Today is the Ferdowsi Commemoration Day, and as someone who holds unconventional views of him & his work, the Shahnama, I thought I ought to write a bit about the man & his world, from a non-nationalistic, non-panegyric view point. So a thread:
Ferdowsi is considered the father of Persian lit. a deserved sobriquet. His magnum opus, the Shahnama “the Book of King(s)” composed in the early 11th c. was already recognised as fundamental in the medieval period. Other poets refer to him & praised him close to his life time.
In modern Iran though, he’s been elevated to an almost prophetic status. Most, even scholars, claim that he, out of a nationalistic vigour & anxiety about the erosion of Persian vis-á-vis Arabic, rose to the occasion of “preserving” the language against the latter’s onslaught.