Rostam: Tales of Love & War from Persia's Book of Kings

by Abolqasem Ferdowsi

Rostam is Iran's greatest mythological hero, a Persian Hercules, magnificent in strength and courage. This book begins with the birth of Rostam's father and ends with Rostam's death. The tales tell of the love between Zal and Rostam's mother, the Kaboli princess Rudabeh; of Rostam's miraculous birth, aided by the magical bird Simorgh; and more.

Genres: Poetry, Mythology, Classics, Iran, History, Medieval, Literature

1 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Abolqasem Ferdowsi (Persian: ابوالقاسم فردوسی), the son of a wealthy land owner, was born in 935 in a small village named Paj near Tus in Khorasan which is situated in today's Razavi Khorasan province in Iran.
He devoted more than 35 years to his great epic, the Shāhnāmeh. It was originally composed for presentation to the Samanid princes of Khorasan, who were the chief instigators of the revival of Iranian cultural traditions after the Arab conquest of the seventh century. Ferdowsi started his composition of the Shahnameh in the Samanid era in 977 A.D. During Ferdowsi's lifetime the Samanid dynasty was conquered by the Ghaznavid Empire. After 30 years of hard work, he finished the book and two or three years after that, Ferdowsi went to Ghazni, the Ghaznavid capital, to present it to the king, Sultan Mahmud.

Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 in poverty at the age of 85, embittered by royal neglect, though fully confident of his work's ultimate success and fame, as he says in the verse:
" ... I suffered during these thirty years, but I have revived the Iranians (Ajam) with the Persian language; I shall not die since I am alive again, as I have spread the seeds of this language ..."

Reviews

[Teck Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really terrific epic about a mighty warrior of Iran, his mammoth-like size and strength, his love for his people, a bulwark for peace and prosperity. Many ups and downs he had to undergo, and his ending was tragic. Still his legacy lives on.

[Geoffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done translation takes large portions of the Rostam narrative out of the Shahnameh.

The Persian equivalent of Hercules, Rostam has an unnaturally long lifespan that sees him interacting with multiple generations of Kings as he protects the throne and country. The nature of this existence means that in its original form, we may not see Rostam for some time between adventures, and the supporting cast can drastically change as decades may have past between some of the stories. Helpful summaries describe missing tales that might help to inform the current narrative - with the only notable Rostam absence being his appearance in the Siyavash/Sudabeh epic.

Any faults are the nature of the format, but for those looking to get acquainted with Persian mythology without tackling the full length of the Shahnameh - this is an exceedingly enjoyable entry point.

[Ariel Kalati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realizing a lot of the books I read this autumn were colored by the context of me teaching Beowulf at the same time, lol. I kept an eye out for "characteristics of the epic hero" while reading this, and honestly I really enjoyed it from that perspective. Rostam is a really interesting epic hero- I feel like he's a little more three-dimensional of a character, in a modern sense, than, say, Beowulf or Odysseus. I also appreciated this edition's abbreviation of the Shahnameh to focus on one hero, because for an obnoxious completionist like me, I would have tried too hard to "read every last word" of the actual Shahnameh and then gotten overwhelmed and given up. So this was good for me to get a taste of my family's culture and to know some of the references my dad makes on occasion, like the Simorgh. And, much like the Aeneid, this story made me actually feel things about the epic hero and root for him. I really liked it!

[William Riverdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can say that the stories that I read from this book tell about many subjects: love, honor, adventure, cunning, fealty, loyalty, revenge, grief to name a few. But I would consider pride to be the greatest concern of these stories from the Shahnameh. Especially, how pride leads only to tragedy.

So many characters could have escaped their dismal fate, if only they had put away their pride. Most of them being Rostam himself. Rostam who is the greatest warrior of Iran, the maker of Kings, imbued with supernatural strength and versed in the magical arts, was brought down due to his own pride and with him the rest of his household.

Let people beware pride. It is a blind rabid lion, tearing apart its own kin in its frenzy.

[Daniel C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book after reading the story or Rostam and Sohrab in an Orhan Pamuk book. It had the same heroic epic feel as Cuhullin and Gilgamesh which I really enjoyed reading in school. The father of the main character is abandoned as a child and raised by a giant fearsome bird. What's not to love about that? The narrative was pretty easy to read aside from random sections of rhyming couplets. My only complaint is that they could have put all the lithographs in the text instead of all together at the front of the book.

[Brian Banifatemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing book!

My Iranian parents have shared stories from the Shahanmeh to me but it was awesome to read them myself for a change.

It is easy to see why Ferdowsi’s lifework is regarded as such a masterpiece, because that’s exactly what the Shahnameh is!

Can’t wait to read more, shout out to Dick Davis for a lovely translation, introduction and summaries.

[king bitchard 💜 · Rating 4 out of 5]

when it wasnt boring as shit this fucking ruled. oh to be a snazzy persian prince in the year 1000

[Wally Nobody · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's just way too much fighting. I'm beat from all the fighting, but I blame reading The Mahabharata before this.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing and excellent translation. However, much of it was difficult to follow.
In reading this I learned that there is such a thing as Persian mythology (up to this point I was only aware of Greek mythology). And not having any prior or introductory knowledge of this subject matter made this a tough read in some areas of the book.

[ehsan · Rating 4 out of 5]

epic

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rereading this outstanding translation for my class's project on epic heroes from around the world.

[Hamonkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shagad just misunderstood :(