Celebrating May 15 the memorial day of " Ferdowsi Tousi "

Ordibehesht 25 in the Persian calendar corresponding with May 15 is National Commemoration Day of Ferdowsi, the greatest of Persian poets whose masterpiece, Shahnameh, preserved Persian identity, language, and heritage. Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi Tusi (940 – 1020Ad) was born into a family of Iranian landowners (dehqans) in 940 in the village of Paj, near the city of Tus, in the Khorasan region of the Samanid Empire, which is located in the present-day Khorasan Razavi Province of north-eastern Iran.

Shahnameh one of world's longest epic poems

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh “The Book of Kings” is one of the most important Iranian outstanding masterpieces in Persian culture and language, the writing of which took more than three decades.

Being the longest poem in the world, Shahnameh played a very crucial role in preserving the Persian culture and language.

Consisting of some 50,000 "distiches" or couplets (two-line verses), Shahnameh is the world's longest epic poem written by a single poet.

The Shahnameh includes stories of politics, war, battle scenes, hunting, and heroism—and, of course, love. It recounts the legendary history of Iran from the creation of the world until the seventh-century Islamic/Arab conquest. Hence, its entire subject matter is pre-Islamic and is threaded with Zorasterian myths and motifs.

It is the history of Iran's glorious past, preserved for all time in sonorous and majestic verse. The language is pure Persian with only the slightest admixture of Arabic.

Shahnameh as a great work in the area of culture and civilization represents the strengths and uniqueness of this Persian work that gave inspiration to other nations. Several times, it has been translated into other languages which represent the strengths and uniqueness of this Persian work.

The romance of Zal and Rudaba, the Seven Labors of Rostam, Rostam and Sohrab, Siavash, and Sudaba, the romance of Bizhan and Manizheh and Rostam and Esfandyar are among the most popular Shahnameh stories.

Shahnameh is one of the main pillars of the modern Persian language.

Here are some lines from his poems. Ferdowsi concludes the Shahnameh by these lines: 

Magnificent buildings will be destroyed 

From rain and exposure to the sun

I founded a great palace of verse so high

That sees no harm by the wind and the rain

Thus, I won’t die, for I am forever alive

As I’ve spread the seed of the word

Whoever has intelligence, vision, and belief

Even after my death will praise me