Testimonial by Ed Shawe-Taylor

I enrolled in the "Learn Persian Through the Shahnameh" course, having just completed the first year of a university course in modern Persian. I still felt like a beginner and had very little experience with any Classical Persian. 

The course was brilliant!

When I began looking at the text from the Shahnameh, I had no idea how to start translating it, but by the end of the course, I was able to translate it quickly and freely, often without requiring any assistance at all.

I cannot imagine a more learned and erudite teacher than Ruben. His knowledge of the Shahnameh as a literary text was staggering, and perhaps even more impressive was his linguistic understanding of the Iranian and Indo-European languages. His ability to trace words back to their Middle Persian roots was fascinating. The process made me retain vocabulary far better and gain a deeper understanding of the language of the Shahnameh and Persian generally. Despite his frightening level of knowledge, Ruben always explained the language and the grammar so clearly and intelligibly, making the translation of this 1000-year-old classic an achievable goal for newer learners. As a student of Islamic material culture, I also appreciated the inclusion of manuscripts in our sessions and discussions, looking at Shahnameh manuscripts from the earliest surviving text, now in Florence, to later notable illustrated manuscripts such as Baysunghur and Shah Tahmasp’s famous editions. 

I cannot recommend this course enough to anyone interested in broadening their understanding of classical Persian. For me, there is no better way to advance your knowledge of a language than through engagement with its great literary works - and this course allowed me to do just that!