This study aimed to examine the impact of teaching vocabulary using short stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh on the vocabulary learning of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students. A sample of 50 ESP students of English literature was randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, each comprising 25 students. Prior to the intervention, a researcher-designed vocabulary test was administered as a pretest. Over the course of the study, the experimental group was taught ten short stories from Shahnameh, with each session focusing on five vocabulary items related to the story. In contrast, the control group learned the same vocabulary through traditional methods, where the teacher wrote the words on the board and provided definitions and synonyms. Following the intervention, the same vocabulary test was administered as a posttest. Independent samples t-test (t = 2.59, p = .01, p < .05) revealed that teaching vocabulary through Shahnameh’s short stories has a significantly positive effect on students' vocabulary learning of. These outcomes suggest that incorporating culturally authentic literature into vocabulary instruction can be highly beneficial, providing valuable insights for ESP students, syllabus designers, and instructors.