How did the mythical kings of ancient Persia live? In this podcast, we delve into the Shahnameh, also known as the Book of Kings.

A marvelous epic with countless spin-offs. That, in a nutshell, is the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings. Some of these historical books are kept in the Leiden University Libraries’ special collections.

In this episode of the UBLpodcast, we examine some of those books, while Gabrielle van den Berg tells us about the brilliant stories they contain and their intricate histories. As a Leiden professor of cultural history of Iran and Central Asia, she has spent most of her career studying this part of history.

Leiden University is currently working on a new Middle Eastern Library. In this and subsequent episodes of the UBLpodcast, we will also highlight some special documents from the Middle East.

Learn more about the Middle Eastern Library and our Middle Eastern collections and follow us on Instagram @melibraryleiden and Twitter/X @MELibraryNL.