Earlier, 48 volumes of critical texts were published under the general editorship of Ehsan Yarshater in a series by this name. A new series was started by him under this title several years ago as a continuation of the work done earlier. The first work in this new series is the definitive edition of the Shahnameh, the 10th century Persian national epic by Ferdowsi, and edited by J. Khaleghi-Motlagh of the University of Hamburg.