The Account of the War of 572 AD in Shahnameh and the Features of the Source of Ferdowsi

There is only one account of the war of 572 between Iran and Rom, narrated by Ferdowsi in Shahnameh, and none of the prominent historians in early Islamic period such as Tabari, Balami and others mentioned it. This shows the importance of Shahnameh's account but arises several problems; In spite of providing a correct frame in the account, there are several ambiguities, especially in geographic information. It is obvious that Ferdowsi, in loyalty to his unique source of the account, exercised restraint in clarifying the ambiguities by storytelling techniques. Therefore, we can find some features of the unique lost source of Ferdowsi in narrating this war, which is very essential to settle the controversial issue of the sources of Shahnameh.