FIRDAUSI, f(Ir'dou-se', or FIRDUSI, doo•sr.:', ATS1'1, RIA SI NE ANsuR, or AHNIAD, or 11 ASA N (c.935-1020). The greatest epic poet of Persia, and one of the foremost in all literature. lie was born in Tus in Khorassan about 323 A.11. ( A 935). The name of his father is quite un known, but he seems to have been a man who lived in very emnfort able circumstances and one of the Dihq511 or landed gentry. The best account of the poet's life is given by 'Arndi of Samarkand. who visited •ns about a century after the death of Firdausi. This record is preserved by 11)11 Isfan diy5r in his chronicles of Tabarist an (the passage is published by Ethi4 in vol. xl. of the Journal of the German Oriental Society). At the age of twenty-rigid 1;1111:isi married, and of the two children horn to him. one, a daughter. survived her father. When the poet was about thirty six, he began the work which has made his name im mortal, the Shuh-Namah, or Book of Kings, which occupied hini for thirty-live years. Other Persian poets had tried their band at the theme before him, for the remembrance of their own Iranian history was preserved despite the con quest by Islam. Of these predecessors the most noteworthy was Daq191, who flourished in the tenth century A.D. His work, placed in Firdausi's hand by his compatriot, Mohammed Lashkari, formed the nucleus of the AS'inifi-Nuniuh.
This great Book of Kings traces the history of Persia from the mythical railer Gayumart, who lived, according to Iranian tradition, about B.C. 3600, to the Mohammedan conquest in A.D. 641.
The poem, which according to Firdausi's own Recount contains 60,000 couplets, or more than seven times the amount of the Iliad, treats first of the legendary kings of Iran, Gaymnart, llo shang, Tahmuras, and Jamshid, who was the most famous of them all, and reigned five hun dred years during the golden age of the earth. Following this happy period came the evil rule of the Arab Dahak or Zohak, who was tempted by Ahriman, his own ancesbm, and fell into sin, increasing his evil until the smith Koval' set up his leathern apron, as the banner of revolt, and Fredun, the Thmtaona of the Avesta, came and bound the tyrant and confined Lila be neath Mount Demavend on the shores of the Caspian. The reign of Pillion was a long one, but its close was darkened by the strife of his three sons, among whom lie had divided the king dom. He was succeeded by Minochihr. At this point in the poem there is inserted an episode of exceptional beauty which recounts the loves of %al, of the royal line of Iran, and Hudabah, the daughter of the King of Kabul, whose union was blessed by the birth of the most romantic of all the heroes of the Shillt-Neinialt, Rustam, who oc cupies a position in Iranian legend somewhat analogous to that of Hercules in the classic lit eratures. It was Rustam who, during the reign
of Kaus, won Mazandaran for the Persian King, and performed seven romantic and perilous quests before he could succeed. It was he too who in combat unwittingly slew his own son Suhrab, who, ignorant of his paternity, was fighting among the foes of Iran. Later Rustam again in vaded Turan to revenge the murder of Syavush, a son of Kaus. lie fought also with Firud, King of India, and with the powerful Turanian ruler Komi's. From this time on until the dawn of the historical period, the Shoh-Nilmah is oc cupied mainly with accounts of the wars be tween the Iranians and their hereditary foes, the Turanians. With the opening of the reign of Gushtasp there is an episode of extreme impor tance giving an account of Zardusht or Zoroaster (q.v.). The interest of the epic, which was slightly less during the reigns of and Lohrasp, now revives, and it is continued by the legend of the seven adventures of Isfandiyar, the son of Gushtasp. The father's jealousy of his son, how ever, caused Isfandiyar to he imprisoned, until his aid against the Turanian became in dispensable. Then he was released, hut as soon as possible was sent by Gushtasp on further ad ventures, and at last was craftily matched in a duel with Ruston), by whom the younger hero was slain, while Ruston' himself soon afterwards fell in battle. It is noteworthy that there is no men Lion in the ,SVlit-.\ 0i/oh of the .\eli:crli•nes a fact wlicli in not as yet altogether satisfac torily explaini d. Of I ;le Al....acid:, only the names. The I den leap to the Sassanian kings (9.v.). ,\ceord nig to the ,''hale-\anio/i Gusto:is!, was followed by Italman and his son Itala I Darius , oho married a daughter of the Emperor of Rum ( Byzantium). This prince,,. who ma, di vorced by Da•a, gave birth at liyzant inn) to Iskandar, or .\lexander the Great 01.v.). The iemaind•r of the epic, exeepting for the long ac count of the reign of Bahrain Glir. is of le-, in terest. It traced with a fairly close adherence to history the reigns of the Sassanian kings down to the defeat and death of Yezdegird 111. Yet there are interwoven in this latter part of the epic, and elsewhere, numerous episodes of much interest. Among these seas be noted the story of the seven banquets of Nushirvan with the sages, of whom he inquires concerning a mysteri ous dream, the intruding bm of chess from India into Persia during the reign of the ,:11114' 1111,11 areli, and the story of the loves of King Kliosru Parviz and Queen Shirin.