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Rudaki
Persian poet (c. 858–941) hailed as the 'father of Persian poetry,' long-serving court poet of the Samanid emirs, whose fresh style and couplet form …
Timeline
- 858–880Rudak (near present-day Panjakent) · SogdiaBorn into a peasant family, he showed poetic and musical talent from childhood and studied Arabic and Persian literature; already known locally in his youth for a fresh poetic style, he was later recommended to the Samanid court.
- c. 900–935Bukhara (Samanid capital) · BukharaHe composed a great many lyric and panegyric poems at the Samanid courts in Bukhara and elsewhere, and also attempted long narrative poems such as a Persian rhymed version of Kalila and Dimna; his plain, bright style earned him the contemporary title 'King of Poets,' and he helped make New Persian the dominant literary language.
- c. 935–941Near Balkh · BalkhHe left Bukhara after becoming embroiled in court intrigues or falling out of favor, went blind in his old age, spent his remaining years in Khorasan, and died near Balkh; many of his works were lost after his death, but surviving fragments still show his exemplary expression of feelings about nature and life.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Iranica: Rudaki — Ehsan Yarshater (ed.) https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/rudaki-abu-abd-allah-jafar-b
- The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4: The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs — R. N. Frye (ed.) (1975)