ABŪ ŠAKŪR BALḴĪ, poet of the Samanid period. Nothing is known of his life. Allusions in his poetry indicate that…

ABU’L-MOʾAYYAD BALḴĪ, an early Persian poet and writer of the Samanid period, whose works have almost entirely disappeared. The details…

DARĪ, name given to the New Persian literary language at a very early date and widely attested in Arabic (e.g.,…

BENVENISTE, ĒMILE (1902-76), French scholar, eminent Iranist, and one of the greatest linguists of his era. He was born at…

PROSODY iii. MIDDLE PERSIAN Pre-Islamic Iran certainly cultivated poetry. The Parthian minstrels (gōsān) enjoyed great fame (Boyce, 1957), and Ebn-al-Moqaffaʿ,…