to the sultan not by Firdawsi himself, then about eighty, but by Nasr ibn Sebüktigin or the commander Arslan Jadhib, and that the delay of the reward gave rise to these tales among the people; it regards the poet's praise of the sultan in the Shahnama and his mention of the four caliphs as sufficient reason for the sultan not to treat him badly, and links the satire most probably to the delayed reward. The atlas does not judge between these explanations.
The attribution of Yusuf u Zulaykha — Until recently this mathnawi was attributed to Firdawsi. The source states that the praise of Toghan Shah, son of Alp Arslan (d. 465/1072), in the preface of a newly found manuscript, its language differing from Samanid-era Persian, and its style falling well below the Shahnama leave no doubt that it is not his.
Location of the grave — The source says only that the poet returned to Tus and died there; it mentions neither his grave nor a tomb building. The atlas's pin at Tus agrees with the source at the level of the city; the tomb structure itself is not documented in this source and awaits confirmation from another.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) · vol. 13, pp. 125-127, entry “Firdevsî”
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) — Mehmet Kanar · vol. 38, pp. 289-290, entry “ŞÂHNÂME”
The sources for this record are listed below (Mandatory Sources).
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Permanent ID: EA-Z-000345 · this address reaches the same record even if its name changes; use it when citing.
External records: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam article