Mehdi Rahimi - Assistant professor of Comparative literature Hakim Sabzevari University

The concept of ‘Identity’ is one of the main debates in Cultural sociology as well as social psychology. ‘Collective identity’ is a group of social, cultural and historical factors in which distinguish one society from others. In the area of Persian language and literature there is no work more influential than Shah-nāmeh in shaping collective identity or it would be to say ‘National Identity’. Religion, language and history are three essential elements of the concept, collected in this master piece. Composing his masterpiece, Ferdowsi, one of the greatest epic poets of the world literature, revived Persian language after the Islamic conquest of Persia, and subsequent influence of Arabic language. All His effort is to preserve the memory of Persia s golden age and turnover it to new generation, to learn from the past and make the future better. Moreover, Shah-nāmeh is the Crown Jewel of the Persian literature, agreed by all critics, and had an Impressive impact on Persian literature which both in method and style followed by subsequent Persian poets who were heavily influenced by his writing.

Collective identity, National identity, Shah-nāmeh, Ferdowsi, Persian literature