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39-464: The name Drafš-e Kāvīān means "the standard of the kay(s)" (i.e., "kings", kias , kavis ) or "of Kāva ." The latter meaning is an identification with an Iranian legend in which the Derafš-e Kāvīān was the standard of a mythological Iranian blacksmith-turned-hero named Kaveh ( Persian : کاوه ), who led a popular uprising against the foreign demon-like ruler Zahhak (Persian: ضحاک ). Recalling

78-476: A dehqan and governor of Tus, had ordered his minister Abu Mansur Mamari to invite several local scholars to compile a prose Shahnameh ("Book of Kings"), which was completed in 1010. Although it no longer survives, Ferdowsi used it as one of the sources of his epic. Samanid rulers were patrons of such important Persian poets as Rudaki and Daqiqi , and Ferdowsi followed in the footsteps of these writers. Details about Ferdowsi's education are lacking. While it

117-581: A blue sky under a smaller representation of the crown and seven stars. State media also refer to the standard as the "first and original Tajik national flag". Kaveh the Blacksmith Kaveh the Blacksmith ( Persian : کاوه آهنگر , romanized :  Kāveh Āhangar , IPA: [kʰɒːˈve ʔɒːɦæŋˈɡæɹ] ) is a figure in Iranian mythology who leads an uprising against

156-672: A continuation of the work of his fellow poet Daqiqi, who had been assassinated by his slave. Like Daqiqi, Ferdowsi employed the prose Shahnameh of Abd-al-Razzaq as a source. He received generous patronage from the Samanid prince Mansur and completed the first version of the Shahnameh in 994. When the Turkic Ghaznavids overthrew the Samanids in the late 990s, Ferdowsi continued to work on the poem, rewriting sections to praise

195-523: A crucial component in the persistence of the Persian language, as those works allowed much of the tongue to remain codified and intact. In this respect, Ferdowsi surpasses Nizami , Khayyam , Asadi Tusi and other seminal Persian literary figures in his impact on Persian culture and language. Many modern Iranians see him as the father of the modern Persian language. Ferdowsi in fact was a motivation behind many future Persian figures. One such notable figure

234-549: A revered site. The tomb , which had fallen into decay, was rebuilt between 1928 and 1934 by the Society for the National Heritage of Iran on the orders of Reza Shah , and has now become the equivalent of a national shrine. According to legend, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni offered Ferdowsi a gold piece for every couplet of the Shahnameh he wrote. The poet agreed to receive the money as a lump sum when he had completed

273-482: A ruthless foreign ruler, Zahāk . His story is narrated in the Shahnameh , the national epic of Iran ( Persia ), by the 10th-century Persian poet Ferdowsi . According to ancient legends, Kāveh was a blacksmith who launched a national uprising against the evil foreign tyrant Zahāk, after losing two of his children to serpents of Zahāk. Kāveh expelled the foreigners and re-established the rule of Iranians. Kāveh and

312-600: A son, who died at the age of 37, and was mourned by the poet in an elegy which he inserted into the Shahnameh . The Islamic conquests of the 7th century brought gradual linguistic and cultural changes to the Iranian Plateau. By the late 9th century, as the power of the caliphate had weakened, several local dynasties emerged in Greater Iran. Ferdowsi grew up in Tus, a city under the control of one of these dynasties,

351-429: A well-wisher who had paid Ferdowsi a thousand dirhams for the poem. Introductions to some manuscripts of the Shahnameh include verses purporting to be the satire . Some scholars have viewed them as fabricated; others are more inclined to believe in their authenticity. Ferdowsi is one of the undisputed giants of Persian literature . After Ferdowsi's Shahnameh , a number of other works similar in nature surfaced over

390-632: Is a lotus flower , which refers to the royal stars of Persia, and its history goes back to ancient Iranian beliefs from the Achaemenid Empire period. By the late Sasanian era (224–651), a real Drafš e Kāvīān had emerged as the standard of the Sasanian dynasties. It was representative of the Sasanian state— Ērānšāhr (or "Iranian Empire"). Eran Shahr means Aryan Empire in Middle Persian —and may so be considered to have been

429-643: Is also believed that these people, like Kawe the Blacksmith ;who took refuge in the mountains over the course of history, later they were called by the profession of their ancestor and created a Kurdish ethnicity. Kaveh is a geographical and symbolic figure in Kurdish nationalism. In common with other mythologies, Kurdish mythology sometimes is also used for political aims. Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi , Persian : ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی ; 940 – 1019/1025)

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468-515: Is given in Persian sources as حکیم ابوالقاسم فردوسی توسی / Ḥakīm Abo'l-Qâsem Ferdowsī Țusī . Due to the non-standardised transliteration from Persian into English, different spellings of his name are used in English works, including Firdawsi , Firdusi , Firdosi , Firdausi , etc. The Encyclopaedia of Islam uses the spelling Firdawsī , based on the standardised transliteration method of

507-484: Is known with any certainty about his full name. According to Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, the information given by the 13th-century author Bundari about Ferdowsi's name should be taken as the most reliable. Bundari calls the poet al-Amir al-Hakim Abu'l-Qasem Mansur ibn al-Hasan al-Ferdowsi al-Tusi. From an early period on, he has been referred to by different additional names and titles, the most common one being حکیم / Ḥakīm ("philosopher"). Based on this, his full name

546-430: Is likely that he learned Arabic in school, there is no evidence in the Shahnameh that he knew either Arabic or Pahlavi. Ferdowsi was a Shiite Muslim, although varying views exist on what Shiite sect he belonged to. Khaleghi-Motlagh, following Theodor Nöldeke , notes that Ferdowsi displays a contradictory attitude towards religion in the Shahnameh : on the one hand, he shows a "lenient" attitude towards religion, but on

585-538: Is sometimes invoked for political aims. As a symbol of resistance, he raised his leather apron on a spear. This flag, known as Derafsh Kaviani , was later decorated with precious jewels and became the symbol of Persian sovereignty for hundreds of years, until captured and destroyed by the Arabs, following the defeat of the Sassanids at the 636 Battle of al-Qadisiyyah . Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar , who rebelled against

624-539: 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. A narrative poem, Yūsof o Zolaykā (Joseph and Zuleika), was once attributed to him, but scholarly consensus now rejects the idea it is his. There has also been speculation about the satire Ferdowsi allegedly wrote about Mahmud of Ghazni after the sultan failed to reward him sufficiently. Nezami Aruzi , Ferdowsi's early biographer, claimed that all but six lines had been destroyed by

663-601: The Abbasid Caliphate , claimed the inheritance of the kings of Persia and sought "to revive their glory," in 867 he sent a poem written by himself to the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tazz , stating: "With me is the Derafsh Kaviani , through which I hope to rule the nations." In later times, Kāveh the Blacksmith was invoked by Iranian nationalists starting from the generation of Mirza Fatali Akhundov . His name

702-558: The German Oriental Society . The Encyclopædia Iranica , which uses a modified version of the same method (with a stronger emphasis on modern Persian intonations), gives the spelling Ferdowsī . The modern Tajik transliteration of his name in Tajik Cyrillic is Ҳаким Абулқосим Фирдавсӣ Тӯсӣ ( Hakim Abdulqosim Firdavsí Tŭsí ). Ferdowsi was born into a family of Iranian landowners ( dehqans ) in 940 in

741-552: The Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud . Mahmud's attitude to Ferdowsi and how well he rewarded the poet are matters which have long been subject to dispute and have formed the basis of legends about the poet and his patron (see below). The Turkic Mahmud may have been less interested in tales from Iranian history than the Samanids. The later sections of the Shahnameh have passages which reveal Ferdowsi's fluctuating moods: in some he complains about old age, poverty, illness and

780-458: The Islamic era which followed the Islamic conquests of the 7th   century. The dehqans were attached to the pre-Islamic literary heritage, as their status was associated with it (so much so that dehqan is sometimes used as a synonym for "Iranian" in the Shahnameh ). Thus they saw it as their task to preserve the pre-Islamic cultural traditions, including tales of legendary kings. He had

819-641: The Samanids, who claimed descent from the Sassanid general Bahram Chobin (whose story Ferdowsi recounts in one of the later sections of the Shahnameh ). The Samanid bureaucracy used the New Persian language, which had been used to bring Islam to the Eastern regions of the Iranian world and supplanted local languages, and commissioned translations of Pahlavi texts into New Persian. Abu Mansur Muhammad ,

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858-626: The Sasanians at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah , the Sasanian standard was recovered by one Zerar bin Kattab, who received 30,000 dinars for it. After the jewels were removed, Caliph Umar is said to have burned the standard. Other reports about its fate also appear in Islamic annals. As the symbol of the Sasanian state, the Drafsh e Kavian was irrevocably tied to the concept of Eranshahr and hence with

897-458: The ancestors of the Kurds fled to the mountains to escape the oppression of an Assyrian king named Zahhak, who is later killed and overthrown at the hands of Kawe. Hewa S. Khalid the Kurdish scholar from Indiana University claimed that Kurd means blacksmith in the old Iranian languages, and he supported his claim by taking the word from Ossetian language , which there Kurd means blacksmith. It

936-513: The ascendance of the Lion and Sun symbol (after 1846). The standard of the president of Tajikistan was introduced in 2006, on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony for the third term of Emomali Rahmon as head of state. It uses the same tricolour, charged with a depiction of the Derafsh Kāviān , the Sasanian royal standard; inside the Derafsh Kāviān is a depiction of a winged lion against

975-441: The centuries within the cultural sphere of the Persian language . Without exception, all such works were based in style and method on Ferdowsi's Shahnameh , but none of them could quite achieve the same degree of fame and popularity as Ferdowsi's masterpiece. Ferdowsi has a unique place in Persian history because of the strides he made in reviving and regenerating the Persian language and cultural traditions. His works are cited as

1014-548: The concept of Iranian nationhood . Thus, in 867, when Ya'qub-i Laith of the Saffarid dynasty claimed the inheritance of the kings of Persia and sought "to revive their glory", a poem written on his behalf sent to the Abbasid caliph said: "With me is the Drafsh e Kavian , through which I hope to rule the nations." Although no evidence that Ya'qub-i Laith ever recreated such a flag, star imagery in banners remained popular until

1053-417: The death of his son; in others, he appears happier. Ferdowsi finally completed his epic on 8 March 1010. Virtually nothing is known with any certainty about the last decade of his life. Ferdowsi was buried in his own garden, burial in the cemetery of Tus having been forbidden by a local cleric who considered him a heretic. A Ghaznavid governor of Khorasan constructed a mausoleum over the grave and it became

1092-421: The epic. He planned to use it to rebuild the dykes in his native Tus. After thirty years of work, Ferdowsi finished his masterpiece. The sultan prepared to give him 60,000 gold pieces, one for every couplet, as agreed. However, the courtier whom Mahmud had entrusted with the money despised Ferdowsi, regarding him as a heretic, and he replaced the gold coins with silver. Ferdowsi was in the bath house when he received

1131-411: The first "national flag" of Iran . The banner consisted of a Lotus on a purple field, was encrusted with jewels and had trailing red, gold and purple streamers on its edges. The term achtar was significant since the star also represented "fortune", and the capture and destruction of the banner on a field of battle implied the loss of the battle (and hence the loss of fortune). Following the defeat of

1170-492: The legend, the 10th-century epic Shahnameh recasts Zahhak as an evil and tyrannical ruler, against whom Kaveh called the people to arms, using his leather blacksmith apron as a standard, with a spear as its hoist. In the story, after the war that called for the kingship of Fereydun (Persian: فریدون ) had been won, the people decorated the apron with jewels and the flag became the symbol of Iranian nationalism and resistance against foreign tyranny. The symbol of Derafsh Kaviani

1209-400: The other hand, he believed that his sect was the "only true Islamic one." Khaleghi-Motlagh concurs with Nöldeke that Ferdowsi was "above all a deist and monotheist who at the same time kept faith with his forbears." Ferdowsi criticized philosophers and those who tried to prove the existence of God. He saw God's creation as the only evidence of His existence and believed everything in life to be

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1248-597: The people went to the Alborz Mountains in Damāvand , where Fereydun , son of Ābtin and Faranak was living. Then a young man, Fereydun agreed to lead the people against Zahāk. Zahāk had already left his capital, which fell to Fereydun's troops with little resistance. Fereydun released all of Zahāk's prisoners. Kāveh is a Persian mythological character known for his resistance against Zahāk in Iran. In modern times, Kāveh

1287-515: The product of God's will. Khaleghi-Motlagh and others have suggested that a certain fatalism in Ferdowsi's work contradicts his "absolute faith in the unicity and might of God," and that this may have been the legacy of the Zurvanism of the Sasanian period. It is possible that Ferdowsi wrote some early poems which have not survived. He began work on the Shahnameh around 977, intending it as

1326-411: The reward. Finding it was silver and not gold, he gave the money away to the bath-keeper, a refreshment seller, and the slave who had carried the coins. When the courtier told the sultan about Ferdowsi's behaviour, he was furious and threatened to execute him. Ferdowsi fled to Khorasan , having first written a satire on Mahmud, and spent most of the remainder of his life in exile. Mahmud eventually learned

1365-550: The truth about the courtier's deception and had him either banished or executed. By this time, the aged Ferdowsi had returned to Tus . The sultan sent him a new gift of 60,000 gold pieces, but just as the caravan bearing the money entered the gates of Tus, a funeral procession exited the gates on the opposite side: the poet had died from a heart attack. Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is the most popular and influential national epic in Iran and other Persian-speaking countries. The Shahnameh

1404-684: The village of Paj, near the city of Tus , in the Khorasan region of the Samanid Empire , which is located in the present-day Razavi Khorasan province of northeastern Iran . Little is known about Ferdowsi's early life. The poet had a wife, who was probably literate and came from the same dehqan class. The dehqans were landowning Iranian aristocrats who had flourished under the Sasanian dynasty (the last pre-Islamic dynasty to rule Iran) and whose power, though diminished, had survived into

1443-549: Was Reza Shah Pahlavi, who established an Academy of Persian Language and Literature , in order to attempt to remove Arabic and French words from the Persian language, replacing them with suitable Persian alternatives. In 1934, Reza Shah set up a ceremony in Mashhad , Khorasan , celebrating a thousand years of Persian literature since the time of Ferdowsi, titled " Ferdowsi Millennial Celebration ", inviting notable European as well as Iranian scholars. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

1482-513: Was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian-speaking countries . Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of Persian literature and one of the greatest in the history of literature . Except for his kunya ( ابوالقاسم – Abu'l-Qâsem , meaning 'father of Qasem') and his pen name ( فِردَوسی – Ferdowsī , meaning ' paradisic '), nothing

1521-724: Was used as the title of a nationalist newspaper in 1916, and in 1920, adorned the canton of the flag of the Persian Socialist Soviet Republic (known as the Soviet Republic of Gilan). Mehregan is the celebration for Fereydun's victory over Zahāk. The dynasty of Karen Pahlav (also known as the House of Karen ) claimed to be Kāveh's descendants. Called Kawe-y asinger ( Sorani Kurdish : کاوەی ئاسنگەر ) in Kurdish mythology , some Kurds believe that

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