Rostam: Tales of Love & War from Persia's Book of Kings
ABOLQASEM FERDOWSIwas born in Khorasan in a village near Tus, in  940. There are various stories in medieval texts describing the lack of  interest shown by the ruler of Khorasan, Mahmud of Ghazni, in Ferdowsi's   great epic the Shahnameh, to which he had devoted most of his adult life.   Ferdowsi is said to have died around 1020 in poverty and embittered by  royal neglect, though confident of his and his poem's ultimate fame.Dick DAVISlived for eight years in Iran (1970-78), as well as for  periods in Greece and Italy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of  Literature, Professor of Persian at Ohio State University,  and now  considered the greatest translator of Persian poetry.