Bibliography

Primary Sources and Translations

• Darmesteter, James, trans. The Zend-Avesta, Part II. Sacred Books of the East 23. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1883.
• Dīnavarī, Abū Ḥanīfa al-. Kitāb al-akhbār al-ṭiwāl. Edited by Vladimir Guirgass. Leiden: Brill, 1888.
• Ferdowsi, Abolqasem. Shahnameh Ferdowsi: The Book of Kings. Complete Persian text. Persian edition, SasanPub.
• Herodotus. The Histories. Book 1, §§107–130.
• Movses Khorenatsi. History of the Armenians. Translated by Robert W. Thomson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978.
• Pausanias. Description of Greece 1.21.5.
• Pomponius Mela. De chorographia 1.114.
• Warner, Arthur George, and Edmond Warner, trans. The Sháhnáma of Firdausí. 9 vols. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1905–1925.

Encyclopaedia Iranica

• Boyce, Mary. “Gōdarz i. Historical Figures.” Encyclopaedia Iranica 11, no. 1 (2001): 31–39. Updated May 5, 2014. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/godarz/godarz-i-historical-figures/
• Boyce, Mary. “Ādur Gušnasp.” Encyclopaedia Iranica I, no. 5 (1983).
• Herrmann, Georgina, and Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis. “Sasanian Rock Reliefs.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Online edition.
• Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal. “Bār i. From the Achaemenid through the Safavid Period.” Encyclopaedia Iranica III, no. 7 (1988): 730–37.
• Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal. “Farīborz.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Online edition.
• Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal. “Gorgin.” Encyclopaedia Iranica 11, no. 2 (2002): 163. Updated June 4, 2013. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gorgin/
• Melikian-Chirvani, A. S. “Bargostvān.” Encyclopaedia Iranica III, no. 8 (1988): 795–96.
• Moazami, Mahnaz. “Ḵusraw ī Kawādān ud Rēdak-ēw.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Online edition, 2014.
• Russell, James R. “Armenian Aždahak.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. 1987.
• Shahbazi, A. Shapur, and Simone Cristoforetti. “Zāl.” Encyclopaedia Iranica (2009). https://doi.org/10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_984
• Tafażżolī, Aḥmad. “Dabīre, Dabīrī.” Encyclopaedia Iranica VI, no. 5 (1993): 540–41.
• Tafażżolī, Aḥmad. “Āraš, Kay.” Encyclopaedia Iranica (1986). https://doi.org/10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_5598

Books and Articles

• Blair, Sheila S. The Monumental Inscriptions from Early Islamic Iran and Transoxiana. Leiden: Brill, 1992.
• Buckler, F. W. “Firdausi’s Shahnamah and the Genealogia Regni Dei.” Supplement to the Journal of the American Oriental Society 1 (September 1935).
• Butler-Wheelhouse, Andrew. The Rhythm of the Pen and the Art of the Book: Islamic Calligraphy from the 13th to the 19th Century.
• Compareti, Matteo. “Heroes Fighting Snake Demons: Problems of Identification in Panjikent Paintings.” The Silk Road 16 (2018): 91–99.
• Coyajee, J. C. Studies in Shāhnāmeh. Bombay, 1939.
• Curtis, John, and Nigel Tallis, eds. Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia. University of California Press, 2005.
• Curtis, John, Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, and Tim Stanley. Epic Iran: 5000 Years of Culture.
• Dabashi, Hamid. The Shahnameh: The Persian Epic as World Literature. Columbia University Press, 2019.
• Davidson, Olga M. Comparative Literature and Classical Persian Poetics: Seven Essays. Bibliotheca Iranica: Intellectual Traditions Series.
• Davis, Dick. “In the Enemy’s Camp: Homer’s Helen and Ferdowsi’s Hojir.” Iranian Studies 25, nos. 3–4 (1992): 17–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/00210869208701777
• Davis, Dick. “Religion in the Shahnameh.” Iranian Studies 48, no. 3 (2015): 337–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2014.1000621
• Fayyaz, Fatima. “Chupā Rostam: ‘The Hidden Rostam’ in South Asian Cultural Imagination.” Paper presented at the conference of the Association for Iranian Studies, Utrecht, August 2026.
• Fluck, Cäcilia, and Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, eds. Riding Costume in Egypt: Origin and Appearance. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
• Gabri, Richard. “Framing the Unframable in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.” Iranian Studies 48, no. 3 (2015): 423–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2014.1000623
• Goldman, William. The Princess Bride. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.
• Grenet, Frantz, and François Ory. “A Preliminary Note on a Painting from Kuh-e Khwāja in the New Delhi National Museum.” Rome: ISMEO, 2025.
• Grenet, Frantz. “Eastern Iranian Contributions to the Construction of the Šāhnāme.” Biennial Yarshater Lecture Series, University of California, Los Angeles.
• Grenet, Frantz. “Records From a Disappearing Temple: A Note on the ‘King and Queen’ in the Painted Gallery at Kuh-i Khwaja.” Ars Orientalis 54 (2024). https://doi.org/10.3998/ars.7028
• Harper, Prudence O., and Pieter Meyers. Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period. Vol. 1, Royal Imagery. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981.
• Hillenbrand, Robert. The Great Mongol Shahnama. Hali Publications; Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
• Katouzian, Homa. The Persians: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran. Yale University Press, 2010.
• Kawami, Trudy S. “Kuh-e Khwaja, Iran, and Its Wall Paintings: The Records of Ernst Herzfeld.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 22 (1987): 13–52.
• Kwiatkowski, Will. The Eckstein Shahnama: An Ottoman Book of Kings. London, 2005.
• Madelung, Wilferd. “The Minor Dynasties of Northern Iran.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 4, edited by R. N. Frye. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
• Marshak, Boris. Legends, Tales, and Fables in the Art of Sogdiana. New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2002.
• Minorsky, Vladimir. “The Older Preface to the Shāh-nāma.” In Studi orientalistici in onore di Giorgio Levi Della Vida, vol. 2. Rome, 1956.
• Pierce, Laurie. “Serpents and Sorcery: Humanity, Gender, and the Demonic in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.” Iranian Studies 48, no. 3 (2015): 349–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2014.1000629
• Porada, Edith. Ancient Iran: The Art of Pre-Islamic Times. London: Methuen, 1965.
• Sauer, Eberhard W., et al. “Linear Barriers of Northern Iran: The Great Wall of Gorgan and the Wall of Tammisha.” Iran 44 (2006).
• Simpson, Marianna Shreve, with Louise Marlow. Princeton’s Great Persian Book of Kings: The Peck Shahnama.
• Tanaka, Yoshiki, with illustrations by Hiromu Arakawa. The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Vol. 1.
• Wiesehöfer, Josef. Ancient Persia. London: I. B. Tauris, 2001.
• Wink, André. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vol. 1. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
• Yarshater, Ehsan. “Iranian National History.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3(1), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 359–477. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
• Yoltar-Yıldırım, Ayşin, ed. Persian Manuscripts & Paintings from the Berenson Collection. Villa I Tatti Series.
• Ṣafā, Ẕabīḥ-Allāh. Ḥamāsa-sarāʾī dar Īrān. Tehran, 1954.

Museums, Archives and Heritage Sites

• Archnet. “Atashgah (Fire Temple) of Niyasar.” https://archnet.org/sites/5299
• British Library. Sogdian Rustam fragment, Or.8212/81 (Stein Ch. 00349). International Dunhuang Programme.
• Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. “Firuzabad – The Circular City.” 190 Jahre DAI blog.
• Lendering, Jona. “Naqš-e Rustam.” Livius.org.
• Lendering, Jona. “Sasanian Crowns.” Livius.org.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Head of a king,” ca. 4th century. Accession no. 65.126.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Mace head in the form of triple bulls’ heads,” early 1st millennium BCE. Accession no. 65.190.2.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Mounted Hunter with Cheetah,” 12th–early 13th century. Accession no. 66.23.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Plate with king hunting rams,” ca. mid-5th–mid-6th century CE. Accession no. 34.33.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Sword and scabbard,” ca. 7th century. Accession no. 65.28a, b.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Textile Fragment with Confronted Deer in Partial Pearl Roundel,” 8th–9th century. Accession no. 2006.472.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads. “Rustam Cycle” and “Mourning Scene.” https://sogdians.si.edu
• Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Byzantinische Kunst. “Reitermantel” (rider’s coat), 443–637 CE, from Antinoë. Inv. 9695. https://smb.museum-digital.de/object/141046
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Bisotun.” World Heritage List no. 1222. Inscribed 2006.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Persepolis.” World Heritage List no. 114. Inscribed 1979.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures.” World Heritage List no. 603. Inscribed 2001.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region.” World Heritage List no. 1568. Inscribed 2018.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System.” World Heritage List no. 1315. Inscribed 2009.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Takht-e Soleyman.” World Heritage List no. 1077. Inscribed 2003.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “The Persian Qanat.” World Heritage List no. 1506. Inscribed 2016.
• Yale University Art Gallery. Horse armor from Dura-Europos. See also “Heavy Metal from the Ancient Romans,” Yale Alumni Magazine.

Other Resources

• Reed College. “Mir Emad Hasani.” Persian Calligraphy. https://www.reed.edu/persian-calligraphy/en/mir-emad-hasani/1/. On the elements of Persian manuscript design.
• Wikipedia. “Azhdahak (mythology).” Accessed October 7, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azhdahak_(mythology)
• Wikipedia. “Fariburz (Shahnameh).” Accessed October 7, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fariburz_(Shahnameh)
• Wikipedia. “Gondophares.” Accessed October 7, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondophares
• Wikipedia. “Gorgin (Shahnameh).” Accessed October 7, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgin_(Shahnameh)