Shahnameh

Great thinkers would emerge centuries later, writing in Persian or deeply influencing the Islamic world.

Poets like Ferdowsi, for example, preserved the memory of the ancient kings in epic works such as the Shahnameh, keeping the story of ancient Persia alive.

Thus, even while embracing Islam, Persian civilization found a unique way to integrate the new without completely abandoning the old.

In the centuries that followed, the region underwent countless transformations.

For centuries, the world had known that ancient land as Persia, a name that evoked images of majestic empires, finely woven carpets, mystical poetry, and an intellectual tradition that deeply influenced the Islamic world.

It was the land of poets like Hafez and Sadi, of scholars like Avicenna.

and of stories preserved in epic works such as the Shahnameh, which told of the deeds of ancient kings, from legendary figures to historical rulers like Cyrus and Darius.

Yet in the Western imagination, the word Persia also carried another meaning.

He trusted himself too much.

The story comes from the Shahnameh, the Book of Kings, the great Persian epic written by the poet Ferdowsi around the time of the 11th century.

It's one of the masterpieces of world literature, preserving centuries of Persian legend and history.

And where the Greeks warned about the dangers of pride through queens like Cassiopeia, the Shahnameh explores a different kind of flaw, ambition without wisdom.

Its king is Kay Kavus.

Kay Kavus was the second ruler of the legendary Achaemenian dynasty.

If you're noticing a pattern here, so was Ferdowsi.

Kay Kavus survived the ordeal.

But even more prominently, the Anqa became identified with a similar creature in Persian lore called the Simurgh.

In adapted versions of the Persian national epic Shahnameh, the Simurgh is rendered in Arabic as Anqa.

And even al-Jahiz makes this connection in his writings in the 9th century.

The Simurgh is an equally prominent feature of Persian literature and myth, and has similarly varied descriptions.

The most famous account is probably in the aforementioned Shahnameh by Firdozi, where it is described as an enormous beautiful bird with colourful feathers who saves and takes care of the orphan Zal, a very popular story from that collection.

Because the Anqa was associated specifically with that which is elusive, hidden, ungraspable and beyond our knowledge, it became a ripe metaphor for anything that fits that description, including intellectual concepts, spiritual attainment and purity, and even God himself.

In Fariduddin Attar's famous mystical poem, Mantak At-Tayr, or The Conference of the Birds, the plot revolves around a group of birds who decide to go on a journey in search of the king of the birds, the Seymourg, which will be able to lead them.

Go ahead.

I said, if you know Salah, tell the old guys like Publisher, for example, to set up a show about Shahnameh and then broadcast it on your TV.

If you know Salah, tell them to set up a show about Shahnameh.

No, not you

and God, tell them to set up a show about Shahnameh.

I mean, if I know where they are, I don't care.

Why are you different?

I mean, whoever is talking about this, either he is an incompetent person, or he doesn't understand at all, or he is just looking for someone to pay him.

CHANTING

As they do their workouts, he chants verses from the Shanama, an epic poem celebrating the deeds of a mythical Iranian superman.

Finally, the spiritual climax.

As the trainer beats out his hypnotic rhythm, they take turns at a feat made famous by Sufi mystics, the dance of the whirling dervishes.

Some have monstrous hands or even claws or like abnormal bodies, and some of them eat humans.

So in the great Persian epic, the Shahnameh, heroes reportedly traveled into remote and dangerous landscapes to actually fight these beings.

And one of the most famous stories is of the white div, a creature living in this almost inaccessible mountain stronghold surrounded by other creatures or demons until the hero Rostam goes in and kills it.

Now, here is an important distinction.

I'm really happy to be here today.

I chose that selection from Ferdowsi's epic poem, Shanama, because it is one of the most important poems in Persian culture.

and really represents the embodiment of the cultural identity of Iran.

That selection in particular illustrates an idea that we're going to see throughout Iranian history, and most especially with the Qajars, that Iran is larger than its ruler.

welcome welcome back to kids story time tonight we return to the snowy forests of northern sweden and to the little brown brick house where arvid eva and mom have been waiting for daddy to come home in the last chapter daddy's chair stood empty at the table Elin and Elsa filled the house with laughter and Arvid and Eva remembered the Shahnameh stories daddy had already told them.

They remembered Zal and Rudabeh.

They remembered the Great Seamorg.

Arvid and Eva had not forgotten Zald, Rudabe, the Simurgh, or the golden feathers.

Three had been given, one had been burned, two remained.

And now, at last, daddy was home to continue the story of the extraordinary child who would one day become one of the greatest heroes of the Shahnameh, Rostam.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

Until next time, keep warm, keep wandering, and remember that sometimes the best part of a journey is the road that leads you home.