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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FAT-FLA |
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FIRDOUSY, FIRDAUSI or FIRDUSI, Persian poet. Abu 'I Kasim Mansur (or Hasan), who took the nom de plume of Firdousi, author of the epic poem the Shahnama, or " Book of Kings," a complete history of Persia in nearly 6o,000 verses, was born at Shadab, a suburb of Tits, about the year 329 of the Hegira (941 A.D.), or earlier. His father belonged to the class of Dihkans (the old native country families and landed proprietors of Persia, who had preserved their influence and status under the Arab rule), and possessed an estate in the neighbourhood of Tits (in Khorasan). Firdousi's own education eminently qualified him for the gigantic task which he subsequently undertook, for he was profoundly versed in the Arabic language and literature and had also studied deeply the Pahlavi or Old Persian, and was conversant with the ancient historical records which existed in that tongue. The Shahnama of Firdousi (see also PERSIA: Literature) is perhaps the only example of a poem produced by a single author which at once took its place as the national epic of the people. The nature of the work, the materials from which it was composed, and the circumstances under which it was written are, however, in themselves exceptional, and necessarily tended to this result. The grandeur and antiquity of the empire and the vicissitudes through which it passed, their long series of wars and the magnificent monuments erected by their ancient sovereigns, could not fail to leave numerous traces in the memory of so imaginative a people as the Persians. As early as the 5th century of the Christian era we find mention made of these historical traditions in the work of an Armenian author, Moses of Chorene (according to others, he lived in the 7th or 8th century). During'the reign of Chosroes I. (Anushirvan) the contemporary of Mahomet, and by order of that monarch, an attempt had been made to collect, from various parts of the kingdom, all the popular tales and legends relating to the ancient kings, and the results were deposited in the royal library. During the last years of the Sassanid dynasty the work was resumed, the former collection being revised and greatly added to by the Dihkan Danishwer, assisted by several learned mobeds. His work was entitled the Khoda'inama, which in the old dialect also meant the " Book of Kings." On the Arab invasion this work was in great danger of perishing at the hands of the iconoclastic caliph Omar and his generals, but it was fortunately preserved; and we find it in the and century of the Hegira being paraphrased in Arabic by Abdallah ibn el Mokaffa, a learned Persian who had embraced Islam. Other Guebres occupied themselves privately with the collection of these traditions; and, when a prince of Persian origin, Yakub ibn Laith, founder of the Saffarid dynasty, succeeded in throwing off his allegiance to the caliphate, he at once set about continuing the work of his illustrious predecessors. His " Book of Kings " was completed in the year 260 of the Hegira, and was freely circulated in Khorasan and Irak. Yakub's family did not continue long in power; but the Samanid princes who succeeded applied themselves zealously to the same work, and Prince Nuh II., who came to the throne in 365 A.R. (A.D.9i6), entrusted it to the court poet Dakiki, a Guebre by religion. Dakiki's labours were brought to a sudden stop by his own assassination, and the fall of the Samanian house happened not long after, and their kingdom passed into the hands of the Ghaznevids. Mahmud ibn Sabuktagin, the second of the dynasty (998-1030), continued397 to make himself still more independent of the caliphate than his predecessors, and, though a warrior and a fanatical Moslem, extended a generous patronage to Persian literature and learning, and even developed it at the expense of the Arabic institutions. The task of continuing and completing the collection of the ancient historical traditions of the empire especially attracted him. With the assistance of neighbouring princes and of many of the influential Dihkans, Mahmud collected a vast amount of materials for the work, and after having searched in vain for a man of sufficient learning and ability to edit them faithfully, and having entrusted various episodes for versification to the numerous poets whom he had gathered round him, he at length made choice of Firdousi. Firdousi had been always strongly attracted by the ancient Pahlavi records, and had begun at an early age to turn them into Persian epic verse. On hearing of the death of the poet Dakiki, he conceived the ambitious design of himself carrying out the work which the latter had only just commenced; and, although he had not then any introduction to the court, he contrived, thanks to one of his friends, Mahommed Lashkari, to procure a copy of the Dihkan Danishwer's collection, and at the age of thirty-six commenced his great undertaking. Abu Mansur, the governor of Tus, patronized him and encouraged him by substantial pecuniary support. When Mahmud succeeded to the throne, and evinced such acftk'e interest
" Thy beauty eclipses the light of the sun "; Farrakhi added " The rose with thy cheek would comparison shun "; 'Asjadi continued " Thy glances pierce through the mailed warrior's johsun "; and Firdousi, without a moment's hesitation, completed the quatrain , " Like the lance of fierce Giv in his fight with Poshun." The poets asked for an explanation of this allusion, and Firdousi recited to them the battle as described in the Shahnama, and delighted and astonished them with his learning and eloquence. Mahmud now definitely selected him for the work of compiling and versifying the ancient legends, and bestowed upon him such marks of his favour and munificence as to elicit from the poet an enthusiastic panegyric, which is inserted in the preface of the Shdhndma, and forms a curious contrast to the bitter satire which he subsequently prefixed to the book. The sultan ordered his treasurer, Khojah Hasan Maimandi, to pay to Firdousi a thousand gold pieces for every thousand verses; but the poet preferred allowing the sum to accumulate till the whole was 1 A sort of cuirass. finished, with the object of amassing sufficient capital to construct a dike for his native town of Tus, which suffered greatly from defective irrigation, a project which had been the chief
precarious
At length, afte#tiirty-five years' work, the book was completed (rorr), and Firdousi entrusted it to Ayaz, the sultan's favourite, for presentation to him. Mahmud ordered Hasan Maimandi to take the poet as much gold as an elephant could carry, but the jealous treasurer persuaded the monarch that it was too generous a reward, and that an elephant's load of silver would be sufficient. 6o,000 silver dirhems were accordingly placed in sacks, and taken to Firdousi by Ayaz at the sultan's command, instead of the 6o,000 gold pieces, one for each verse, which had been promised. The poet was at that moment in the bath, and seeing the sacks, and believing that they contained the expected gold, received them with great satisfaction, but finding only silver he complained to Ayaz that he had not executed the sultan's order. Ayaz related what had taken place between Mahmud and Hasan Maimandi, and Firdousi in a rage gave 20 thousand pieces to Ayaz himself, the same amount to the bath-keeper, and paid the rest to a beer seller for a glass of beer (fouka), sending word back to the sultan that it was not to gain money that he had taken so much trouble. On hearing this message , Mahmud at first reproached Hasa n with having caused him to break his word, but the wily treasurer succeeded in turning his master's anger upon Firdousi to such an extent that he threatened that on the morrow he would " cast that Carmathian (heretic) under the feet of his elephants." Being apprised by one of the nobles of the court of what had taken place, Firdousi passed the night in great anxiety; but passing in the morning by the gate that led from his own apartments into the palace, he met the sultan in his private garden, and succeeded by humble apologies in appeasing his wrath. He was, however, far from being appeased himself, and determined at once upon quitting Ghazni. Returning home he tore up the draughts of some thousands of verses which he had composed and threw them in the fire, and repairing to the grand mosque of Ghazni he wrote upon the walls, at the place where the sultan was in the habit of praying, the following lines:" The auspicious court of Mahmud, king of Zabulistan, is like a sea. What a sea! One cannot see its shore. If I have dived therein without finding any pearls it is the fault of my star and not of the sea." i He then gave a sealed paper to Ayaz, begging him to hand it to the sultan in a leisure moment after 20 days had elapsed, and set off on his travels with no better equipment than his staff and a dervish's cloak. At the expiration of the 20 days Ayaz gave the paper to the sultan, who on opening it found the celebrated satire which is now always prefixed to copies of the Shahnama, and which is perhaps one of the bitterest and severest pieces of reproach ever penned. Mahmud, in a violent rage, sent after the poet and promised a large reward for his capture, but he was already in comparative safety. Firdousi directed hissteps to Mazandaran, and took refuge
message and the urgent representations of Firdousi's friends had the desired effect; and Mahmud not only expressed his intention of offering full reparation to the poet, but put his enemy Maimandi to death. The change, however, came too late; Firdousi, now a broken and decrepit old man, had in the meanwhile returned to Tus, and, while wandering through the streets of his native town, heard a child lisping a verse from his own satire in which he taunts Mahmud with his slavish birth:" Had Mahmud's father been what he is now A crown of gold had decked this aged brow; Had Mahmud's mother been of gentle blood, In heaps of silver knee-deep had I stood." He was so affected by this proof of universal sympathy with his misfortunes that he went home, fell sick and died. He was buried in a garden, but Abu'l Kasim Jurjani, chief
caravanserai
Much of the traditional life, as given above, which is based upon that. prefixed to the revised edition of the poem, undertaken by order of Baisingar Khan, grandson of Timur-i-Leng (Timur), is rejected by modern scholars (see T. Noldeke, " Das iranische Nationalepos," in W. Geiger s Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, ii. pp. 150-158). The Shahnama is based, as we have seen, upon the ancient legends current among the populace of Persia, and collected by the Dihkans, a class of men who had the greatest facilities for this purfose. There is every reason therefore to believe that Firdousi adhered faithfully to these records of antiquity, and that the poem is a perfect store -house of the genuine traditions of the country.The entire poem (which only existed in MS. up to the beginning of the 19th century) was published (18311868) with a French translation in a magnificent folio edition, at the expense of the French government, by the learned and indefatigable Julius von Mohl. The size and number of the volumes, however, and their great expense, made them difficult of access. and Frau von Mohl published the French translation (18761878) with her illustrious husband's critical notes and introduction in a more convenient and cheaper form. Other editions are by Turner Macan (Calcutta, 1829), J. A. Vullers and S. Landauer (unfinished; Leiden, 18771883). There is an English abridgment by J. Atkinson (London, 1832; reprinted 1886, 1892) ; there is a verse-translation, partly rhymed and partly unrhymed, by A. G. and E. \Varner (1905 foil.), with an introduction containing an account of Firdousi and the Shahnama; the version by A. Rogers (1907) contains the greater part of the work. The episode of Sohrab and Rustam is well known to English readers from Matthew Arnold
See also E. G. Browne's Literary History of Persia, i., ii. (19021906); T. Noldeke (as above) for a full account of the Shahnama, editions, &c.; and H. Ethe, " Neupersische Litteratur," in the same work. (E. H. P. ; X.) End of Article: FIRDOUSY, FIRDAUSI If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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