Vardges Surenyants, Firdawsi Reads the Shahnameh to Mahmud of Ghazni, 1913. Oil on canvas.

Firdawsi (940-1020) is a classical Persian poet. He was the author of the influential national epic, the Shahnameh (c. 977-1010), the so-called “Book of Kings,” which tells the mythical and historical past of Greater Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century, through the sequential narrative of conquest and ascension.

Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030) was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid Dynasty (1963-1187), whose empire included Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India. As the first ruler to formally carry the title of sultan, Mahmud was instrumental in establishing Ghazni in present-day Afghanistan, as a capital city of medieval Islam.