The Shahnameh

A thousand years ago, a poet sat down to write his people back into existence.

The Shahnameh is a single poem about a hundred thousand lines long, written by Ferdowsi over roughly thirty years and finished around 1010 CE. It is one man setting down the entire remembered past of a people who had recently been conquered, in their own language, at a point when that language was in real danger of becoming a provincial dialect.

Fifty reigns, a war that outlives everyone who started it, and a hero whose life runs through nine of them. You can begin anywhere on the line below.

The whole poem, end to end

Every reign in the poem, in order. The threads above are people. Hover anything; the marked diamonds are stories you can read in a minute.

Scale the spine by
Jamshidthe king who fellZahhakthe serpent kingKavehthe blacksmithFereydunwho did not kill the tyrantSamwho abandoned his sonZalraised by the SimorghRudabehof KabulRostamthe crown-giverAfrasiyabking of TuranTahminehprincess of SamanganSohrabwho was looking for his fatherGordafaridwho held the fortSiyavashwho rode through the fireSudabehthe queen who accused himFarangisdaughter of the enemyKay Khosrowthe king who walked awayPiran Visehthe decent enemyGudarzwho buried his sonsGivwho searched seven yearsBizhanwho was left in the pitManizhehwho begged to keep him aliveEsfandiyarthe invulnerable princeBahmanwho came to collectGoshtaspthe father who would not abdicateShaghadthe half-brotherSekandarAlexander, made PersianBozorgmehrthe ministerShirinwho outlasted himRostam Farrokhzadwho read the starsZahhak and the SerpentsKaveh's ApronFereydun Divides the WorldZal and the SimorghZal and RudabehThe Seven Trials of RostamRostam and SohrabSiyavash Rides Through the FireBizhan and ManizhehKay Khosrow Walks Into the SnowRostam and EsfandiyarThe Death of RostamThe Parthians, in About Twenty LinesChess Arrives, Backgammon Goes BackThe Last Commander's LetterFereydun500yManuchehr120yKay Kavus150yKay Khosrow60yGoshtasp120ySekandar14yArdashir Babakan40yShapur …72yBahram Gur63yKhosrow Anushirvan48yHormozd IV12yKhosrow Parviz38yYazdgerd III16yTHE MYTHIC AGETHE HEROIC AGETHE HISTORICAL AGE

Scroll sideways. Gold threads are Iran, red is Turan, blue is neither, which is most of the trouble.

One number, first

Rostam is present across 9 reigns, roughly 691 years as the poem counts them. He is born under one king and is still fighting for Iran under his sixth, burying his own son somewhere in the middle of it. That single unbroken thread is what the line above is there to show you.

Start here

Three stories, about a minute each.