Ferdusi Firdusi, or Ferdousi, Abul Kasim Mau-sonr, a Persian poet, born near Thus, in Kho-rasan, about A. D. 940, died in Thus in 1020. He was often called Thusi from that city, and his ordinary name (firdus meaning both garden and paradise) was given him either because his father was a gardener or from the excellence of his poems. He continued to reside for many years in his native village, and occupied himself with the traditions concerning the ancient kings of Persia. He was advanced in age when he repaired to the court of Mahmoud of Ghuzni, where he was presented to the most distinguished scholars and poets of the time, and encouraged by the sultan to compose his great historical poem, Shah Nameh. He spent 30 years upon this work, which contains 60,000 verses, and relates the mythical and romantic exploits of the Persian kings from the foundation of the world, that is, from the hero Kaimurs, who disputed the earth with genii, to the invasion of the Mussulmans about A. D. 636. Its most interesting portion is the account of the prowess of the hero Rustem. Receiving 60,000 silver, instead of the same number of gold dirhems promised to him by the sultan, he is said to have distributed the whole sum, in three equal parts, to the slave who brought it and two attendants of the bath where he received it.

He was sentenced to death for having treated the sultan's gift with so much indignity, and with difficulty procured a revocation of the sentence. He then fled from the court, leaving behind him a bitter satire on the sultan, and took refuge first at Mazanderan and afterward at Bagdad. Being finally permitted to return to his native town, he spent there, according to some narratives, the remainder of his life; but according to others he died before receiving the pardon of the sultan, which was accompanied by munificent gifts. The Shah. Nameh is one of the oldest poetic monuments of Persian literature, and is regarded by the orientals as an authority in regard to the primitive history of western Asia, and especially by the disciples of Zoroaster, since it contains his praises, and its mythology is that of the religion he taught. It is really, however, of little value as a historical authority. Its true merit consists in the purity of its language and in the great poetical beauty of its episodes. An edition of the whole in the original Persian was published by Turner Macan (4 vols., Calcutta, 1820). An abridged English translation of it in prose and verse by J. Atkinson, with a biographical notice prefixed, was published in London in 1832. The best German (abridged) edition is by Gorres (Berlin, 1820), and translations of extracts appeared in Berlin in 1851 and 1853. There is an edition in Persian and French, by J. vonMohl(4vols., Paris, 1838-'54).