Step into the world of Shahnameh

A legendary epic poem written over a thousand years ago, Shahnameh is an epic that chronicles the mythological and heroic traditions of ancient Persia.

Since 2009, award-winning artist Hamid Rahmanian has worked to modernize and reimagine this Persian epic, bringing its stories to a new generation in a variety of mediums.

This video, produced by Arts in the City, pulls the curtain on director Hamid Rahmanian’s artistic process in creating the various Kingorama projects.

 
 
 

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*Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings
*Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King
*Song of the North - Art & Story
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SONG OF THE NORTH - We are pleased to announce the premiere of our 2nd installment of our Shahnameh Trilogy with 500 spectacular puppets and a dynamic ensemble of performers.

Watch FEATHERS OF FIRE - Enjoy the award-winning shadow theater production as a movie.

Special Offer on our best-selling book, SHAHNAMEH - Save up to 60% off the list price.

About Shahnameh - The Book of Kings

A little over a thousand years ago a Persian poet named Ferdowsi of Tous collected and put into heroic verse the millennium old mythological and epic traditions of Iran. It took him thirty years to write the sixty thousand verses that comprise the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings). This monumental tome is one of the most important literary works of Iran and like other great epics, such as Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Nibelungenlied and Ramayana, it is a record of the human imaginative consciousness. It is well known and has been adapted through out the Near East, Central Asia and India but is mostly unknown in the West.

The stories of the Shahnameh tell the long history of the Iranian people. It begins with the creation of the world and the origin myths of the arts of civilization (fire, cooking, metallurgy, social structures, etc.) and ends with the Arab conquest of Persia in the seventh century, A.C.E. A mix of myth and history, the characters of Shahnameh take the readers on heroic adventures filled with superhuman champions, magical creatures, heart-wrenching love stories, and centuries-long battles.

Ferdowsi was grieved by the fall of the Persian Empire. Shahnameh was meant to harbor the Persian collective memory, language, and culture amidst a turbulent sea of many historical storms and to preserve the nostalgia of Persia’s golden days.

Heroes of Shahnameh are often torn between incompatible loyalties: moral duty against group obligations, filial piety against national honor, etc. Some Iranian kings and heroes appear in Shahnameh as shining examples of courage and nobility. Others are portrayed as flawed human beings who lose their divine “charisma,” their loved ones, and even their own lives to pettiness and hubris. Ferdowsi stresses his belief that since the world is transient, and since everyone is merely a passerby, one is wise to avoid cruelty, lying, avarice and other evils; instead one should strive for order, justice, honor. truth and other virtues.

Shahnameh has survived as the embodiment of the pre-Islamic Persian soul, but it is much more than a national treasure. As a document of human collective consciousness, it reflects the dilemmas of the human condition as it confronts us with the timeless questions of our existence.

The present version covers the brief mythological opening of Shahnameh as well as the main bulk of its epic stories. The last one third of the book that is dedicated to the tales of the last pre-Islamic dynasty of Iran and the Arab conquest is not part of this version of Shahnameh.

ABOUT US

Kingorama is a website that presents the works on Shahnameh, created and produced by award-winning artist Hamid Rahmanian.   It all started with an idea to bring the little-knowns stories of Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) to the West.  Written by the Iranian poet Ferdowsi in the tenth century, Shahnameh weaves togethers Iran's ancient myths, epic stories and history into a great epic poem.  

Our goal is to present the tales of Shahnameh on a variety of platforms, so that it reaches a diverse audience across the globe. 

Our Team

Hamid Rahmanian is a 2014 John Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of the 2020 United States Artists Fellowship.  His work centers on theater, moving image, and graphic arts. His work has been exhibited in international competitions and publications. His films have screened at Venice, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, and IDFA film festivals and broadcast on PBS, Sundance Channel, IFC, Channel 4, BBC, DR2, and Al Jazeera.   Mr. Rahmanian undertook the immense task of illustrating and commissioning a new translation and adaptation of the tenth-century Persian epic poem Shahnamehby Ferdowsi, entitled Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings (2013). This best-selling 600-page art book, which the Wall Street Journal lauded as a “masterpiece,” is currently in its second edition (Liveright Publishing).  In 2017, he released an immersive audiobook version of Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian King, with an introduction by Frances Ford Coppola.  In 2018, he released a pop up book, entitled, Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King(Fantagraphics Books) in English and French which received the Meggendorfer Prize for the Best Pop Up Book and was hailed “Simply breathtaking” by Le Monde. In 2014, Rahmanian shifted his focus to theater arts, working with shadows and digital media.  To date, he has created five theater pieces: Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King (2014), Mina’s Dream (2016), commissioned by the Onassis Foundation), and UNIMA-USA award winning Feathers Of Fire (2016) which toured in 23 cities around the world to an audience of over 100,000.  In 2019, he was commissioned by Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble to create a video animation for their new multimedia project, Heroes Take Their Stand. Mr. Rahmanian completed his latest stage production, Song of the North, which premiered at the Booklyn Academy of Music in 2022 and is currently touring around the world. His most recent project, the new pop up book, The Seven Trials of Rostam is now available.   Download Hamid's full biography.

Melissa Hibbard co-founded the production company Fictionville Studio with her partner, Hamid Rahmanian.  She produced BREAKING BREAD (2000), SIR ALFRED OF CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT (2001) and SHAHRBANOO (2002).  In 2008, she produced and wrote THE GLASS HOUSE in association with the Sundance Channel, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received the Human Rights Award (OSCE, Docufest) and Best Feature Documentary (Dallas Video Fest).  In 2003, she co-established a non-profit organization – ARTEEAST – its mission statement to promote the arts and cultures of the Middle East and it’s worldwide diasporas in the United States; she was a board member and the ArteEast Online Director through 2007. In 2009, Melissa founded Fictionville Media; a documentary distribution service aimed at helping filmmakers self-distribute their own works. Recently she collaborated on an illustrated translation and adaptation of Persian mythology called SHAHNAMEH: THE EPIC OF THE PERSIAN KINGS (2013) as the Editorial Director.

Our Collaborators

Simon Arizpe is a paper engineer based in New York City. in 2013 his pop-up work earned him an honorable mention from the Society of Illustrators and the Museum of Comic Book Art and Cartooning inaugural Award of Excellence. Aside from his solo work, Simon is senior paper engineer at Robert Sabuda studio, where he has worked on New York Times best selling books: Star Wars: a pop-up guide to the galaxy, Dragons & Monsters, DC Comics Universe pop-up and The Little Mermaid as well as many other award winning titles. Simon is a founding member of The American Design Club.

Ahmad Sadri is professor of Sociology and Anthropology and James P. Gorter Chair of Islamic World Studies at Lake Forest College. He is the author of Max Weber’s Sociology of Intellectuals published by Oxford University Press and selected as the 1993 academic book of the year by Choice, the publication of American Library Association. He has written two books in Persian, Reviving the Concept of Civilizations and An Apocalypse Soon, and his published translations include Saddam City (from Arabic) and Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam (from Persian). He lives in Gurnee, Illinois.

Our Partners

Two Chairs Inc
Fictionville Studio
Banu Productions
Brooklyn Academy of Music
jim Henson foundation.
Liveright Press
Fantagraphics Books
Brooklyn Arts Council
Doris Duke Shangri La Residency Program
Honolulu Museum of Art
Canon USA
Neda Nobari Foundation