Ferdowsi is famed for his magnum opus 'Shahnameh' (Book of Kings) which boasts significant status in Persian literature, Tehran-based English newspaper Iran Daily reported.
'Shahnameh' is an enormous national epic created around 1000 AD. Being the loaded canon of purely Persian lexis, the book is the epic narration of Iranian national identity, derived from the grace of an ancient culture along with the gentility of a poetic language.
'Shahnameh is the most genuine Persian literary work up to date, and Ferdowsi is the most noble Iranian poet. If he was not, he could not create such a great literary work and cultural phenomenon,' observed an Iranian litterateur Mir Jalaleddin Kazzazi.
Speaking at a session on 'Shahnameh' at Book City Institute on May 12, Kazzazi said, 'Anyone who is knowledgeable and is proud of being Iranian is a lover of Shahnameh.'
Beatriz De Salas, who is currently rendering 'Shahnameh' into Spanish, also said, 'Shahnameh is a work which depicts the rituals, traditions and characters of different walks of life. Moreover, it is an encyclopedia which covers diverse topics from philosophy and religion to military strategies and arts.
'While, translating the work, I learned that 'Shahnameh' is not restricted to Persian-speaking people but to all nations.'
The Book City session was among the many programs to mark Ferdowsi Day in Iran. Ferdowsi Foundation and Iran's Pahlavani and Zurkhaneh Sports Federation are also holding the 10th congress on Ferdowsi in a number of Iranian provinces from May 9-20.
The congress includes lectures, music performances, workshops and exhibitions themed on 'Shahmaneh'. Ferdowsi's birthplace in Tous, Khorasan Razavi province, Tehran, Kerman, Markazi and Isfahan are the other provinces hosting the gala.
Hakim Abolqasem Ferdowsi Tousi, the highly venerated Persian poet, was born in 940 AD in the city of Tous in northeastern Iran. 'Shahnameh' 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. He wrote his great epic work during the Samanid and Ghaznavid eras.
According to Ferdowsi's own poem, he finished his masterpiece after 30 years of continuous work. An important feature of this work is that during the period that Arabic language was the main language of science and literature, Ferdowsi used only Persian in his masterpiece. As Ferdowsi himself says 'Persian language is revived by this work.'
It tells mainly the mythical and, to some extent, the historical past of the Persian empire from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.
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Tehran, May 15, IRNA - May 15 is celebrated as Ferdowsi Day among Iranians to commemorate the prominent Persian poet Abolqassem Ferdowsi.
