14. The Poet Who Ran and Hid Away From Wealth
The Shahnameh combines beauty and cruelty, breathtaking surroundings marred by the violence surrounding them. It juxtaposes the glorification of war and warriors, and a relentless fate that nearly always finds the actors to hold them accountable for their actions. After he completed the epic in 1010, Ferdowsi presented it to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, who accepted the poem, but stiffed Ferdowsi by paying him an insultingly small amount. Soon as he left the court, an angry Ferdowsi composed a satire of the chintzy Sultan, then fled. Legend has it that Ferdowsi spent the final decade of his life hiding from Mahmud’s wrath, unaware that the Sultan had reconsidered his shabby treatment of the poet and determined to make amends with a rich reward. Ferdowsi thus died in penury, unaware that he was now a wealthy man.
