Kufic Panels in the Florence Manuscript of the Shahnameh (in
Persian) A lecture by Nader Mottalebi-Kashani, Editor, Nameh-ye
Baharestan (International Journal of Manuscript Studies). Part
of the conference The Shahnameh: Iran's National Epic. The
Shahnameh, Iran’s national epic, was composed from a prose
literary archetype in the 10th century CE by Iran’s national
poet, Ferdowsi (c. 940 – 1020 CE), whom many Iranians consider
to be the father of their language. It exists in more than a
thousand complete and fragmentary manuscripts, some of which are
beautifully illustrated by excellent specimens of classical
Persian art. It is some 50,000 distiches (100,000 lines) long,
which makes it nearly twice the size of the Iliad and the
Odyssey combined. The Shahnameh as Iran’s national epic is
central to Iranians’ sense of cultural identity. It is the text
that defines who is culturally Iranian regardless of that
person’s citizenship, language, or religion. In addition to
Iranians who live in Persia proper, many Tajik