Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings

A little over a thousand years ago the Persian poet Ferdowsi of Tous collected and put into heroic verse the millennium-old mythological and epic traditions of Iran. It took him thirty years to write the sixty thousand verses that comprise the Shahnameh or "The Book of Kings". This monumental work begins with legends of the birth of the Persian nationhood and ends with the Arab conquest of Iran. Written in the aftermath of that national trauma, Shahnameh was meant to harbor the Persian collective memory, language, and culture in a turbulent sea of many historical storms. Hamid Rahmanian is a filmmaker and graphic artist whose work has been exhibited in international competitions and publications. His narrative and documentary films have premiered at festivals such as Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, and Venice, and have gained international recognition for their socially conscious storylines. Ahmad Sadri is currently professor of Sociology and Anthropology and James P. Gorter Chair of Islamic World Studies at Lake Forest College. He has written two books in Persian: "Reviving the Concept of Civilizations," and "An Apocalypse soon." Sheila Canby is the Patti Cadby Birch Curator in Charge of the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She lives in New York City.