Firdausi, also spelled Firdusi or Ferdowsi (940?-1020?), was the name taken by Abul Qasim Mansur, one of the great epic poets of Persia (now Iran). The name means Heavenly One. Firdausi gave final form to the Shah-Namah (Book of Kings, about 1000), a Persian national epic. The Shah-Namah traces the history of Persia from its mythical period to the time of the Muslim conquest of the Sasanian dynasty in A.D. 641. Firdausi wrote the poem in about 60,000 short rhymed couplets. He based his work on the Khvatay-namak (about 600), a history of the kings of Persia originally begun by the Persian poet Abu Mansur Daqiqi. Almost nothing is known of Firdausi’s life. He may have been born near the ancient city of Tus in what is now northeastern Iran.
