Abu Nasr Ali ibn Ahmad Asadi Tusi (Persian : ابونصر علی بن احمد اسدی طوسی; c. 1000 – 1073) was a Persian poet, linguist and author. He was born at the beginning of the 11th century in Tus, Iran, in the province of Khorasan, and died in the late 1080s in Tabriz. Asadi Tusi is considered an important Persian poet of the Iranian national epics. His best-known work is Garshaspnameh, written in the style of the Shahnameh . [1]
Little is known about Asadi's life. Most of the Khorasan province was under violent attack by Turkish groups; many intellectuals fled, and those who remained generally lived in seclusion. Asadi spent his first twenty years in Ṭūs. From about 1018 to 1038 AD, he was a poet at the court of the Daylamite Abū Naṣr Jastān. Here, in 1055–56, Asadi copied Abū Manṣūr Mowaffaq Heravī's Ketāb al-abnīa al-adwīa. He later went to Nakhjavan and completed his seminal work, the Garshāsp-nama (dedicated to Abu Dolaf, ruler of Nakhjavan), in 1065–1066. Asadi then served at the court of the Shaddadid king Manuchehr, who ruled Ani. The poet's tomb is in the city of Tabriz.
Asadi's most significant work is Garshāsp-nama (The Book [or Epic] of Garshāsp). His other important contribution is a lexicon of the modern Persian language (Persian : فرهنگ لغت فرس). Five of Asadi's Monāẓarāt (Persian : مناظرات) (Debates in the form of poetry between two people or objects or concepts) also still exist.
The Garshaspnama (Persian : گرشاسپنامه) epic, with 9,000 couplets, is Asadi Tusi's major work. The hero of the poem is Garshasp (father of Kariman and great-grandfather of Šam), identified in the Shahnameh with the ancient Iranian hero Kərəsāspa- (Avestan language). In Avestan he was the son of Θrita- of the Yama clan. The poet adapted the story from a book, The Adventures of Garshāsp, saying that it complements the stories of the Shahnameh; although the poem was part of folklore, it was based on written sources.
The poem begins with Yama (or Jamshid), the father of Garshāsp, who was overthrown by Zahhak and flees to Ghurang, king of Zabulistan (near modern Quetta). In Zabulistan, Jamshid falls in love with the king's daughter and she gives birth to Garshāsp. Jamshid is forced to flee. When Garshāsp's mother poisons herself, he spends much of his life with his grandfather and grows up to be a warrior like Jamshid. After Ghurang's death Zahhak was to become king, although the secret remains until the birth of Kariman.
Zahhak, as king, visits Zābulistān and challenges the young Garshāsp to slay a dragon. Equipped with an antidote to dragon poison and armed with special weapons, Garshāsp kills the monster. Impressed with the child's prowess, Zahhāk sends Garshāsp to India, where the king (a vassal of Zahhāk's) has been replaced by the rebel prince Bahu (who does not acknowledge Zahhāk's rule). Garshāsp defeats the rebel and remains in India to observe its marvels and engage in philosophical discourse. He then goes to Sarandib (Ceylon), where he sees the footprint of the Buddha (in Muslim sources, identified with the footprint of Adam). Asadi then recounts many legends about Adam, the father of mankind. Garshasp then meets a Brahman, whom he questions in detail about philosophy and religion. The words Asadi Tusi attributes to the Brahman relate to his Islamic neo-Platonism. Garshasp later visits Indian islands and sees supernatural wonders, which are described at great length.
The hero returns home and pays homage to Zahak. He woos a princess of Rum, restores her father (Eṯreṭ) to his throne in Zābol after his defeat by the King of Kābol and builds the city of Sistān. He has anachronistic adventures in the Mediterranean, fighting in Kairouan and Córdoba. In the West, he meets a "Greek Brahman" and engages in philosophical discourse with the wise man.
When he returns to Iran his father dies, and Garshāsp becomes king of Zābolestān. Although he has no son of his own, he adopts Narēmān (Rostam's great-grandfather) as his heir. At this time Ferēdūn defeats Zahak and becomes king of Iran, and Garshāsp swears allegiance to him. Garshāsp and his nephew then go to Turan and defeat the Faghfūr of Chin (an Iranian title for the ruler of Central Asia and China, probably of Sogdian origin), bringing him as a captive to Ferēdūn. Garshāsp fights a final battle with the king of Tanger, slaying another dragon before he returns to Sistān in Zābolestān and dies.
The dictionary was written to familiarize the people of Arran and Iranian Azerbaijan with unfamiliar phrases in Eastern Persian (Darī) poetry. It is the oldest existing Persian dictionary based on examples from poetry, and contains fragments of lost literary works such as Kalila and Dimna by Rudaki and Vamiq and 'Adhra by Unsuri. [1] A variety of manuscripts exist in Iran and elsewhere; the oldest (1322) may be at the Malek Library in Tehran, although the one written in Safina-yi Tabriz is also from the same period.
Five debates survive in the Persian poetic form of qasida . Although this form of qasida is otherwise unprecedented in Arabic or New Persian, it is part of the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) tradition. The Pahlavic poetic debate Draxt i Asurik indicates the history of this form of debate. The surviving debates are Arab o 'Ajam (The Arab vs. the Persian), Mogh o Mosalman (The Zoroastrian vs. the Muslim), Shab o Ruz (Night vs. Day), Neyza o Kaman (Spear vs. Bow) and Asman o Zamin (Sky vs. Earth). The Persian wins the Persian-versus-Arab debate, while the Muslim defeats the Zoroastrian.
Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh, which is one of the world's longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian-speaking countries. Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of Persian literature and one of the greatest in the history of literature.
The Shahnameh, also transliterated Shahnama, is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couplets, the Shahnameh is one of the world's longest epic poems, and the longest epic poem created by a single author. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the greater region influenced by Persian culture such as Armenia, Dagestan, Georgia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan celebrate this national epic.
Rudaki was a poet, singer, and musician who is regarded as the first major poet to write in New Persian. A court poet under the Samanids, he reportedly composed more than 180,000 verses, yet only a small portion of his work has survived, most notably a small part of his versification of the Kalila wa-Dimna, a collection of Indian fables.
Iranian mythology, or Persian mythology in western term, is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples and a genre of ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Persians' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of not only Iran but of the Persosphere, which includes regions of West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Transcaucasia where the culture of Iran has had significant influence. Historically, these were regions long ruled by dynasties of various Iranian empires, that incorporated considerable aspects of Persian culture through extensive contact with them, or where sufficient Iranian peoples settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures. It roughly corresponds to the Iranian Plateau and its bordering plains.
Rostam or Rustam is a legendary hero in Persian mythology, the son of Zāl and Rudaba, whose life and work was immortalized by the 10th-century Persian poet Ferdowsi in the Shahnameh, or Epic of Kings, which contains pre-Islamic Iranian folklore and history. However, the roots of the narrative date much earlier.
Abu Mansur Daqiqi, better simply known as Daqiqi (دقیقی), was one of the most prominent Persian poets of the Samanid era. He was the first to undertake the creation of the national epic of Iran, the Shahnameh, but was killed in 977 after only completing 1,000 verses. His work was continued by his contemporary Ferdowsi, who would later become celebrated as the most influential figure in Persian literature.
Zahhāk or Zahāk, also known as Zahhak the Snake Shoulder, is an evil figure in Persian mythology, evident in ancient Persian folklore as Azhi Dahāka, the name by which he also appears in the texts of the Avesta. In Middle Persian he is called Dahāg or Bēvar Asp the latter meaning "he who has 10,000 horses". In Zoroastrianism, Zahhak is considered the son of Ahriman, the foe of Ahura Mazda. In the Shāhnāmeh of Ferdowsi, Zahhāk is the son of a ruler named Merdās.
Fereydun is an Iranian mythical king and hero from the Pishdadian dynasty. He is known as an emblem of victory, justice, and generosity in Persian literature.
Garshāsp was, in Persian mythology, the last Shah of the Pishdadian dynasty of Persia according to Shahnameh. He was a descendant of Zaav, ruling over the Persian Empire for about nine years. His name is shared with a monster-slaying hero in Iranian mythology. The Avestan form of his name is Kərəsāspa and in Middle Persian his name is Kirsāsp.
Humam-i Tabrizi, was a Sufi poet of the Ilkhanate era, who composed works in Persian, as well as some in Arabic. He was one of the most distinguished figures of his time due to his poetry, teachings, piety, and Sufi spirituality.
Faramarz-nama or Faramarz-nameh is a Persian epic recounting the adventures of the hero Faramarz who is the son of Rustam.
The Pishdadian dynasty is a mythical line of primordial kings featured in Zoroastrian belief and Persian mythology. They are presented in legend as originally rulers of the world but whose realm was eventually limited to Ērānshahr or Greater Iran. Although there are scattered references to them in the Zoroastrian scriptures—the Avesta—and later Pahlavi literature, it is through the 11th-century Iranian national epic, the Shahnameh, that the canonical form of their legends is known. From the 9th century, Muslim writers, notably Tabari, re-told many of the Pishdadian legends in prose histories and other works. The Pishdadian kings and the stories relating to them have no basis in historical fact, however.
Kush-Nama, is a Persian epic poem and part of a mythical history of Iran written by Ḥakim Iranshān ibn Abu l-Khayr between the years 501-04/1108-11.
Kaveh the Blacksmith is a figure in Iranian mythology who leads an uprising against a ruthless foreign ruler, Zahāk. His story is narrated in the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran (Persia), by the 10th-century Persian poet Ferdowsi.
Arnavāz is one of the two daughters of Jamshid, the mythological king of Parsia. Arnavāz and her sister, Shahrnāz first married Zahhāk, but later married Fereydun, after he had defeated Zahhāk and imprisoned him in mount Damāvand. In some versions of Shahname, including the Moscow version and that of Ṯaʿālebī, Arnavaz and Shahrnāz are the daughters of Jamshid, but in others, they are his sisters.
The Garshasp-nama is an epic poem by Asadi Tusi. It has been described as one of the best epic poems in Persian literature, comparable to Shahnameh, by Ferdowsi, and the most important work of Asadi Tusi. Asadi Tusi completed the poem in 1066 and dedicated it to a certain Abu Dulaf, the ruler of Nakhjavan. The poem has also been translated to other languages such as French and German. It seems that Asadi Tusi wrote this poem based on a written source. Like the Shahnameh, it contains few Arabic loan-words and consists of some 9,000 verses. The main hero of this epic poem is Garshasp, the son of Etret, and grandson of Sām. The poem begins with the story of Jamshid and Zahhak. Jamshid is overthrown by Zahhak and flees to Zabolistan. In Zabolistan, Jamshid falls in love with an unnamed daughter of Kurang, the king of Zabolistan, and she bore a child for Jamshid, named Tur. Jamshid flees again to China. Garshasp is actually the grandson of Tur's grandson.
The Last Fiction is an animated film adaptation of the story of "Zahhak", a page from the historical identity of Iranians and one of the central tales of Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. Ashkan Rahgozar is the director of The Last Fiction. The main idea of the recounting of this tale is to lend a different perspective to the legends and heroes of ancient Iranians. Production started in 2010, and since then over 100 animators have worked on the film.
Hakim Iranshah ibn Abi al-Khayr, commonly known as Iranshah, was a Persian poet who lived in the Seljuk Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Shahrnāz is one of the two daughters of Jamshid, the mythological king of Iran. In some versions of Shahnameh, including the Moscow version and that of Ṯaʿālebī, Shahrnāz and her sister, Arnavāz are the daughters of Jamshid, but in others, they are his sisters.
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