An electronic corpus of paintings in Shahnama manuscripts

November 3, 2008 5:52 PM

The Shahnama or “Book of Kings” is the longest poem ever written by a single author: Abu’l-Qasim Hasan Firdausi, from Tus in northeastern Iran. His epic work narrates the history of Iran (Persia) since the first king, Kayumars, who established his rule at the dawn of time, down to the conquest of Persia by the Muslim Arab invasions of the early 7th century A.D.
posted by tellurian (18 comments total)

ummm... this is an election-filter only evening.
posted by gman at 5:54 PM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

No, it isn't.

Thanks for posting this, tellurian.
posted by jason's_planet at 5:56 PM on November 3, 2008

previously
posted by intermod at 6:07 PM on November 3, 2008

Yeah, but the election is upon us and Iran is America's sworn enemy.

I'm fuckin' joking. An Iranian buddy of mine introduced me to this a couple months back. AMAZING.
posted by gman at 6:10 PM on November 3, 2008

The 2006 edition of the Dick Davis translation on Viking Press ( publisher / Amazon ) got glowing reviews a year or so ago. It's amazing, and I've only made it through the introduction.

Also, you should add "Shahnameh" to the tags, as that's the more common Anglicized spelling.
posted by intermod at 6:14 PM on November 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Longer than the Faerie Queene? That was exhausting, and I must admit I don't think I completely exhausted that particular exhaustion. Anyway, this is cool and the best post of the week or so, IMHO. I need some nice diversions to keep from biting my fingernails even further. Thanks.
posted by caddis at 6:32 PM on November 3, 2008

the longest poem ever written by a single author

That sounds like a challenge. Astro Zombie, would you care to do the honors?
posted by DU at 6:37 PM on November 3, 2008

DU: "the longest poem ever written by a single author

That sounds like a challenge. Astro Zombie, would you care to do the honors?"

Public Domain! Public Domain! Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+V = A poem 4X as long at no extra cost.
posted by Science! at 7:22 PM on November 3, 2008

Crap! I'm hard at work on the shortest poem ever. Here's what I've got so far:

A
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:14 PM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

I would like to do a parody of this where it's the history of greasers in America.

I will call it the Shahnana.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:14 PM on November 3, 2008

Not quite A

Take that Astro [purr in the sun like a little kitten] Zombie.
posted by dirty lies at 9:47 PM on November 3, 2008

Science!, send some cash my way, and I will write a script that will go through the poem and substitute each and very word with its dictionary definition.

Send more cash, and I will run it twice.


The dog.Definite grammatical article A male dog, as opposed to a bitch The punctuation mark indicating the end of a sentence or marking an abbreviation.Having distinct limits Acceptable as a correct sentence or clause A member of a group or class The first letter of the English alphabet someone of masculine gender A male dog, as opposed to a bitch Punctuation mark indicating a pause between parts of a sentence or between elements in a list ...
posted by dirty lies at 9:55 PM on November 3, 2008

The Shahnama!

Do doo be-do-do

The Shahnama!

Do do-do do

The Shahnama!

Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do!
posted by sourwookie at 10:02 PM on November 3, 2008

cough...Mahabarata...cough
posted by Duug at 1:51 AM on November 4, 2008

cough...by a single author...cough

If we're eliminating the "single author" restriction, I'm pretty sure the crown goes to the Kirghiz epic, the Manas, which is twice as long as the Mahabharata.

Nice post!
posted by languagehat at 6:04 AM on November 4, 2008

It’s the Tahmuras Div-band 30 year Setar solo that really makes it.

Nifty.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:51 AM on November 4, 2008

*pastes from another thread*

I felt a slight tinge of shame when a sweet young Iranian girl with the largest honey-brown eyes in history was surprised that Ferdausi is not studied in our high schools. "But we are studying all *your* great poets. *Lear King* is my favourite of your great historical tales..."
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:39 AM on November 4, 2008

Crap! I'm hard at work on the shortest poem ever. Here's what I've got so far:

A

What? That doesn't even rhyme.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:47 AM on November 5, 2008