SOURCE: A prologue to The Epic of the Kings: “Shah-Nama,” the National Epic of Persia, by Ferdowsi, translated by Reuben Levy, revised by Amin Banani, Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1967, pp. xv-xxvi.

In the essay below, Levy offers an overview of Ferdowsi's Shah-Nama, commenting on its form and style and praising, in particular, the poet's skill in his laments for Persia's fallen kings and heroes.

Before the land of Iran was converted to its present religion of Islam, or Mohammadanism, it had for many centuries followed the doctrines of Zoroaster. His religion, known in the West as Zoroastrianism or Mazdaism, had a literature of its own, which concerned itself largely, as might be expected, with doctrinal and ritual matters. But in its later stages there had also grown up a small body of secular works, of which some at least dealt with the history of the land, its...