The Shah-Nama is the national epic poem of Persia. Written in the tenth century, it contains the country's myths, legends and historic reminiscences. In this edition, now available for the first time in paperback, Professor Levy, the distinguished scholar in Persian studies, has made an invaluable prose translation, selecting the most representative parts of the original including the stories of Rustum, the giant hero, and his son Sohrab.
'Among the many national poets of historical Persia, Ferdowsi is perhaps the greatest. His stature can be judged from Reuben Levy's English translation of his immortal Epic of the Kings. Mainly a story of the Iranian Empire, it deals with the reign of fifty kings and queens.
The beginning is the creation of the world out of nothingness. The end is the Islamic conquest of Persia. Between that period, Ferdowsi devotes a separate section for each ruler. In this superb translation of the epic, the Western reader would not fail to discern clear equivalents of chapters in Genesis, the Odyssey, Milton's Paradise Lost, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and even Shakespeare.
