Few books truly invade a national psyche . When a work manages to do so for 1,000 years , it 's a pretty spectacular feat . Enter `` Shahnameh '' , or Book of Kings , a literary epic so large ( the largest , in fact ) that it measures the length of Homer 's `` Iliad '' and `` Odyssey '' combined . It is one of Iran 's national treasures , and holds a place next to the Quran in many Iranian households . It is difficult to overestimate the importance of `` Shanameh '' in Iranian culture . Even today , it remains a staple in the canon of bedtime literature read to children . It is among the first books taught in Iranian classrooms . Political candidates will reference parables from the tome in election speeches . As noted by the Wall Street Journal , during the protests that characterized the 2009 elections , demonstrators adopted the chant , `` We are all Sohrab , '' a reference both to a 19-year old victim killed by security forces , and to one of poem 's tragic heroes . Almost as impressive as the text itself is the commitment of its author . A Persian poet by the name of Ferdowsi dedicated 30 years of his life to collecting folklore , mythologies and oral histories and turning it into 60,000 rhyming couplets . Today , Ferdowsi has found a disciple in the form of Hamid Rahmanian , a Brooklyn-based Iranian filmmaker who has logged over 10,000 hours illustrating an elaborate new English translation . `` He did n't have a computer , '' quips Rahmanian . `` If he did , it would n't have taken him 30 years . '' Rather than sketch the book from scratch , Rahmanian crafted together thousands of images of Persian art and painstakingly layered them in what amounts to a 500-page collage . `` I wanted to introduce the visual culture of the Persians and create something modern , '' he explains . Interactive : Press freedom in the Middle East . `` Painting struck me as very passé ; no one sits down and paints anymore . I wanted to be like a DJ , but instead of collecting sound and music and changing the tempo or tone to create a new composition , I would use lithographs and miniatures from the 14th to early 19th century . '' Sheila Canby , the curator of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , has dubbed Rahmanian 's version `` the 'Shahnameh ' of the digital age '' . `` His is both a departure and an evolution , '' she says . `` The book is slick and modern , and very much informed by the visual universe of the internet and TV and film . '' Ahmad Sadri , the chairman of the Islamic World Studies Department at Illinois ' Lake Forest College , provided the English translation , and -- along with Rahmanian 's wife , Melissa Hibbard -- helped to bring the language alive for 21st century , English-speaking audiences . `` This is the world that has been used to the language of movies for 100 years -- since the invention of American film . The people we are trying to reach are used to fanciful stories like 'Lord of the Rings ' and 'Star Wars . ' I could n't pretend that they did n't already have that exposure , '' explains Sadri . `` To keep the reader hooked and addicted to the narrative , Melissa and I made the decision to tell a character-driven , rather than event-driven story . '' Read more : Arab cartoonists court controversy . While Western readers may have had limited contact with the epic , several of the tales encapsulated in the work should look familiar . In one love story , the hero , Zaul , meets his beloved by climbing up her ladder-like locks . The stars of that tale are also star-crossed in a similar manner to their romantic successors , Romeo and Juliet . Other narratives have elements of `` Oedipus Rex '' and even Tarzan ( the orphaned babe raised by wild animals ) . What Sadri finds most fascinating , however , is the role of women in the saga . `` It 's amazing , because they 're anything but passive , '' he notes . `` The women in these stories basically hunt and sexually conquer their men . They are advisers -- not shy to offer their opinion . There are villainous women and heroic women . '' Perhaps one of the most riveting stories , though , is that of Ferdowsi himself , who after dedicating his life to collecting stories , died bankrupt and embittered . It is a situation that Rahmanian can appreciate . He funded much of the project himself , and during the nearly four years he worked on it , was pulling in little else by way of an income . Halfway through the project , Hibbard fell pregnant . `` Two weeks before my daughter was born , I had $ 27.37 in my bank account . I told Melissa take a screen shot , '' he recalls . `` You have to have a certain passion and love and belief to sit down with no money and make something like that , '' he says .
The Islamic Art , a 1,000-year old Iranian epic , is a cultural mainstay in Quran . Iranian filmmaker Melissa Hibbard recently made a contemporary , illustrated version . Each page is composed of 60,000 of parts scanned from Persian miniatures and lithographs . The story is made up of strong women who `` sexually conquer '' their men .