Abu l-Qasim Ferdowsi: Difference between revisions

Abu l-Qasim Hasan Mansur known as Abu l-Qasim Ferdowsi was an Iranian poet and epicist in the 4th/10th century. The date of his birth has been considered 329/941 or 330/942.

Ferdowsi was the child born after the second [[marriage]] of Abu Mansur Sharaf Shah. History reports that one day, Sharaf shah dreamed that from his house, a son went to sky. They interpreted his dream as he would have a son whose name would remain in the history.

Ferdowsi was son of a peasant born in Pāj, a village of [[Tus]]. He also had journeys to [[Baghdad]] and [[Mazandaran]]. According to Nizami 'Aruzi, Ferdowsi was rich, but gradually spent his wealth and time for composing Shahnameh and in the late his life, he became poor and finally passed away in 411/1020 at the age of 80 in his birth town.

[[Sayyid Hasan Amin]] wrote that at the time of Ferdowsi, some areas of Khorasan, especially Tus, Beyhaq, Pāj and Tabiran, were [[Shi'a]] and thus, he did not consider it impossible for Ferdowsi to have inclinations toward Shi'a community at that time, and even he pointed about Fedowsi's titles such as [[Rafidi]], attributed to him. Amin mentioned the Shi'a region and atmosphere of Ferdowsi's living place, that people in that region supported Shi'a uprisings and other similar issues as evidences to suggest that he was Shi'a.

According to historical sources, Ferdowsi's burial in Muslims' cemetery was opposed by a person known as Abu l-Qasim Gorgani who believed that Ferdowsi praised [[disbeliever]]s and [[Zoroastrian]]s in his poems.

[['Abd al-Jalil al-Qazwini]] was the first person who mentioned in ''al-Naqd'' that Ferdowsi was [[Imami|Imami Shi'a]]. Later, [[Qadi Nur Allah al-Shushtari]] too, introduced him as Shi'a. However, some people such as Ibrahim Purdavud and his student, Muhammad Mo'in considered him Zoroastrian and [[Malik al-Shuʿara Bahar]] too, considered him the reviver of Zoroastrian.

Mahdavi Damghani believed that it is impossible to find about a poet's religion by the number of his poems, except that he mentions a clear statement in them. He continued and said that Ferdowsi was Shi'a and there is no doubt about his [[religion]].

One of the notable works of Ferdowsi is Shahnameh. Sayyid Hasan Amin claimed that the style of Shahnameh in composing poems is adopted from the Qur'an, while the eloquence of the Qur'an is higher. In Shahnameh, Ferdowsi has frequently spoken about culture and sought to link between the culture of [[Iran]] before and after [[Islam]].

Some people did not consider composition of Iranian national epics, an invention by Ferdowsi and considered others such as Mas'udi Marvzi and Daqiqi Tusi prior to him, in that. It is reported that when Ferdowsi was 40 years old, it was several years since Daqiqi, an Iranian poet had begun narrating the Iranian national history in poems, but he was killed by his servant before he could finish it.

Ferdowsi decided to finish Daqiqi's work and turned the history Abu Mansur, the governor of [[Tus]] had written and included the history of kings of ancient Iran and the destiny of Iranian nation into poem. Therefore, the history of Abu Mansur known as Shahnameh Mansuri became the most important source for composing Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. He began it in 370/981 and finished it in 400/1010.

Ferdowsi is mentioned among Persian poets who was inspired by the words of Imam Ali (a), especially by ''[[Nahj al-Balagha]]''. After Ferdowsi, one of the persons who was influenced by Ferdowsi was Ibn Hisam Khusfi, the author of ''Khavaran Nameh'', which he composed under the influence of Shahnameh.

In the late his life, when Ferdowsi lost his supports for continuing Shahnameh, as reported in the history, he decided to dedicate it to [[Mahmud of Ghazni]]; but, due to different reasons, it was not accepted by him including the ones below,

*Religious disagreement between Ferdowsi who was Shi'a and composed poems about the Ahl al-Bayt (a) with Mahmud who was [[Sunni]].

*Difference of opinions between Mahmud and Ferdowsi over racial, moral and national issues. Ferdowsi spoked harshly about Arabs and Turks who were among Mahmud's ancestors.

Some believe that Shahnameh including 60 thousand couplets was composed during the time of Mahmud of Ghazni and was dedicated to him; and considered him the one who motivated Ferdowsi for composing it. However, others consider racial attributes of Mahmud of Ghazni and historical reports about him in disagreement with that view.

Some researchers considered that Ferdowsi was born in 934 CE and held a commemoration congress titled as "Ferdowsi Millennium" in 1934 CE. This congress was held in Dar al-Funun in Tehran, where a group of Iranologists and researchers from other countries attended. The reconstructed tomb of Ferdowsi was opened after this congress by the presence of [[Reza Shah]] and the participants in the congress.

Different works in painting, miniature and other works including the movie titled as "Fedowsi" produced by 'Abdolhossein Sepenta, a play called Dibacha-yi Novin-e Shahnameh written by Bahram Beyzai were all inspired by the poems of Ferdowsi.

*The material for this article is mainly taken from {{ia|[[:fa:ابوالقاسم فردوسی|ابوالقاسم فردوسی]]}} in Farsi WikiShia.

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