Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, which has nearly 50,000 verses, is a collection of national stories and ancient history of the ancient kings of Iran and the great warriors of our land, which describes their heroic deeds along with conquest and victory, masculinity, courage, and piety. Because he devoted all his time and effort for thirty-five years only to make such a precious work, at the end of the work he offered it to Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznavi, who had just ascended to the throne, to perhaps receive a reward from Sultan Mahmud. to receive and cause his province. Sultan Mahmud first offered to pay 60,000 dinars to Ferdowsi as a prize. But he went back a little bit on his promise and sent him only sixty thousand drams, which is one tenth of the amount he had given later.
Hakim Abul Qasim Ferdowsi was offended by Sultan Mahmud's violation of this treaty and he came out of Ghaznin, which was the capital of the Ghaznavids, and spent some time traveling and then returned to his hometown. And in the Shahnameh, he wrote sweet and charming words in praise of Yazdan, but Sultan Mahmud was a follower of the Sunni religion, and in addition, the entire Shahnameh was written praising the Iranians and condemning the Turks of that time, who were Sultan Mahmud's ancestors.
This caused him to not be faithful to his agreement, but after a while, Sultan Mahmud regretted what he had done and ordered to give the same sixty thousand dinars to Tus and present them to Ferdowsi, but one day the Sultan's gift reached Tus, who Ferdowsi with a high head And the honor of mortal life was rejected and it was in the past. And the interesting thing is that Ferdowsi's noble daughter refused to accept the king's gift and sent it back and added another honor to the honors of her honorable father.
This period continues from the reign of Kiyomarth to the rise of Fereydon. In this covenant, kings such as Kiyomarth, Hoshang, Thammorth and Jamshid are mentioned. Iranian civilization develops at this time. The discovery of fire, separating iron from stone, spinning, weaving, farming, and the like took place in this period.
In this era, the wars are mostly civil wars, and the war with the Diwan and suppressing them has been the biggest problem of this era. (Some have suggested that Divan meant the natives of the Iranian plateau who have always fought with the invading Aryans). At the end of this covenant, Zahak, an enemy of purity and a symbol of evil, comes to power, but finally, after a thousand years, Fereydun destroys him with the help of Kaveh Ahangar and the support of the people, and a new era begins.
Pahlavi or epic period starts from Fereydon kingdom. Iraj, Manouchehr, Nozer, Gershasab will sit in the kingdom in order. Wars between Iran and Turan begin. Kayani kingdoms such as Kiqbad, Kikavus, Kikhsro, and then Lehrest and Ghstasb come to work. Brave people such as Zal, Rostam, Guderz, Tous, Bijan, Sohrab and others like them appear in this era. Siavash, the son of Kikavus, is killed by Afrasiab, and Rostam goes to Turan for his blood and takes revenge for Siavash's blood from Afrasiab. During the reign of Ghstasab, Zarathustra, the prophet of Iran, appeared and Esfandiar was killed by Rostam. Some time after Esfandiar was killed, Rostam was also killed by his brother, Shoghad, and Sistan was razed to the ground by Esfandiar's son Bahman, and the Pahlavi period ended with Rostam's death.
This period begins with the appearance of Bahman, and after Bahman, Humay, then Darab and Darab's son, reach the kingdom. At this time, Alexander the Great attacked Iran and killed Darius, who is Darius III, and took his place on the throne.
After Alexander, the period of the Parthian kingdom is mentioned in a few verses, and then the Sassanids come to work, and then the Arab attack occurs, and the Shahnameh ends with the defeat of the Iranians.
Ferdowsi's masterpiece is the Shahnameh, which is about the ancient history of Iran from the beginning of Iranian civilization to the extinction of its rule by the Arabs. This continuous historical period is divided into fifty kingdoms, which are different from each other in terms of length of time and distinction with brevity of content. (Three different periods can be distinguished in the Shahnameh. The first is the mythological period, the second is the Pahlavi era, and the third is the historical period), the mythological period from the reign of Kiyomarth to the appearance of Fereydon, the Pahlavi period from Kaveh's uprising to the assassination of Rostam, and the historical period from the end of the Kian era onwards.
But this part is also mixed with legends and epic stories, and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, due to the strong influence it found among different classes of Iranians, was of interest in all historical periods after the fifth century, and the attention of all classes and the importance of its literary status made it Many poets tried to welcome and create a verse like that, and for this reason, from the end of the fifth century to several centuries, a large group of poets created epic verses in imitation of it, but none of them could handle this wonderful task like Ferdowsi. Shahnameh has been translated into the living languages of the world such as English, German, French, Russian, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Danish, etc.
Shadarvan Morteza Ravandi in his precious work Social history of Iran in volume 8 of the code related to the literary life of the Iranian people writes: When Ferdowsi started this great work, the Samanid government was in full power. Sixty thousand dinars that he brought to order is not correct in any way; Because Ferdowsi states at the beginning of the Shahnameh that when he became aware of his meticulous work and attention to the order of old stories and his death, he himself followed this work, but due to the turmoil of the social environment, he kept the matter hidden for a while.
Ferdowsi, at the end of his work, when his main motivations disappeared in various ways and he himself felt financial need at the end of his life, and because of the fame of Mahmoud's propaganda that reached Tus and Ferdowsi heard the song of this Dehl from afar, he thought that this He should name his work under Mahmoud's name, so that he can find comfort in his later life, and through Mahmoud's name and his influence, the publication of his book will be more successful and he will be safe from accidents. When Ferdowsi sent the Shahnameh to Mahmud, or possibly took him to Ghaznin, Mahmud did not treat him in a manner worthy of Ferdowsi's great suffering, but hurt him with his coldness and indifference.
Apart from Mahmoud's racial and moral characteristics, foreign factors also wanted the same, and Ferdowsi himself spoke openly about the envious people who ruined his work in the eyes of the Shah, and unfortunately, another group of nobles and freedmen of that era did not provide any material or spiritual help to the master. They tried to take advantage of his difficult and heavy work and prepared transcriptions of his works and poems for free and hurt the soul of the poet with empty favors.
