Firdowsi Day in Iran (24 Ordibehesht)

(born 935, near s, Iran died 1020, s) Persian poet. Though many legends surround his name, few facts are known about his life. He gave the final and enduring form to the Persian national epic, the Shh-nmeh (completed 1010; Book of Kings), a poem based mainly on an earlier prose history. His language is still readily intelligible to modern Iranians, who regard the poem's nearly 60,000 couplets as a sonorous, majestic evocation of a glorious past. He reportedly worked on the poem for 35 years to earn a dowry for his only daughter.