Gurdāfarīd is one of the heroines in the Shāhnāmeh

Shahnameh

The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...

"The Book of Kings" or "The Epic of Kings", an enormous poetic opus written by the Persian poet

Persian literature

Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...

 Hakīm Abū l-Qāsim Firdawsī Tūsī

Ferdowsi

Ferdowsi was a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran and related societies.The Shahnameh was originally composed by Ferdowsi for the princes of the Samanid dynasty, who were responsible for a revival of Persian cultural traditions after the...

 around 1000 AD. She was a champion who fought against Sohrab

Sohrab

Sohrāb or Suhrāb is a character from the Shahnameh, or the Tales of Kings by Ferdowsi in the tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab. He was the son of Rostam, who was an Iranian warrior, and Tahmineh, the daughter of the king of Samangam, a neighboring country. He was slain at a young age by his father...

 (another Iranian hero who was the commander of the Turan

Turan

Tūrān is the Persian name for Central Asia, literally meaning "the land of the Tur". As described below, the original Turanians are an Iranian tribe of the Avestan age. As a people the "Turanian" are one of the two Iranian peoples both descending from the Persian Fereydun but with different...

ian army) and delayed the Turanian troops who were marching on Persia. She is a symbol of courage and wisdom for Iranian women.