He built a palace whose materials were not stone and brick, but language, memory, reason, and resistance.
Author: Fayaz Bahraman Najimi, analyst on regional and international affairs, member of the Advisory Council of “Sangar”.
Part one
— PART TWO —
“SHAHNAMEH”: A MANIFESTO OF EPIC REASON AND THE CIVILIZATIONAL MEMORY OF THE PERSIAN WORLD
1 — Ferdowsi: More Than a Poet
The greatest mistake of ideological interpretations of Abulqasem Ferdowsi is reducing him merely to a “poet” who simply preserved the Persian language or versified a collection of legends. This very mistake can also be seen in the note by Hafiz Mansur, where Ferdowsi’s role is placed alongside Abu Hanifa’s fatwa, the military actions of Abu Muslim Khorasani, or the policies of the Samanids — as though the Shahnameh had been only one of the secondary factors in the survival of the language. In my view, Hafiz Mansur’s position resembles those falsifications first attributed to Muhammad Hasanain Haykal regarding the languages of Egyptians and Iranians, and later spread through flawed BBC interpretations that Hafiz Mansur repeated step by step.
But the reality is different. Ferdowsi was not merely a poet; he was the architect of the civilizational memory of the Persian world. He emerged at a historical moment when the Iranian-Khorasani world, after several centuries of Arab caliphal domination, stood on the verge of complete cultural transformation. The Persian language still survived, but it lacked a “grand civilizational narrative” capable of reconnecting the past, myth, history, morality, politics, and the very meaning of existence.
The Shahnameh filled this vacuum.
Ferdowsi elevated language from the level of a communication tool to the level of “historical being,” making language itself a “mode of human existence.” By linking myth and history, he created a shared memory for the entire Persian civilizational sphere — from Balkh and Bukhara to Herat, from Samarkand, Tus, and Isfahan to Kabul and Badakhshan. For this reason, the Shahnameh is not merely a literary work, but a kind of unwritten constitution of Persian identity.
2 — Reason: The Central Pillar of Ferdowsi’s Worldview
The first foundational word of the Shahnameh is “reason” (translations of the verses are literal — “Sangar”):
“In the name of the Lord of soul and reason,
Beyond whom no thought can rise.”
This opening is not accidental. Abulqasem Ferdowsi structures the world not around blind devotion, but around reason. In the Shahnameh, reason is the criterion by which human beings, power, war, morality, and legitimacy are judged. A good ruler is not one who merely possesses power or claims religiosity, but one who moves along the path of justice and reason.
This worldview fundamentally differs from the dominant fiqh-kalam system of the medieval Islamic world, especially the Ash‘arite tradition and later modern political Islamism. In dogmatic religious thought, ultimate truth lies in “text” and “obedience”; however, in the Shahnameh, the rational human being bears responsibility for his own destiny.
This is precisely why the Shahnameh becomes an intellectual threat to Ikhwanist movements. In the Ikhwanist understanding, a person is прежде всего a “member of the Ummah”; whereas for Ferdowsi, the human being is an independent historical subject who must choose between justice and tyranny.
3 — “Shahnameh”: The Restoration of Iranshahr’s Memory
After the fall of the Sassanids, the Arab Caliphate did not limit itself to political domination alone; it also sought to destroy the historical memory of the Iranian world. Many texts, myths, and intellectual traditions of ancient Iran were either lost or pushed to the margins. Under such conditions, the main danger was not merely the destruction of the state, but historical oblivion itself.
Ferdowsi stood precisely against this oblivion.
He fused history and myth to create “historical continuity.” In the Shahnameh, Fereydun, Jamshid, Kaveh, Rostam, and Siyavash are not merely legendary figures; they are symbols of civilizational memory. Each of them carries a distinct political and philosophical meaning:
- Kaveh — the symbol of rebellion against despotism;
- Siyavash — the symbol of purity and justice;
- Rostam — the symbol of responsibility and resistance;
- and Zahhak — the eternal image of tyranny and political evil.
Thus, the Shahnameh reminded the peoples of the Persian world that their history did not begin with the Caliphate. Long before the Abbasids and Umayyads, they possessed their own political philosophy, ethical order, and independent worldview.
It is precisely this independence of memory that troubles supporters of Ummah-centered ideologies. Ikhwanist ideology seeks to dissolve all identities into the “Islamic Ummah,” whereas the Shahnameh speaks of an independent civilization.
4 — Ferdowsi and the Political Philosophy of Justice
One of the fundamental concepts of the Shahnameh is dad — justice. In the world of Abulqasem Ferdowsi, political legitimacy derives not from lineage, ethnicity, or even religion, but from justice and reason.
A ruler remains legitimate only so long as he is just. The moment he turns toward despotism, arrogance, and tyranny, he loses the “divine glory” — farr-e izadi — and falls. This concept has deep roots in the Iranshahr tradition and was later reflected in the Illuminationist philosophy of Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi.
In the Shahnameh:
- Jamshid falls because of arrogance;
- Zahhak is destroyed because of tyranny;
- and Kay Khosrow reaches the height of legitimacy through justice.
Such a perspective fundamentally differs from traditional fiqh, which in many cases considers obedience to a Muslim ruler necessary — even if he is tyrannical — in order to prevent social discord. Ferdowsi, however, understands legitimacy as a moral and rational phenomenon, not merely a juridical-religious category.
This is precisely why the Shahnameh becomes a potentially liberating text: it calls upon human beings to resist injustice rather than submit to it.
5 — The Connection Between Ferdowsi, Avicenna, Abu Nasr al-Farabi, and Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
One of the greatest misunderstandings regarding the Shahnameh is viewing it solely as a literary work, whereas in reality it carries within itself a profound philosophical tradition — the same tradition that was theoretically developed in the works of al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and later Suhrawardi.
Al-Farabi spoke of the “Virtuous City” — a society founded upon reason and virtue. Ibn Sina regarded reason as the highest essence of the human being, while Suhrawardi, through the revival of “Khosravani wisdom,” sought to restore the connection between Iranian reason and Islamic philosophy.
Ferdowsi expresses this same tradition in the form of epic poetry.
In the Shahnameh, reason is not merely an instrument of calculation, but the very essence of light and humanity. The struggle between Iran and Turan, on a deeper level, is a struggle between justice and tyranny, light and darkness, reason and ignorance. It was precisely this dual structure that later found philosophical expression in Suhrawardi’s Illuminationist philosophy.
From this perspective, Ferdowsi and Suhrawardi are two different expressions of the same civilizational spirit:
- one in the form of poetry and myth;
- the other in the form of philosophy and wisdom.
6 — Ikhwanism and the Fear of Independent Memory
For Ikhwanist movements, the main problem with Abulqasem Ferdowsi is not merely “cultural nationalism,” but above all the intellectual independence of the Shahnameh. The Shahnameh depicts a world in which:
- reason stands above blind imitation;
- justice stands above power;
- and the human being is responsible for his own destiny.
Such a worldview is incompatible with the ideological structure of Ikhwanism, because political Islam derives legitimacy not from historical memory and human reason, but from religious ideology. Within such a framework, pre-Islamic history must either be Islamized or rendered insignificant.
This is precisely why Hafiz Mansur attempts to place Ferdowsi’s role alongside Abu Hanifa’s fatwa or the actions of officials of the Caliphate. This is not merely a historical error, but a conscious or unconscious attempt to disarm the identity of the Persian civilizational sphere.
The Shahnameh is dangerous because it reminds the Persian-speaking person that:
- he is not merely a member of a religious Ummah;
- he is the heir to an ancient, rational, and independent civilization.
7 — “Shahnameh”: The Book of Life and Resistance
Unlike many ascetic texts of the Middle Ages, the Shahnameh is not a book of death and isolation, but a book of life. The human being in the Shahnameh is a person of struggle, joy, love, responsibility, and steadfastness.
- Rostam stands against injustice;
- Kaveh rises in rebellion against Zahhak;
- Siyavash becomes a victim of the corruption of power, yet refuses to submit to falsehood.
In this world, the human being is not a passive creature concerned only with the afterlife. He is obligated to stand against Ahriman — even if he is defeated. It is precisely this spirit that transformed the Shahnameh into a text of historical resistance.
And this is exactly why dogmatic religious and Ikhwanist movements feel alienated from it. The Shahnameh awakens human will, whereas fundamentalist ideologies always rely on obedience, submission, and a collective, depersonalized identity.
8 — Abulqasem Ferdowsi and the Preservation of the Persian Civilizational Sphere
Had it not been for Ferdowsi, the Persian language might still have survived; however, it would most likely have been reduced to merely a local or court language. Ferdowsi’s greatness lies in the fact that he transformed Persian into the language of “civilizational self-awareness.”
Thanks to the Shahnameh:
- the history of Iranshahr was not forgotten;
- ancient myths did not disappear;
- and Persian-speaking peoples did not come to see themselves merely as part of the Islamic Caliphate.
For this reason, Ferdowsi is not only a poet but one of the greatest architects of civilizational survival in the history of the East. He built a palace whose materials were not stone and brick, but language, memory, reason, and resistance — a palace which, a thousand years later, still remains the greatest barrier against the cultural and ideological assimilation of the Persian world.
