LRI615985 A Reception at the Royal Court of Kabul, from Firdawsi's 'Shahnama' (vellum) by Persian School; Musee Conde, Chantilly, France; The Shahnameh or Shah-nama ("The Book of Kings") is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of (Greater) Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.