Shahnameh translated by Ahmad Sadri
'Shahnameh' translated by Ahmad Sadri
Some have called Shahnameh the longest epic ever written by a single poet. However, the Iranian (Persian) poet, Ferdowsi of Tous, was as much a compiler and editor of oral tradition as an author. He was the Persian Homer, but with a more substantial historical identity, and like Homer’s Iliad, Shahnameh presents heroes and enemies alike in human terms with recognizable psychological motivations.
The new translation by Ahmad Sadri is rendered mostly as lucid prose in an accessible account of Persia from prehistory through the Arab Muslim conquest of 630 BCE. Shahnameh’s many tales comprise an argument against hubris and the abuse of power, sins that never go unpunished. The chronicle moves across the millennia, slipping from mythology into history, albeit from distinct and sometimes surprising perspectives. In Ferdowsi’s telling, the conqueror we know as Alexander the Great (Eskander in Persian) was actually a Persian prince raised in Macedonia, a rightful claimant to the throne rather than an usurper. In his preface, exiled Iranian playwright and filmmaker Hamid Rahamanian writes that some of Shahnameh’s heroes and imagery have been employed in protests against Iran’s fundamentalist regime.
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