The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi is the greatest national epic of the Iranian people and one of the most important literary works in world literature. For generations, a popular belief has circulated that "Ferdowsi did not use a single Arabic word in the Shahnameh." This claim has been repeated in books, lectures, and on social media, but linguistic research has shown that it is not literally true.
What scholars do agree on, however, is something equally significant: more than any of his contemporaries, Ferdowsi sought to build the language of the Shahnameh upon the resources of Persian itself and to limit the excessive use of foreign vocabulary wherever possible. For this reason, the Shahnameh is regarded as one of the most thoroughly Persian works in classical Persian literature.
To understand the language of the Shahnameh, it is important to consider the historical context in which Ferdowsi lived.
Three centuries had passed since the Arab conquest of Iran. Arabic had become the language of religion, jurisprudence, science, philosophy, and government administration, and many Iranian scholars and writers composed their works in Arabic. At the same time, the Samanid dynasty actively supported the revival of the Persian language, creating the conditions that made masterpieces such as the Shahnameh possible.
Ferdowsi therefore lived in a society where Arabic had already become an integral part of cultural life, making its complete exclusion practically impossible. The Shahnameh does contain Arabic words, but their number is remarkably small compared with the epic's enormous length.
Dr. Jalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, editor of the most authoritative critical edition of the Shahnameh, has shown through statistical analysis that words of non-Iranian origin account for no more than about five percent of the text—a proportion that is exceptionally low among classical Persian works. This finding is one of the main reasons scholars reject the widespread misconception that the Shahnameh contains no Arabic vocabulary at all.
Likewise, the publication of A Lexicon of Arabic Words and Expressions in the Shahnameh by Sajjad Aydinlou demonstrates that the presence of Arabic words in the Shahnameh is not only undeniable but has also been the subject of specialized scholarly research.
Why, then, does the Shahnameh feel so distinctly Persian? The answer lies in Ferdowsi's deliberate choice of language.
1. Preference for Persian Vocabulary
Whenever a common Persian equivalent existed, Ferdowsi generally chose it.
In many Persian works of the fourth and fifth centuries AH, Arabic words were widely used for concepts related to government, warfare, nature, ethics, and emotions. Ferdowsi, however, usually preferred their Persian counterparts. As a result, the language of the Shahnameh often feels more natural and accessible to modern Persian speakers than many contemporary texts.
2. Preservation of Persian Syntax
The Shahnameh is Persian not only in its vocabulary but also in its sentence structure.
Many later Persian works adopted numerous Arabic grammatical constructions and expressions, whereas Ferdowsi preserved the natural syntax of Persian and largely avoided Arabic stylistic influence.
3. Preservation of Ancient Iranian Vocabulary
Ferdowsi kept alive many old Persian words that were on the verge of disappearing.
The names of tools, weapons, clothing, animals, plants, rituals, and heroic terminology preserved in the Shahnameh constitute a rich treasury of Iranian vocabulary. Had the epic not survived, many of these words might have been lost forever.
4. Reliance on Persian Sources
Ferdowsi's principal source was the Abu Mansuri Shahnameh, itself translated from Middle Persian (Pahlavi) texts and Iranian traditions. It is therefore only natural that much of its vocabulary was of Iranian origin.
Most scholars of the Shahnameh believe that Ferdowsi's motivation was fundamentally cultural. His aim was not merely to compose poetry, but to preserve Iran's history, mythology, cultural heritage, and collective memory. Since the epic recounts the stories of the Pishdadian, Kayanian, and Sasanian kings, along with legendary heroes such as Rostam, Zal, Siyavash, Kaveh, and Fereydun, it is only fitting that its language should remain, as far as possible, unmistakably Iranian.
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