Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings - The Poetry Shop

Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

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Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings - The Poetry Shop

Penguin Classics

Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

$30.00
Sale price  $30.00 Regular price 
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The definitive translation by Dick Davis of the great national epic of Iran--now newly revised and expanded to be the most complete English-language edition

A Penguin Classic

Dick Davis--"our pre-eminent translator from the Persian" (The Washington Post)--has revised and expanded his acclaimed translation of Ferdowsi's masterpiece, adding more than 100 pages of newly translated text. Davis's elegant combination of prose and verse allows the poetry of the Shahnameh to sing its own tales directly, interspersed sparingly with clearly marked explanations to ease along modern readers.

Originally composed for the Samanid princes of Khorasan in the tenth century, the Shahnameh is among the greatest works of world literature. This prodigious narrative tells the story of pre-Islamic Persia, from the mythical creation of the world and the dawn of Persian civilization through the seventh-century Arab conquest. The stories of the Shahnameh are deeply embedded in Persian culture and beyond, as attested by their appearance in such works as The Kite Runner and the love poems of Rumi and Hafez.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Book Details

Publisher:
Penguin Classics
ISBN:
9780143108320
Binding:
Paperback
Pages:
1040
Authors:
Abolqasem Ferdowsi
Published Date:
2016-03-08
Language:
English

About Abolqasem Ferdowsi

Abolqasem Ferdowsi (c. 940–1020) was a Persian poet born near Tus, in the Khorasan region of present-day Iran. Over roughly three decades he composed the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), an epic running to nearly 60,000 couplets that ranks among the longest poems by a single author in world literature. Ferdowsi wrote at a time when Arabic dominated literary culture, and he composed the work in Persian with minimal Arabic admixture. He was credited with preserving the Persian language, and the Shahnameh remained foundational to Persian cultural identity across Iran and Central Asia.

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