Completion of the Shahnameh · Payan-e Sorayesh-e Shahnameh

Culture of origin: Iranian · Cultural

Holiday sources: Iran

Ferdowsi dated the end of his epic himself: "Now the tale of Yazdegerd is ended, in Spandarmad, on the day of Ard", that is, in the month of Esfand. Scholars put the completion at 8 March 1010, about thirty-three years after he began around 977; an earlier version was finished in 995. Its some 50,000 couplets tell Iran's story from the creation of the world to the fall of the Sasanians, making it the longest epic poem by a single author.