The 'Shahnameh', or 'King's Chronicles', is a poetic opus written around 1000 CE by the Persian poet Firdawsi. Regarded as the national folktale of Persia, the Shahnameh consists of some 60,000 verses and tells the mythical and historical past of Iran from the creation of the world up until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. Abu'l-Qasim Firdawsi, more commonly transliterated as Ferdowsi (or Firdausi), (940-1020) is a highly revered Persian poet throughout Iran and the Iranian world.