Ordibehesht 25 in the Iranian calendar corresponding with May 15 is the National Commemoration Day of the renowned poet Ferdowsi, the influential Persian poet and author of the Persian epic, Shahnameh.
Bora Hamim Art News Website_ To celebrate the occasion, Iranians organize various meetings nationwide.
Performances of ‘naqqali’, a dramatic style of storytelling dedicated to stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, is one of the programs on the day.
Also, literati from all over Iran storm the tomb of Ferdowsi in Tus to perform programs at the site.
The northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad hosts a seminar on the Shahnameh.
Some new translations of the Shahnameh, if any, are unveiled during the occasion and rare copies of the Persian epic masterpiece are showcased in exhibitions.
Ferdowsi; Reviver of Persian language
Abolqasem Ferdowsi was born in 940 and laid to rest in 1020 AD in Tous, near Mashhad, the capital of Khorasan Razavi Province.
The Persian language and Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh have had a long and inseparable connection with each other for centuries.
The well-known poet can be called a reviver of the Persian language, and Shahnameh, consisting of 50,000 verses, can be considered proof of Iranian identity.
Ferdowsi wrote one of the essential Iranian literary works, Shahnameh, which played a significant role in the revival of the Persian language and the spread of its literature.
Ferdowsi began his epic poem in 977 and took 33 years to complete it. The result of his work is the world’s longest epic poem written by a single author; it is twice as long as Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ combined. It was written at a time when modern Persian had started to thrive and the structures and standards for the language were being set.
Shahnameh is a collection of national stories and the ancient history of kings and great heroes of Iran, which describes their heroic deeds and conquest, valiancy, courage, and religiosity.
“The Persians regard Ferdowsī as the greatest of their poets. Down through the centuries, they have continued to read and to listen to recitations from his masterwork, the Shāh-nāmeh,” Britannica reported.
“Though written some 1,000 years ago, this work is as intelligible to the average modern Iranian as the King James Version of the Bible is to a modern English speaker. The language, based as the poem is on a Pahlavi original, is pure Persian with only the slightest admixture of Arabic,” the encyclopedia added.
Undoubtedly, one of the valuable guardians of the Persian language is Abolghasem Ferdowsi, whose brilliant work, the Iranian epic poem work Shahnameh, has been of undeniable importance in preserving the Persian language and Iranian identity.
The tomb of Ferdowsi is situated in Tous. Among the various attractions of Mashhad, visiting the tomb is of interest to every Iranian and foreign tourist.
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