Based on a broad survey of the reception of Firdausi's Shahnama in medieval times, this dissertation argues that Firdausi's oeuvre was primarily perceived as a book of wisdom and advice for kings and courtly elites. The medieval reception of the Shahnama is clearly manifested in the comments of medieval authors about Firdausi and his work, and in their use of the Shahnama in the composition of their own works. The production of ikhtiyarat-i Shahnamas (selections from the Shahnama) in medieval times and the remarkable attention of the authors of mirrors for princes to Firdausi's opus are particularly illuminating in this regard.;The survey is complemented by a close textual reading of the Ardashir cycle in the Shahnama in comparison with other medieval historical accounts about Ardashir, in order to illustrate how history in the Shahnama is reduced to only a framework for the presentation of ideas and ideals of kingship. Based on ancient Persian beliefs regarding the ideal state of the world, I argue that Ardashir in the Shahnama is represented as a Saviour of the world. Within this context, I offer new interpretations of the symbolic tale of Ardashir's fight against a giant worm, and explain why the idea of the union of kingship and religion, a major topic in almost all medieval Persian mirrors for princes, has often been attributed to Ardashir. Finally, I compare the Ardashir cycle in the Shahnama with nine medieval Persian mirrors for princes to demonstrate that the ethico-political concepts contained in them, as well as the portrayal of Ardashir, remain more or less the same in all these works.;Study of the Shahnama as a mirror for princes, as this study shows, not only reveals the meaning of its symbolic tales, but also sheds light on the pre-Islamic roots of some of the ethicopolitical concepts presented in the medieval Perso-Islamic literature of wisdom and advice for kings and courtiers.
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