Shâhnâma. This manuscript is now IO Islamic 860 in the India Office collections. [metadata: Hermann Ethé, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, 2 vols. (Oxford: India Office, 1903): volume 1, number 2118 here with notations and hyperlinks]. B. POETRY. I.EPIC, LYRIC, AND DIDACTIC POETRY. Poets who died between A.H. 400 and 500. 1.Firdausî and Imitators (Nos. 860-901). a.Copies of the Shâhnâma with the older preface. 860 Shâhnâma (شاهنامه). Firdausî’s great epic poem, ‘the book of kings,’ in four books, preceded by the older preface, anterior to the so-called Bâisungharî recension, and designated by Mohl (i. p. xv) as prėface No. II;’ see Rieu ii. p. 534a; W. Pertsch, Berlin Cat., p. 732 sq.; Bodleian Cat., No. 497; Rosen, Persian MSS., p. 169; J. Aumer, p. 6 (where it is wrongly ascribed to Bâisunghar), etc. This preface has been translated by M. de Wallenbourg in his ‘Notice sur le Shahnamė,’ Vienna, 1810, and begins here, on fol. 1b: سپاس و آفرين مر خدايرا كه آن جهان و اين جهان الخ. First book (جلد اوّل) of the poem, on fol. 6b, beginning: بنام خداوند جان و خرد – كزين برتر انديشه بر نگذرد And going down to Bahrâm’s death. Second book (جلد دويم), on fol. 151b, beginning: بنام خداوند خورشيد و ماه – كه دلرا بنامش خرد داد راه And concluding with Isfandiyâr’s message of victory to his father Gushtâsp. Third book (جلد سوم), on fol. 290b, beginning: خداوند پيروزى و فرّهى – خداوند ديهم و شاهنشهى And ending with accession of Nûshirwân. Fourth book (جلد چهارم), on fol. 407b, beginning exactly as the second book and comprising the rest of the poem. Firdausî (Abû-alḳâsim Ḥasan or Manṣûr) was born about A.H. 321 or 322 (A.D. 933 or 934) in Shâdâb, near Ṭûs, completed the Shâhnâma, according to the usual statement, A.H. 400 (A.D. 1009, 1010), according to a rare epilogue, found only in one copy of the British Museum (Rieu. ii. p. 535a) and in No. 878 below, already A.H. 389 (A.D. 999), and according to some verses in the same copy of the British Museum, even as early as A.H. 384 (A.D. 994), and died A.H. 411 (A.D. 1020; other dates of his death are A.H. 416 =A.D. 1025, and A.H. 421=A.D. 1030); comp. on the poet’s biography and spe...