Author: Firdausi
Biography:
FIRDAUSI (940-1020: WBIS)
The pen name of a Persian poet, author of the epic Shahnameh or "Book of Kings." The name appears under various transliterations: Ferdowsi, Firdawsi, Ferdosi, etc. His original name is not certain but he came from an upper-class landowning family, was born and grew up in Tus, and was buried in his own garden there. He married and had at least one son. Three of the English translators listed here have headnotes of their own: Joseph Champion, Stephen Weston, and James Atkinson, qq.v. The exception is William Tulloh Robertson, Esq., of the Bengal civil establishment (as he described himself on the title-page). He was born in Calcutta on 2 Oct.1798 to Scottish parents, Elizabeth (Tulloh) and Colin Robertson, who had married in India in 1796. He went into the service of the EIC and married Anne Lydia Fraser in Calcutta on 28 July 1818. The couple had eleven children. Robertson appears to have served an administrative role in the court system as assistant or registrar for the magistrates. He was a member of the Bengal Asiatic Society; the Asiatic Journal reviewed his translation favourably as to its learning, though disparaging the versification. In 1832 Robertson protested against the reduction of his salary, and at some point after that was transferred to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where he died on 27 Apr. 1835. ("Ferdowsi," Encyclopedia Britannica Online, britannica.com 8 Aug. 2021; ancestry.com 1 Jan. 2026; findmypast.com 1 Jan. 2026; East-India Register and Directory 1819, 1826; Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register [1830] 2:165-6) HJ
Other Names:
- Ferdoosee
- Firdousee
- Ferdowsi