Classical Persian Literature, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS) Biannual Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, Autumn and Winter 2022-2023, 1-20 Doi: 10.30465/CPL.2023.7383 An Introduction to Division of Labor in Social Classes as a Representation of Justice in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh Fateme Baratlou * Abstract Kingship had had a role of great importance in ancient Iranian beliefs and thought to be a position that is appointed by God. Upon such a belief, the world is a worldly picture of the heaven, and the king rules the sublunary world as God dominates the whole creation. According to Asha (i.e., truth or right or righteous deed) and the establishment of universal order, governance is of the most influential and pivotal aspects of philosophical thoughts in ancient Iran, the most explicit manifestation of which is expressed in the concept of “justice”. One obvious implication of justice in this system of thoughts is to maintain the social classes as well as aligning duties to individuals based on their classes which is a way of avoiding anarchy. Applying descriptive- analytical method on Shahnameh, the present case study shows that how social class congruence, a kind of which is expressed in human spiritual faculties, relates to the notion of justice. Bearing this point in mind, ascribing the title “the Just” (or “dispenser of justice”) to Anushirvan (Khosrow I), who had committed firmly to preserve social classes, is a food for thought. Keywords: Justice, Division of labor in social classes, Managing civil affairs, Asha, Anushirvan (Khosrow I), Ferdowsi’s Shahnama. * Assistant Professor at Management Research Group, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran, f.baratlou@ihcs.ac.ir Date received: 11/07/2022, Date of acceptance: 30/10/2022 Copyright © 2010, IHCS (Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies). This is an Open Access article. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.