Shahnameh The Persian Book Of Kings

The Shahnameh , [ a ] also romanized Shahnama [ b ] [ c ] ( lit. ' Book of Kings ' ), 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 . [ 1 ] Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couplets (two-line verses), [ 2 ] the Shahnameh is one of the world's longest epic poems, and the longest epic poem created by a single author. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] It tells of the mainly mythical but to some extent historical past of Iran from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. Iran , Afghanistan , Azerbaijan , Tajikistan and the greater region influenced by Persian culture such as Armenia , Dagestan , Georgia , Turkey , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan celebrate this national epic. [ 6 ] It took Ferdowsi 33 years to complete the Shahnameh in its entirety. [ 7 ] The work is of central importance in Persian culture and Persian language . It is regarded as a literary masterpiece, and is the definitive work of the ethno-national cultural identity of Iran. [ 8 ]