Ferdowsī: BritannicaFerdowsī, also spelled Firdawsī, Firdusi, or Firdousi, pseudonym of Abū al-Qasem Manṣūr, (born c. 935, near Ṭūs, Iran—died c. 1020–26, Ṭūs), Persian poet, author of the Shāh-nāmeh (“Book of Kings”), the Persian national epic, to which he gave a final and enduring form, although he based his poem mainly on an earlier prose version...