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73-500: The word barsom derives from the Avestan language baresman (trisyllabic, bar'əs'man ), which is in turn a substantive of barez "to grow high." The later form – barsom – first appears in the 9th–12th-century texts of Zoroastrian tradition, and remains in use to the present day. The baresman is not related to the baresnum , which is a purification ceremony. The baresman should also not be confused with

146-497: A Persian tradition. Some of the biographies of Ferdowsi are now considered apocryphal, nevertheless this shows the important impact he had in the Persian world. Among the famous biographies are: Famous poets of Persia and the Persian tradition have praised and eulogized Ferdowsi. Many of them were heavily influenced by his writing and used his genre and stories to develop their own Persian epics, stories and poems: The candle of

219-831: A number of reasons for this shift, based on both the Old Avestan and the Young Avestan material. As regards Old Avestan, the Gathas show strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the Rigveda , which in turn is assumed to represent the second half of the second millennium BC. As regards Young Avestan, texts like the Yashts and the Vendidad are situated in the eastern parts of Greater Iran and lack any discernible Persian or Median influence from Western Iran. This

292-523: A reference to the Muslim invaders who despoiled Zoroastrianism. After the Shahnameh , a number of other works similar in nature surfaced over the centuries within the cultural sphere of the Persian language. Without exception, all such works were based in style and method on the Shahnameh , but none of them could quite achieve the same degree of fame and popularity. Some experts believe the main reason

365-458: Is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.  977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran . Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couplets (two-line verses), the Shahnameh is one of the world's longest epic poems, and the longest epic poem created by a single author. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of

438-479: Is a round figure; most of the relatively reliable manuscripts have preserved a little over fifty thousand distichs. Nizami Aruzi reports that the final edition of the Shahnameh sent to the court of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni was prepared in seven volumes. The Shirvanshah dynasty adopted many of their names from the Shahnameh . The relationship between Shirvanshah and his son, Manuchihr, is mentioned in chapter eight of Nizami's Layla and Majnun . Nizami advises

511-462: Is attested in roughly two forms, known as "Old Avestan" (or "Gathic Avestan") and "Younger Avestan". Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan; the two differ not only in time, but they are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, underwent several transformations. Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in

584-559: Is briefly mentioned with his son Nariman , whose own son Sam acted as the leading paladin of Manuchehr while reigning in Sistan in his own right. His successors were his son Zal and Zal's son Rostam , the bravest of the brave, and then Faramarz. Among the stories described in this section are the romance of Zal and Rudaba , the Seven Stages (or Labors) of Rostam , Rostam and Sohrab , Siyavash and Sudaba , Rostam and Akvan Div,

657-566: Is classified as Eastern Old Iranian. But the east–west distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the linguistic developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical (South-)Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, and so in this sense, "eastern" only means "non-western". Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and largely agrees morphologically with Vedic Sanskrit . The Avestan language

730-643: Is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta . It is not known what the original speakers of Avestan called the language. The modern term "Avestan" comes from the Avesta , a collection of Zoroastrian religious literature composed in the language, the name of which comes from Persian اوستا , avestâ and is of obscure origin, though it might come from or be cognate with the Avestan term 𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬁𐬬𐬀𐬐𐬀 , upastāvaka , 'praise'. The language

803-489: Is interpreted such that the bulk of this material, which has been produced several centuries after Zarathustra, must still predate the sixth century BC. As a result, more recent scholarship often assumes that the major parts of the Young Avestan texts mainly reflect the first half of the first millennia BC, whereas the Old Avestan texts of Zarathustra may have been composed around 1000 BC or even as early as 1500 BC. The script used for writing Avestan developed during

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876-643: Is named the Barsom Yasht . As a part of the liturgy, it is not however part of the Yasht collection. In the Avesta categorization of Kellens, Yasna 2 – the Barsom Yasht – complements the other 7 of the first 8 Yasna chapters, the purpose of the 8-chapter set being an invitation of the divinities to the ceremony. After Yasna 1's initial invitation of Ahura Mazda , the Amesha Spentas and

949-459: Is regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of the ethno-national cultural identity of Iran. Ferdowsi started writing the Shahnameh in 977 and completed it on 8 March 1010. The Shahnameh is a monument of poetry and historiography , being mainly the poetical recast of what Ferdowsi, his contemporaries, and his predecessors regarded as the account of Iran 's ancient history. Many such accounts already existed in prose, an example being

1022-474: Is the work's turning point between mythic and historical rulers of Persia. It also represents a turning point of Persian-language representations of Alexander, from negative in pre-Islamic Zoroastrian writings to positive. After the Shahnameh introduced the Alexander Romance tradition into Persian, the genre would become popular and numerous Alexander legends would be composed in the language, with

1095-474: Is thought to be highly accurate. The text is written in the late Middle Persian, which was the immediate ancestor of Modern Persian . A great portion of the historical chronicles given in Shahnameh is based on this epic and there are in fact various phrases and words which can be matched between Ferdowsi's poem and this source, according to Zabihollah Safa . Traditional historiography in Iran holds that Ferdowsi

1168-575: The c.  12th century texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in the Gujarati script ( Gujarati being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example,

1241-589: The Shahnameh of Abu-Mansur . A small portion of Ferdowsi's work, in passages scattered throughout the Shahnameh , is entirely of his own conception. The Shahnameh is an epic poem of over 50,000 couplets written in Early New Persian . It is based mainly on a prose work of the same name compiled in Ferdowsi's earlier life in his native Tus . This prose Shahnameh was in turn and for the most part

1314-470: The /z/ in zaraθuštra is written with j with a dot below. Avestan has retained voiced sibilants, and has fricative rather than aspirate series. There are various conventions for transliteration of the Avestan alphabet , the one adopted for this article being: Vowels: Consonants: The glides y and w are often transcribed as < ii > and < uu >. The letter transcribed < t̰ > indicates an allophone of /t/ with no audible release at

1387-499: The Modern Persian language today is more or less the same language as that of Ferdowsi's time over 1000 years ago is due to the very existence of works like the Shahnameh , which have had lasting and profound cultural and linguistic influence. In other words, the Shahnameh itself has become one of the main pillars of the modern Persian language. Studying Ferdowsi's masterpiece also became a requirement for achieving mastery of

1460-522: The Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. Iran , Azerbaijan , Afghanistan , Tajikistan and the greater region influenced by Persian culture such as Armenia , Dagestan , Georgia , Turkey , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan celebrate this national epic. The work is of central importance in Persian culture and Persian language . It

1533-474: The Persian literary tradition , particularly by the Shahnameh , which probably explains the fact that he named all of his sons after Shahnameh characters. Dickson and Welch suggest that Ismail's Shāhnāma-i Shāhī was intended as a present to the young Tahmasp . After defeating Muhammad Shaybani's Uzbeks , Ismail asked Hatefi , a famous poet from Jam (Khorasan) , to write a Shahnameh -like epic about his victories and his newly established dynasty. Although

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1606-717: The Qarakhanid dynasty in Central Asia calling itself the 'family of Afrasiyab' and so it is known in the Islamic history." Turks, as an ethno-linguistic group, have been influenced by the Shahnameh since advent of Seljuks . The Seljuk sultan Toghrul III is said to have recited the Shahnameh while swinging his mace in battle. According to Ibn Bibi , 1221 the Seljuk sultan of Rum Ala' al-Din Kay-kubad decorated

1679-455: The Sasanian period ". The Avestan language is only known from the Avesta and otherwise unattested. As a result, there is no external evidence on which to base the time frame during which the Avestan language was spoken and all attempts have to rely on internal evidence. Such attempts were often based on the life of Zarathustra as the most distinct event in the Avestan period . Zarathustra

1752-631: The Shahnameh are devoted to the age of heroes, extending from Manuchehr's reign until the conquest of Alexander the Great . This age is also identified as the kingdom of the Kayanians , which established a long history of heroic age in which myth and legend are combined. The main feature of this period is the major role played by the Saka or Sistani heroes who appear as the backbone of the Empire. Garshasp

1825-515: The Shahnameh shows characteristics of both written and oral literature. Some claim that Ferdowsi also used Zoroastrian nasks , such as the now-lost Chihrdad , as sources as well. Many other Pahlavi sources were used in composing the epic, prominent being the Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan , which was originally written during the late Sassanid era and gave accounts of how Ardashir I came to power which, because of its historical proximity,

1898-513: The Shahnameh teaches a wide variety of moral virtues, like worship of one God; religious uprightness; patriotism; love of wife, family and children; and helping the poor. There are themes in the Shahnameh that were viewed with suspicion by the succession of Iranian regimes. During the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah , the epic was largely ignored in favor of the more abstruse, esoteric and dryly intellectual Persian literature. Historians note that

1971-489: The tamarisk ( R. 329). The twigs of the pomegranate tree also figure in other late sources. Strabo (XV.3.14) speaks of "a bundle of slender myrtle rods." Both scripture and tradition are precise with respect to the dimensions of the twigs required. Yasna 57.5 mandates that each twig shall not exceed "the height of the knee," and Vendidad 19.19 (supported by the Nirangistan ) requires each rod to be at most

2044-459: The Šāh-nāma are quite popular, and the stories of Rostam and Sohrāb , or Bījan and Maniža became part of Georgian folklore. Farmanfarmaian in the Journal of Persianate Studies : Distinguished scholars of Persian such as Gvakharia and Todua are well aware that the inspiration derived from the Persian classics of the ninth to the twelfth centuries produced a 'cultural synthesis' which saw, in

2117-477: The Šāh-nāma that is no longer extant. ... The Šāh-nāma was translated, not only to satisfy the literary and aesthetic needs of readers and listeners, but also to inspire the young with the spirit of heroism and Georgian patriotism. Georgian ideology, customs, and worldview often informed these translations because they were oriented toward Georgian poetic culture. Conversely, Georgians consider these translations works of their native literature. Georgian versions of

2190-442: The "mace", the varza (Avestan, MP gurz ). The varza is a metal rod, about one centimeter in thickness, often crowned with a bull's head. It has been suggested that the baresman may have a Zagrosian origin. In present-day use, the barsom is a bundle of short metal wires or rods, each about 20 cm in length and made of brass or silver. The use of metal wires or rods is a relatively recent development: Until at least

2263-503: The 16th century, the barsom was made of twigs or stems, and there was an elaborate ritual surrounding their collection. There is no indication in scripture or older tradition as to which plant was to be used, and Yasna 25.3 eulogizes the plant without being specific. One indication of which plant was used comes from the 16th century, where the authors of the Rivayat epistles reprimand their Indian co-religionists for not using twigs of

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2336-414: The 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for many centuries, and remained in use only as a liturgical language of the Avesta canon. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood and recited by rote. The script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh "religion writing". It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left. Among

2409-508: The 53 characters are about 30 letters that are – through the addition of various loops and flourishes – variations of the 13 graphemes of the cursive Pahlavi script (i.e. "Book" Pahlavi) that is known from the post-Sassanian texts of Zoroastrian tradition. These symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably

2482-512: The Creator for His boundless gifts." The barsom is also held by a priest during the abbreviated Yasna recitation before meals. An episode of the Shahnameh recalls that when Yazdegerd III (the last Sassanid emperor, but like his forefathers, also a priest) was in hiding, his request for a barsom gave him away to the enemy. In Zoroastrian tradition, the second chapter of the Yasna liturgy

2555-478: The Persian language by subsequent Persian poets, as evidenced by numerous references to the Shahnameh in their works. Although 19th-century British Iranologist E. G. Browne has claimed that Ferdowsi purposefully avoided Arabic vocabulary, this claim has been challenged by modern scholarship, specifically Mohammed Moinfar, who has noted that there are numerous examples of Arabic words in the Shahnameh which are effectively synonyms for Persian words previously used in

2628-566: The Shahname inscribed on the walls of Konya and Sivas . When we take into consideration domestic life in the Konya courts and the sincerity of the favor and attachment of the rulers to Persian poets and Persian literature, then this fact [i.e., the importance of Persian influence] is undeniable. Shah Ismail I (d.1524), the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, was also deeply influenced by

2701-577: The areas of Central Asia beyond the Oxus up to the 7th century (where the story of the Shahnameh ends), was generally an Iranian-speaking land. According to Richard Frye , "The extent of influence of the Iranian epic is shown by the Turks who accepted it as their own ancient history as well as that of Iran ... The Turks were so much influenced by this cycle of stories that in the eleventh century AD we find

2774-643: The creation of the world and of man as believed by the Sasanians . This introduction is followed by the story of the first man, Keyumars , who also became the first king after a period of mountain-dwelling. His grandson Hushang , son of Siamak , accidentally discovered fire and established the Sadeh Feast in its honor. Stories of Tahmuras , Jamshid , Zahhak , Kawa or Kaveh , Fereydun and his three sons Salm , Tur , and Iraj , and his grandson Manuchehr are related in this section. Almost two-thirds of

2847-579: The earliest stages of written secular literature in Georgia, the resumption of literary contacts with Iran, "much stronger than before" (Gvakharia, 2001, p. 481). Ferdowsi's Shahnama was a never-ending source of inspiration, not only for high literature, but for folklore as well. "Almost every page of Georgian literary works and chronicles [...] contains names of Iranian heroes borrowed from the Shahnama " (ibid). Ferdowsi, together with Nezāmi , may have left

2920-537: The end of a word and before certain obstruents . According to Beekes, [ð] and [ɣ] are allophones of /θ/ and /x/ respectively (in Old Avestan). The following phrases were phonetically transcribed from Avestan: Shahnameh The Shahnameh ( Persian : شاهنامه , romanized :  Šāhnāme , lit.   'The Book of Kings', modern Iranian Persian pronunciation [ʃɒːh.nɒː.ˈme] ), also transliterated Shahnama ,

2993-465: The end of this great history And all the land will talk of me: I shall not die, these seeds I've sown will save My name and reputation from the grave, And men of sense and wisdom will proclaim When I have gone, my praises and my fame. Another translation of by Reza Jamshidi Safa: Much I have suffered in these thirty years, I have revived the Ajam with my verse. I will not die then alive in

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3066-461: The epic was left unfinished, it was an example of mathnawis in the heroic style of the Shahnameh written later on for the Safavid kings. The Shahnameh 's influence has extended beyond the Persian sphere. Professor Victoria Arakelova of Yerevan University states: During the ten centuries passed after Firdausi composed his monumental work, heroic legends and stories of Shahnameh have remained

3139-513: The extant texts. In roughly chronological order: Many phonetic features cannot be ascribed with certainty to a particular stage since there may be more than one possibility. Every phonetic form that can be ascribed to the Sasanian archetype on the basis of critical assessment of the manuscript evidence must have gone through the stages mentioned above so that "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan" really mean no more than "Old Avestan and Young Avestan of

3212-457: The four main bodies of world literature. Goethe was inspired by Persian literature, which moved him to write his West-Eastern Divan . Goethe wrote: When we turn our attention to a peaceful, civilized people, the Persians, we must—since it was actually their poetry that inspired this work—go back to the earliest period to be able to understand more recent times. It will always seem strange to

3285-415: The gift of the produce of the earth, which supplies the means of existence to the human and the animal world. The object of selecting the barsom from the twigs of a tree is to take it as a representative of the whole vegetable kingdom, for which benedictions and thanks to the Creator are offered, and there is further proof to show that the performance of the barsom ritual is intended to express gratitude to

3358-504: The historians that no matter how many times a country has been conquered, subjugated and even destroyed by enemies, there is always a certain national core preserved in its character, and before you know it, there re-emerges a long-familiar native phenomenon. In this sense, it would be pleasant to learn about the most ancient Persians and quickly follow them up to the present day at an all the more free and steady pace. Sargozasht-Nameh or biography of important poets and writers has long been

3431-794: The king's son to read the Shahnameh and to remember the meaningful sayings of the wise. According to the Turkish historian Mehmet Fuat Köprülü : Indeed, despite all claims to the contrary, there is no question that Persian influence was paramount among the Seljuks of Anatolia . This is clearly revealed by the fact that the sultans who ascended the throne after Ghiyath al-Din Kai-Khusraw I assumed titles taken from ancient Persian mythology , like Kai Khosrow , Kay Kāvus , and Kai Kobad ; and that Ala' al-Din Kai-Qubad I had some passages from

3504-565: The length of an aesha and the thickness of the width of a yava . Darmesteter translates aesha as "ploughshare" and yava as barley-corn. A twig/rod was thus at most about 7 mm thick. The Nirangstan further adds that the thickness may not be less than that of a human hair. The barsom that appears in Achaemenid and Sassanid art "was of impressive size, about 45 cm ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  ft) long, made up apparently of stiff straight rods." The number of twigs/rods depends on

3577-462: The main source of the storytelling for the peoples of this region: Persians, Kurds, Gurans, Talishis, Armenians, Georgians, North Caucasian peoples, etc. Jamshid Giunashvili remarks on the connection of Georgian culture with that of Shahnameh : The names of many Šāh-nāma heroes, such as Rostom-i , Thehmine, Sam-i , or Zaal-i , are found in 11th- and 12th-century Georgian literature. They are indirect evidence for an Old Georgian translation of

3650-535: The most enduring imprint on Georgian literature (...) Despite a belief held by some, the Turanian of Shahnameh (whose sources are based on Avesta and Pahlavi texts) have no relationship with Turks . The Turanians of the Shahnameh are an Iranian people representing Iranian nomads of the Eurasian Steppes and have no relationship to the culture of the Turks. Turan, which is the Persian name for

3723-745: The most significant works owing much to the Shahnameh . These include the anonymous Iskandarnameh , the Iskandarnameh of Nizami , the Ayina-i Iskandari of Amir Khusrau , and others. Illustrated copies of the work are among the most sumptuous examples of Persian miniature painting . Several copies remain intact, although two of the most famous, the Houghton Shahnameh and the Great Mongol Shahnameh , were broken up for sheets to be sold separately in

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3796-441: The oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language . The Avestan text corpus was composed in the ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia , Aria , Bactria , and Margiana , corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . The Yaz culture of Bactria–Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early " Eastern Iranian " culture that

3869-421: The preservation of the pre-Islamic legacy of myth and history, a number of authors have formally challenged this view. This portion of the Shahnameh is relatively short, amounting to some 2100 verses or four percent of the entire book, and it narrates events with the simplicity, predictability, and swiftness of a historical work. After an opening in praise of God and Wisdom, the Shahnameh gives an account of

3942-400: The remaining yazata s , the baresman and libation are presented to them in Yasna 2. Avestan language Avestan ( / ə ˈ v ɛ s t ən / ə- VESS -tən ) is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages , Old Avestan (spoken in the mid-2nd to 1st millennium BC) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BC). They are known only from their conjoined use as

4015-734: The ritual being performed, and the Shayast-na Shayast (14.2) unambiguously states that this number must be adhered to. A recitation of the Yasna liturgy is accompanied by a bundle of 21 twigs, with two others being placed by the side of another ritual implement. The Vendidad requires 33 twigs in the bundle with two other placed as for the Yasna . A recitation of the Visperad requires 35 twigs, with none left over. The number similarly varies for other rituals, all of these however only requiring between 3 and 15 twigs. In present-day use,

4088-471: The ritual. In the case of the barsom , it is Ameretat "immortality." The crescent-shaped brace of the barsom stand is likewise identified with vegetation: mah , the moon, is in Zoroastrian scripture and tradition the cosmogonical protector of plants and encourages their growth. "The object of holding the barsom and repeating prayers is to praise the Creator for the support accorded by nature and for

4161-419: The rods almost always remain unbound. The one exception comes near the end of the baj ceremony for the dead, when they are bound with a strip of date palm leaf. In ritual, the barsom bundle is either held in the left hand, or placed across a pair of metallic stands about 20 cm in height, with one stand at each end of the bundle. These stands have a crescent-shaped brace at the top, so (also) preventing

4234-421: The rods from rolling off. The crescent shape gives them their name, mah-rui , literally "moon-faced." Dadestan-i Denig 48.17 states the stands must be of metal. A barsom has no immediate practical purpose. At Zoroastrian ritual it represents plant creation, accompanying the other symbolic tokens that represent other facets of creation, and each of which then also represent the presence of an Amesha Spenta at

4307-708: The romance of Bijan and Manijeh , the wars with Afrasiab , Daqiqi 's account of the story of Goshtasp and Arjasp, and Rostam and Esfandyar . A brief mention of the Arsacid dynasty follows the history of Alexander and precedes that of Ardashir I , founder of the Sasanian Empire. After this, Sasanian history is related with a good deal of accuracy. The fall of the Sassanids and the Arab conquest of Persia are narrated romantically. According to Jalal Khaleghi Mutlaq,

4380-690: The scriptural language of Zoroastrianism . Both are early Eastern Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian language branch of the Indo-European language family . Its immediate ancestor was the Proto-Iranian language , a sister language to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language , with both having developed from the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian language ; as such, Old Avestan is quite close in both grammar and lexicon to Vedic Sanskrit ,

4453-596: The story to the overthrow of the Sasanians by the Muslim armies in the middle of the seventh century. The first to undertake the versification of the Pahlavi chronicle was Daqiqi , a contemporary of Ferdowsi, poet at the court of the Samanid Empire , who came to a violent end after completing only 1,000 verses. These verses, which deal with the rise of the prophet Zoroaster , were afterward incorporated by Ferdowsi, with acknowledgment, in his own poem. The style of

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4526-506: The text. This calls into question the idea of Ferdowsi's deliberate eschewing of Arabic words. The Shahnameh has 62 stories, 990 chapters, and some 50,000 rhyming couplets, making it more than three times the length of Homer's Iliad and more than twelve times the length of the German Nibelungenlied . According to Ferdowsi himself, the final edition of the Shahnameh contained some sixty thousand distichs. But this

4599-462: The theme of regicide and the incompetence of kings embedded in the epic did not sit well with the Iranian monarchy. Later, there were Muslim figures such as Ali Shariati , the hero of Islamic reformist youth of the 1970s, who were also antagonistic towards the contents of the Shahnameh since it included verses critical of Islam. These include the line: tofu bar to, ey charkh-i gardun, tofu! (spit on your face, oh heavens spit!), which Ferdowsi used as

4672-535: The translation of a Pahlavi ( Middle Persian ) work, known as the Khwadāy-Nāmag "Book of Kings", a late Sasanian compilation of the history of the kings and heroes of Persia from mythical times down to the reign of Khosrow II (590–628). The Khwadāy-Nāmag contained historical information on the later Sasanian period, but it does not appear to have drawn on any historical sources for the earlier Sasanian period (3rd to 4th centuries). Ferdowsi added material continuing

4745-432: The vowels, which are mostly derived from Greek minuscules. A few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language; the character for /l/ (a sound that Avestan does not have) was added to write Pazend texts. The Avestan script is alphabetic , and the large number of letters suggests that its design

4818-508: The walls of Konya and Sivas with verses from the Shahnameh . The Turks themselves connected their origin not with Turkish tribal history but with the Turanians of Shahnameh . Specifically in India, through the Shahnameh , they felt themselves to be the last outpost tied to the civilized world by the thread of Iranianism . Ferdowsi concludes the Shahnameh by writing: I've reached

4891-595: The wise in this darkness of sorrow, The pure words of Ferdowsi of the Tusi are such, His pure sense is an angelic birth, Angelic born is anyone who's like Ferdowsi. How sweetly has conveyed the pure-natured Ferdowsi, May blessing be upon his pure resting place, Do not harass the ant that's dragging a seed, because it has life and sweet life is dear. Many other poets, e.g., Hafez , Rumi and other mystical poets, have used imagery of Shahnameh heroes in their poetry. The Shahnameh 's impact on Persian historiography

4964-500: The world, For I have spread the seed of the word. Whoever has sense, path and faith, After my death will send me praise. Many Persian literary figures, historians and biographers have praised Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh . The Shahnameh is considered by many to be the most important piece of work in Persian literature . Western writers have also praised the Shahnameh and Persian literature in general. Persian literature has been considered by such thinkers as Goethe as one of

5037-462: Was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was (and still is) considered necessary for the prayers to be effective. The Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi -based scripts. This is a relatively recent development first seen in

5110-465: Was grieved by the fall of the Sasanian Empire and its subsequent rule by Arabs and Turks. The Shahnameh , the argument goes, is largely his effort to preserve the memory of Persia's golden days and transmit it to a new generation, so that, by learning from it, they could acquire the knowledge needed to build a better world. Although most scholars have contended that Ferdowsi's main concern was

5183-486: Was immediate, and some historians decorated their books with the verses of Shahnameh. Below is sample of ten important historians who have praised the Shahnameh and Ferdowsi: The Shahnameh contains the first Persian legend of Alexander the Great in the tradition of the Alexander Romance . Three sections of the Shahnameh are dedicated to Alexander, running over 2,500 verses in total, and Alexander's life

5256-803: Was sometimes called Zend in older works, stemming from a misunderstanding of the Zend (commentaries and interpretations of Zoroastrian scripture) as synonymous with the Avesta itself, due to both often being bundled together as "Zend-Avesta". Avestan and Old Persian are the two attested languages comprising Old Iranian , and while Avestan was localized in the northeastern parts of Greater Iran according to Paul Maximilian Tedesco  [ de ] (1921), other scholars have favored regarding Avestan as originating in eastern parts. Scholars traditionally classify Iranian languages as "old", "middle" and "new" according to their age, and as "eastern" or "western" according to geography, and within this framework Avestan

5329-556: Was traditionally based in the 6th century BC meaning that Old Avestan would have been spoken during the early Achaemenid period . Given that a substantial time must have passed between Old Avestan and Young Avestan, the latter would have been spoken somewhere during the Hellenistic or the Parthian period of Iranian history. However, more recent scholarship has increasingly shifted to an earlier dating. The literature presents

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