Firdawsī

(Ferdosi), Persian poet, one of the greatest writers of epic, author of the S̲h̲āhnāma (S̲h̲āhnāmè, the Book of Kings). His personal name and that of his father are variously reported (Manṣūr b. Ḥasan, according to al-Bundārī [q.v.]); it is agreed that his kunya [q.v.] and his pen-name were Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Firdawsī. According to Niẓāmī ʿArūḍī, the oldest source (Čahār maḳāla, tr. E. G. Browne, 54), he was born at Bāz̲h̲, a village in the Tabaran quarter of Ṭūs [q.v.]. The date of his birth (ca. 329-30/940-1) is reliably deduced from his statement that in the year of …