Prose rendition by Ehsan Yarshater
Translated and introduced by Dick Davis

 Price:  $75.00
 Size:  272 pages -- 7 x 11
 Binding:  Clothbound
 ISBN:  0-934211-50-7
 Status:  In stock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among the masterpieces of world literature, perhaps the least familiar to English readers is the Iranian Book of Kings (Shahnameh, in Persian). This prodigious national epic, composed by the poet Ferdowsi between 980 and 1010 AD, tells the story of ancient Persia, beginning in the mythic time of Creation and continuing forward to the Arab-Islamic invasion in the 7th century. The Lion and the Throne covers the first third of the Shahnameh and will be followed by two volumes to complete the epic. Brilliantly translated and magnificently illustrated, these volumes give English-language readers access to a world of vanished wonders.

The origins of civilization. . . the notion of kingship. . . tenderness, a longing for justice, and social order. . . the first kings felled by foolish pride. . . demons on the throne. . . spiritual heroes and their martial virtues. . . mythical birds. . . romance and passion-these are some of the threads woven together to form the rich tapestry of ancient Persia. The tales in this volume were selected and retold in Persian prose by the renowned scholar, Ehsan Yarshater. Translator Dick Davis combines his skills as a poet and a Ferdowsi scholar to evoke the metrical music, impact and nuance of Ferdowsi's monumental poem.

Breathtaking miniatures from the finest Persian Shahnameh manuscripts of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries heighten the emotional impact of the text. A short afterword by the eminent art historian, Stuart Cary Welch, unravels the history behind these paintings by the great masters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction
Chapter 1 -- The First Kings
Chapter 2 -- The Demon-King Zahak
Chapter 3 -- The Storyof Feraydun and His Three Sons
Chapter 4 -- The Storyof Iraj
Chapter 5 -- The Vengeance of Manuchehr
Chapter 6 -- The Tale of Sam and The Simorgh
Chapter 7 -- The Tale of Zal and Rudabeh
Chapter 8 -- Rostam, Son of Zal-Dastan
Chapter 9 -- The Beginning of the War Bewtween Iran and Turan
Chapter 10 -- Rostam and His Horse Rakhsh
Chapter 11 -- Rostam and Kay Qobad
Chapter 12 -- Kay Qobad and Afrasyab
Chapter 13 -- Kay Kavus's War against the Demons of Mazanderan
Chapter 14 -- The Seven Trials of Rostam
Chapter 15 -- The King of Hamaveran, and His Daughter Sudabeh
Chapter 16 -- The Tale of Sohrab

Appendices
Glossary of Names and Their Pronunciation
A Summary of the Complete Shahnameh
Illustrating a Shahnameh
Credits and Acknowledgments
Guide to the Illustrations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BIRTH OF ZAL (pages 84-88)

Sam, the son of Nariman, was the lord of Zabol and the preeminent champion of Iran, but he had no sons, and this was a source of great grief to him. At last a beautiful woman of his entourage became pregnant by him and she gave birth to a handsome son. But although the baby had rosy cheeks and black eyes and a fine face, his hair was as white as snow. His mother was very distressed by this. No one dared go to Sam and say that he had a son whose hair was as white as that of an old man.
Finally the boy's wet nurse, who was a courageous woman, conquered her fear and went to Sam and said, "My lord, I bring good news. You have a handsome, healthy son as splendid as the sun. And if he has white hair, well, this was your Destiny fated by God. You must rejoice and not grieve about this."
When he heard the wet nurse's words, Sam descended from the throne and went to the women's apartments. He saw the rosy-cheeked, splendid baby whose hair was like an old man's. He was deeply perturbed and, turning his face to the heavens, said, "O just Lord, what sin have I committed that you have given me a white-haired son? If now the nobles here should ask, 'What is this baby with black eyes and white hair?' how am I to answer? How can I lift my head up with such shame in my family? The champions and nobles will laugh at Sam, the son of Nariman, saying that after so long he finally had a son who has white hair. How can I stay in my own country with such a son?" Saying this, he passionately turned his head aside and left the apartments.

THE SIMORGH
A short while later he gave orders that the baby be taken from its mother and carried to the foothills of the Alborz Mountains, where it was to be exposed. The little baby was left on the ground, bereft of its mother's love, with no comfort or companion, without food or clothes. It gave a cry and began to weep. The Simorgh had a nest on a summit of the Alborz. As she was flying on her search for food, she heard the sound of the crying baby. She flew low and saw the baby lying on the ground, crying and sucking its thumb. She had intended to treat the child as prey, but maternal love stirred in her heart. She reached down with her claws and lifted him up to take him to her own fledglings.
When the Simorgh's fledglings set eyes on the crying baby, they were astonished; they acted kindly toward him and made much of him.
A voice came from God to the Simorgh, saying, "O king of the birds, nourish and look after this splendid child." The Simorgh gave the child food and brought him up with her own young.
Many years passed. The child grew up and became a brave, noble youth. Caravans passing that way would occasionally glimpse the mammoth-bodied young man with white hair, as he moved nimbly among the crags and foothills of the mountains. Rumors of the youth passed from mouth to mouth, until the world was full of talk of him and the news reached Sam, the son of Nariman.

SAM'S DREAM
One night Sam was asleep in the inner apartments of his castle. In a dream he saw an Indian warrior, mounted on a galloping horse, who came to him and gave him the good news that his son was alive. Sam started up from sleep and summoned the wise men and priests of his court and told them of his previous night's dream and said, "What is your opinion of this? Can we believe that a defenseless child could survive the cold of winter and the heat of summer and stay alive until now?"
The priests considered the matter carefully and then reproached the king, saying, "My lord, you have acted ungratefully, despising the gift given to you by God. Consider the beasts of the field, the untamed beasts of the thicket, the birds of the air, and the fish in the sea, and see how loving they are to their offspring. Why did you take his white hair to heart in this way and not consider his innocent body and divine soul? Now it is plain that God has preserved your son, and one whom God preserves cannot be destroyed. You must follow the path of remorse and seek out your son."
The next night Sam saw in a dream that a young man carrying a banner had appeared at the head of an army in the mountains of India, and that he was accompanied by two learned priests. One of these two came forward and began to speak harshly to him, "O presumptuous, heartless man, had you no shame before God that you exposed on a mountainside the son for whom you had begged God? You despised him for his white hair, but look, your own hair has turned as white as milk. What kind of a father do you call yourself, that a bird has had to bring up your child?"
Sam started up from sleep and immediately made all preparations necessary for a journey, and set off for the Alborz Mountains. He saw a high peak whose summit touched the heavens. On the top of the peak rose the Simorgh's nest, as tall and strong as a castle, and around it walked a nimble-bodied, noble youth. Sam realized that this was his son. He wanted to climb up to him, but for all his efforts he could not find a way up the mountain. The Simorgh's nest seemed to be placed as high as the stars themselves. He scattered dust on his head and bowed before God, repenting his former actions, and said, "O just Lord, place a way before my feet so that I can reach my child again."

THE RETURN OF DASTAN
Sam's repentance was accepted in the world Creator's court. The Simorgh looked down and, glimpsing Sam on the mountainside, she realized that this was the father come in search of his son. She went to the youth and said, "O brave young man, until today I have brought you up as if I were your nurse, and I have taught you speech and the ways of virtue. Now it is time for you to return to your own birthplace. Your father has come searching for you. I have named you Dastan (The Trickster) and from now on you will be known by this name."
Dastan's eyes filled with tears, and he said,"Have you grown tired of me, that now you are sending me to my father? I have become used to the nests of birds and the high mountain peaks, and I have found comfort in the shade beneath your wings; after God himself, there is no one to whom I am more grateful than you. Why do you want me to return?"
The Simorgh said, "I have not lost my love for you, and I shall always be your kindhearted nurse. But you must return to Zabolestan and there fight and be a brave warrior. Birds' nests are no longer of any use to you. But take a memento of me: I give you this feather from my own wing. Whenever you are in trouble and need aid, fling the feather into fire, and without delay I shall make haste to help you."
Then the Simorgh lifted Dastan up from the mountain peak and placed him on the ground next to his father. The youth seemed so noble and illustrious that Sam wept to see him; he embraced his son and thanked the Simorgh and begged for forgiveness.
The army flocked about Dastan, rejoicing and praising his mammoth body, his strong arms, and his cypress stature. Then Sam and Dastan and the other warriors who were with them set off in high spirits for Zabolestan. From that day forth, because of his white hair, Dastan was called Zal-e Zar (The Golden Graybeard).

Choice Magazine
The Shahnameh is the Persian national epic, a poem of more than 40,000 lines completed by the poet Ferdowsi in about the year 1000. Some 30 years ago Yarshater rendered into elegant modern Persian prose the opening narratives of the epic, and now Dick Davis, the foremost translator of Persian literature into English, has translated those tales and added two additional narratives taken directly from the epic poetry. The book also contains a short summary of the entire Shahnameg, an essay by Stuart Cary Welch entitled "Illustrating a Shahnameh," and other appendixes. The prose rendering is as smooth and polished as Davis's translations always are. The publishers outdid themselves in producing a beautiful book that is in many ways reminiscent of a medieval Persian manuscript. Illustrated with numerous paintings, details of paintings and cartouches, section headings in gold ink, flowers at chapter heads, decorative borders and many other details, the volume is a rich and evocative example of bookmaking. More a coffee-table book than a scholarly volume, recommended for general readers and undergraduates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FERDOWSI was born in Khorasan in a village near Tus, in 940. His great epic the Shahnameh, to which he devoted most of his adult life, was originally composed for the Samanid princes of Khorasan, who were the chief instigators of the revival of Persian cultural traditions after the Arab conquest of the seventh century. During Ferdowsi's lifetime this dynasty was conquered by the Ghaznavid Turks, and there are various stories in medieval texts describing the lack of interest shown by the new ruler of Khorasan, Mahmud of Ghazni, in Ferdowsi and his lifework. Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 in poverty and embittered by royal neglect, though confident of his and his poem's ultimate fame.

EHSAN YARSHATER was born in 1920 in Iran and received a Ph.D. in Persian Language and Literature from the University of Tehran and a Ph.D. in Old and Middle Iranian from London University. He is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Columbia University where he founded the Center for Iranian Studies in 1968 and started the Encyclopaedia Iranica in 1974. He currently lives in New York where he teaches and edits the Encyclopaedia Iranica. This monumental project will record the details of the history, culture, and achievements of Iranian peoples throughout history.

DICK DAVIS was born to English and Italian parents in 1945 and educated at King's College, Cambridge (B.A. and M.A. in English Literature). In 1970 while pursuing a career in poetry and literature and teaching in Greece he visited a friend in Iran. While there, he fell ill and was nursed to health by a Persian woman, whom he eventually married. Davis fell in love with the country as well, and stayed for eight years, learning Persian and teaching at the University of Tehran. After the revolution in 1979 the Davis family returned to England where he pursued his love of the Persian language, earning his Ph.D. in Medieval Persian Literature from the University of Manchester. Since then, he has emerged as the foremost translator of Persian as well as having published numerous volumes of his own poetry to critical acclaim. He is currently professor of Persian at Ohio State University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His other translations from Persian include Borrowed Ware: Medieval Persian Epigrams (Mage, 1997), My Uncle Napoleon (Mage, 1996), The Legend of Seyavash (Penguin Classics, 1992), and with Afkham Darbandi, The Conference of the Birds (Penguin Classics, 1984).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following represent only those books currently in print. If there is a title you feel we have overlooked please let us know.

Scholarly works concerning the Shahnameh include Epic and Sedition by Dick Davis, the translator of this volume and Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings by Princeton professor Olga Davidson.

Other selections in translation include The Legend of Seyavash translated by Dick Davis and The Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam by Princeton professor Jerome Clinton.

The only book-length biography of Ferdowsi is Ferdowsi: A Critical Biography by A. Shapur Shahbazi.

For the complete Shahnameh in Persian, there is a six-volume set in production, edited by Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh.

There are numerous out-of-print editions of translated Shahnamehs. The best way to find these is to search for them on one of the online book searches, such as Advanced Book Exchange, Bibliofind, or Interloc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a dearth of web sites on the Shahnameh or Ferdowsi, this is all we could find. If you know of others please let us know.

Selected Translation (Warning, read below!)
There does exist on the web an English prose translation of selected Shahnameh stories. The material at this site was apparently scanned in from Helen Zimmern's book, which was published in 1882 in England. Be warned that the language is, according to the translator, intentionally archaic. In the preface the translator says that she has attempted to render the words of Ferdowsi in the language of the age of Shakespeare and the English Bible. Unfortunately, this has resulted in language that borders on the ridiculous.

Shahnameh Learning League
According to their mission statement, the Shahnameh Learning League is "composed of individuals who are specifically interested in research and study of  Shahnameh; the great literature of Ferdowsi."

Shahnameh Miniatures
There a few miniatures from Shahnameh manuscripts also on the web. Of course, the low-quality of the RGB images cannot compare what is available on the printed page.

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