The Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam from the Persian National Epic, the Shahname of Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi (Publications on the Near East, University of Washington, No. 3)
Abuʾl-Qasim Ferdowsi Tusi was a Persian artist, poet and the writer of Shahnameh ("Book of Kings"), which is considered to be the world's longest epic lyric made by a single solitary artist, and the national epic of Iran and the Greater Iran.
Background
Despite his fame, little is known about his personal life and some facts are still disputed, as many accounts of his personal life were written long after his death. It is believed that Firdawsi was born in a small town on the outskirts of the city of Tus situated in Khorasan - the region that is now divided among Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Education
Ferdowsī had not got formal training in the sciences of his time particularly in academic philosophy, however thought of him as just to be a sensibly taught individual in such matters.
Career
He was a relatively wealthy dekhqan (landlord), who was devoted to Persian history and poetry. He mastered several languages and had great knowledge of historical and poetic works. In his 20s he began writing prose and later successfully experimented with poetry. By the time he was in his mid-30s he undertook a monumental task - to compose a poem that would cover the history of the Persian world from ancient time to the seventh–eighth centuries c.e. According to some reports, Firdawsi spent his entire adult life, or about 35 years, completing this extraordinary task.
His major source of reference, on which he based his research and writing, was the Khvatay-Nameh, a Middle Persian (Pakhlavi) work created under the order of King Khosrow Anushirvan. His secondary source was a work by the Persian poet Daqiqi, who attempted to write about early history of the Persian world at the time of the introduction of Zoroastrianism. Some modern literary critics claim that parts of the Shahnamah resemble a mere translation of some chapters of the Khvatay-Nameh.
Others argue that he created a completely new work in verses, and that he only used other works as historical sources. As in earlier epics like The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Shahnamah deals with the struggle between the forces of good and evil. Its hero Rustam, with his trusty steed Rakhsh, rescues allies, vanquishes foes, and lives for over 500 years.
The first revision of the Shahnamah was completed in 994, and parts of it were shared with close associates. It took another 15 years before it was completed in about 1010. It consisted of between 55,000 and 60,000 couplets (beits) subdivided into 50 sections devoted to various ruling dynasties. According to the tradition of his era, Firdawsi sought to present his work to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (Ghaznavi), the ruler of Khorasan.
Mahmud and his entourage doubted the significance of the work, deeply offending Firdawsi. There are many interpretations of this event, ranging from disapproval of the religious content of the book (Firdawsi describes the rise of Zoroaster) to inappropriate praise of the great pre-Islamic rulers of Persia.
The conflict between the ruler and the poet forced the latter to leave his homeland and move to Heart, and after that to Mazendaran. There are reports that he spent his final days in Baghdad. Some sources indicate that he continued writing poetry but was not as productive as in his early days. Firdawsi died c. 1020, highly respected by his contemporaries, if not by the court of Ghaznavi.
Some have essentially called him a "Shiʿite" others, for example, Bahār , have brought up the issue of whether Ferdowsī was a follower of Zaydī Shiʿism, Ismaiʿli Shiʿism, or Twelver Shiʿism. Nöldeke and Moḥīṭ Ṭabāṭabāʾī trusted that he was a Shiʿite yet did not consider him to be an individual from any of the fanatic Shiʿites. Šērānī called Ferdowsī a Sunni or Zaydī Shiʿite, however Šērānī was basically worried with guarding Maḥmūd's Sunnism. The fundamental supporting confirmation, for the perspective that Ferdowsī was a Sunni or Zaydī Shiʿite has been the lines that show up in numerous original copies of the Šāh-nāma, in the exordium to the book, in commendation of Abū Bakr, ʿOmar, and ʿOṯmān. From one perspective, Ferdowsī was tolerant as respects religion. As Nöldeke comments, Ferdowsī recollected the religion of his forgoes with deference, and, in the meantime, no place did he hint at any a profound Islamic confidence. Then again, in any case, Ferdowsī demonstrated a partiality for his own particular organization and, as is obvious from the exordium to the Šāh-nāma, considered his own group to be the main genuine Islamic one.
Ferdowsī was a Shiʿite Muslim, which is obvious from the Šāh-nāma itself and affirmed by early records. As of late, be that as it may, some have given occasion to feel qualms about his religion and his Shiʿism. Ferdowsī assaults theory and the individuals who endeavor to demonstrate the truth of the Creator, trusting that God can be discovered neither by the eye of knowledge, nor of the heart, nor of reason, however that His presence, solidarity, and might are admitted just by the presence of His creation; along these lines he adored Him.
Views
As per his convictions, everything, great or malevolence, happens to an individual just through the will of God, and each sort of confidence in the amiable or insidiousness impact of the stars is a disparagement of the truth, unicity, and might of God. This outright confidence in the unicity and might of God is exasperates in the Šāh-nāma by a submission to the inevitable that is perhaps the consequence of Zurvanite impacts from the Sasanian period, and this, here and there, has delivered a self-opposing impact.
Personality
The awful existence of Firdausi underscores his melodious splendor and grand accomplishment as creator of the Shahnama. The Shahnama is a mathnavi - a rhyming couplet in roughly 60,000 distichs (verses having two lines). The informal Persian of the Shahnama minimizes non-Persian subjects and individuals as well as non-Persian, particularly Arabic, words. All through the whole Šāh-nāma, a parity is wonderfully kept up amongst words and importance, from one perspective, and energy and thought, on the other. Ferdowsī's beautiful virtuoso in making an elevated, dynamic epic dialect that is brief yet to the point and free from intricacy extraordinarily adds to the quality of his style.
The Shahnama lauds the significance of authority as the most grand status which saints may strive for. Firdausi has been known as the Homer of Persia. Conceived in the town of Bazh close Tus in Khurasan, he had a place with the landed nobility. It is clear from his own particular verse that he got a sound instruction and was knowledgeable in the legends and customary history of pre-Islamic Iran. As a young, he was a rich person which empowered him to give thirty years of his life to creating the Shahnama without the backing of a regal court.
The scholarly nature of the Šāh-nāma demonstrates that we don't bargain essentially with an incredible writer however with somebody who judges a number of the changes of existence with intelligence and comprehension, and this would not have been conceivable on the off chance that he had not been in control of information of the sciences of his time. Ferdowsi is one of the undisputed mammoths of Persian writing. After Ferdowsi's Shahnama various different works comparative in nature surfaced throughout the hundreds of years inside the social circle of the Persian dialect. No matter what, every single such work were situated in style and strategy on Ferdowsi's Shahnama, however none of them could very accomplish the same level of notoriety and prevalence as Ferdowsi's magnum opus.
Quotes from others about the person
“But all this world is like a tale we hear - Men's evil, and their glory, disappear.” ― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings
Interests
writing
Connections
Little is found and discussed about his initial life. It is trusted that Ferdowsi originated from a blue-blooded family, had a spouse from the same social class and a child, whose passing at 37 years old is grieved in his showstopper, Shahnameh. Before Shahnameh,it was thought that it is conceivable that Ferdowsi composed different sonnets, none of which are accessible today.