Speaking to IRNA on the occasion of Ferdowsi Day, Anvari said that while some versions of Ferdowsi's magnum opus, the Shahnameh or the Book of Kings, contain over 60,000 couplets, the original work actually composed by Ferdowsi does not exceed 54,000 couplets.
Anvari, the author of Farhang-e Bozorg-e Sokhan (the Great Culture of Speech), said a careful examination of the critical edition of the Shahnameh edited by Jalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, a prominent Persian linguist whose research primarily focuses on Ferdowsi, reveals that many famous couplets attributed to Ferdowsi are in fact not present in the abovementioned version.
According to Anvari, these interpolated verses often have a nationalist or apologetic undertone, meant to substantiate allegations that Ferdowsi had made a pact with Mahmud of Ghazni, Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire, to be paid a gold coin for every couplet of the Shahnameh.
Explaining why this alleged contract between Ferdowsi and the Sultan did not exist, the scholar asked, "Would anyone agree to start a book today and receive the royalties 30 years later? So how could Ferdowsi have done this? This is a clear error."
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