Research topic: Firdausi

Firdausi or Ferdowsi , c.940-1020, principal Persian poet, author of the Shah Namah [the book of kings], the great Persian epic. His original name was Abul Kasim Mansur; he is thought to have been born of a yeoman family of Khorasan. He received a thorough education in Muslim learning and in the Persian language and antiquities. The course of his life is not certain because of the immense accretion of legend about it. He lived at the court of Mahmud of Ghazna , with a group of antiquarians. In order to glorify Persia's past, Firdausi undertook his epic history, which opens with the... Read more