However, the roots of the narrative date much earlier. Rostam or Rustam ( Persian: رستم ) is a legendary hero in Persian mythology, the son of Zāl and Rudaba, whose life and work was immortalized by the 10th-century Persian poet Ferdowsi in the Shahnameh, or Epic of Kings, which contains pre-Islamic Iranian folklore and history. Sohrab and Rostam fighting:from ' The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp' (circa 1522)
