Abu al-Qasim Firdawsi (940-1025; also spelled Abu’l Qasem Ferdowsi) lived during a time of political change in the Persian- speaking world. The “golden age” of Islam had passed some time before, and in places like his native city, far from the capital city of Baghdad, various dynasties and sects were emerging and coming into conflict with each other. While the Arabic language was the official language of Islam and of Islam’s central government, languages very different from Arabic, such as Persian and Turkish, remained important to people and their poets, who started to use them as a vehicle for writing down local traditions and expressing national and regional identities. Firdawsi, a Muslim himself, was one such poet. The little that is known about his life provides hints about his career and personality, but much remains a mystery. Even his given name has not been established: “Abu al-Qasim” means “father of Qasim,” and “Firdawsi,” meaning “from paradise,” was the name by which he was known. What is certain is that he came from a family of landowners—well-off but not nobility—and that he spent most of his life in the city of Tus, now Mashhad, in northeastern Iran.
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