Poetry occupies an important place in the heart and minds of Iranians. Every king had his own court poet the most famous of which is Ferdowsi. He eventually fell out with his patron Sultan Mahmoud and ran away in fear of his life. But he gave Iran through his poetry- Shahnameh or the Book of Kings -what was lost for centuries. This is what M. A. Eslami Nodooshan, Professor of Persian Literature, The University of Tehran says about Ferdowsi.

"Ferdowsi rejuvenated the language of his people in some of the most awe-inspiring simple yet rich poetry. If not for his immense contribution to the salvage and saving of the Persian heritage and history, he shall always remain the true hero of Iranians for his life long labour to guard and preserve the Persian language. He salvaged his peoples' heritage after 400 years of aggressive violation and destruction, and saved it in a way that after 1000 years, Persians owe the survival of their identity and language to no one but Ferdowsi. The last, but certainly not least, attractive characteristic of Shahnameh remains its tremendous literary and poetic calibre, arguably superior in every aspect to any literary work created so far."

Persian literature is rich with masterpieces such as Saadi's Bustan and Golestan , Hafez's Divan Hafiz, Nezami's Khamseh and Masnavi Molavi.

It is worth mentioning that, in former times a poetry book was produced by several people, mostly artists, poets and bookbinders. They met in "Mahfel"- a sort of club, where they showed each other their work. A book would take between 6 months to five years to complete depending on size. After being lettered, each page was decorated by an artist who painted miniatures fitting the story. Meanwhile the bookbinder made his cover. To the right is an example of a well calligraphed book. The picture shows the opening page of Saadi's Golestan (Persian reads from right to left <=). This book was calligraphed by Abdol Aziz, circa 1795. It has 270 pages and each page is adorned with wonderful ornaments every page different. Click on the picture  to see the cover.

Translations of most Persian masterpieces are fortunately available on the Internet. It is my pleasure to bring you Rumi's poetry superbly translated by Nader Khalili, and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, with Saadi's Golestan and Edward Fitzgerald's Omar Khyyam from the Internet site of Behrouz H. Far, Associate Professor, Department of Information & Comp. Sci.,Saitama University, JAPAN .

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