CNN ) -- 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 . 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 . From Hamid Rahmanian ' s modern English language " Shahnameh " The women in these stories basically hunt and sexually conquer their men . Ahmad Sadri , translatorAlmost 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 didn ' t have a computer , " quips Rahmanian . " If he did , it wouldn ' 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 14 th to early 19 th 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 . " Western readers may be familiar with Zaul , meeting his lover by climbing her locks . Ahmad Sadri , the chairman of the Islamic World Studies Department at Michigan ' s Lake Forest College , provided the English translation , and -- along with Rahmanian ' s wife , Melissa Hibbard -- helped to bring the language alive for 21 st century , English - speaking audiences . I wanted to be like a DJ , but instead of collecting sound I would use lithographs from the 14 th century . Hamid Rahmanian " 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 couldn ' t pretend that they didn ' 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 controversyWhile 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 . 7 Comments » SHARE THISPrintEmailMore s h a r i n g R e d ditStumbleUponDeliciousWe recommend ' Dads ' offends before it even airs on TV ( CNN International - Entertainment )