Sohrab and Rustem: The death of Sohrab (Iranian painting) Where did this story come from? This story is probably an old Indo-European story that Persian people told even before they moved south into Iran [...]
A briar patch - a big thorn bush A story about Br'er Rabbit So Br'er Fox had caught Br'er Rabbit and this time Br'er Fox said he was going to cook Br'er [...]
Death of Iskandar (Alexander), from the Great Mongol Shahnameh (Iran, 1330s AD) In the 900s AD, Central Asia was the most civilized part of the world. The universities and libraries of [...]
The Devil carries Rostem Like Odysseus or Anansi, Monkey or Br'er Rabbit, the Iranian hero Rustem was a trickster. He uses quick thinking to get out of this fix: Once when he was sleeping alone outside [...]
Rustem kills the treacherous Shaghad When he was an old, old man, Rustem really did die (according to the story in the Shahnameh). Rustem died from treachery and betrayal, by his [...]
Arabic language: Sabataean writing Where did Arabic come from? Arabic is in the Semitic language group. Semitic languages seem to have gotten started before the beginning of writing. That would be before [...]
A page from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, from Herat, Afghanistan, about 1444 AD. Now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Islamic historians began by translating Greek historians like Herodotus and Thucydides into Arabic. But soon historians wrote in [...]
A monkey eating a mango Crocodile's mother asked him to bring her Monkey's heart to eat, so Crocodile tried to trick Monkey and get his heart. "Hey Monkey!" he said, "Let me [...]
Achilles and Penthesileia, on an Athenian vase painted by Exekias Penthesileia (pen-tha-sill-AY-ah) was the Queen of the Amazons, in Greek mythology. The Amazons were a group of warriors who were all [...]
Pictish battle (Aberlemno, Scotland, ca. 700 AD) (not really the Hildebrandsleid) Who wrote this story? The story of Hildebrand is one of the earliest stories written in German. Nobody knows [...]
