Ferdowsi

(c. 935 - c. 1020)

In an era of renewed interest in Persian heritage, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni assigned the poet Ferdowsi to write this chronicle of the Persian Empire from world creation to seventh-century Arab conquest. The sultan promised to pay a gold coin per line, but when Ferdowsi delivered what remains the longest epic poem ever written by a single author, the sultan sent silver instead. Ferdowsi was impoverished at the time but still refused the lesser sum.