Shahnameh

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An epic poem that serves as a national epic of Persia, chronicling the historical pre-Islamic past and myths of the Persian people
2. A literary masterpiece written by the poet Ferdowsi, detailing the tales of ancient Persian kings and heroes
3. A significant work of Persian literature that combines history, mythology, and poetry to narrate the story of Iran's legendary figures

Etymology: The Shahnameh, the great Persian epic, takes its name from two ordinary words: "shah" meaning "king" and "nameh" meaning "book" or "letter." Put together, the title means "Book of Kings," a plain description of what the poem contains: the legendary and historical rulers of Iran, from the mythical beginnings of the world down to the Arab conquest of the seventh century. The name is older than the English word that borrowed it. In Classical Persian the compound was "shahnama," and in the modern Iranian Persian spelling it became "shahnameh." English took it over directly from that Persian form, so the word carries its original meaning intact: a king-book, and nothing more elaborate than that.

Synonyms: book of kings, epic poem