Intro to Persian Literature (Levy, 1969)

Was in the Cornell OLIN library this weekend again, and see this book. At the back, it listed 23 Persian literature authors: (originally an alphabetical list, my numbering based on death dates given)

1. Rudaki, Jafar ibn Muhammand (d.940/1) - first to produce good Persian poetry

2. Balami (d.996) - translator of Tabari's history (even I have heard of him, typically I would not include translators as major authors - might be my bias!)

3. Firdausi (d.1020) - Shanamah

4.  Abu Said ibn Abul-Khair (d.1049) - early rubaiyat of mystical content

5. Gurgani (active 1040-1054) - poetic romance

6. Asadi of Tus (active 1064-66) - dictionary, epic

7. Hujwiri (d.~1070) - [writer of first Persian-language Sufi manual, influential especially in Indian Sufism (e.g. Chistiyya), includes prosographies of prior Sufi saints] - this inclusion causes me to rethink my South Asian Canonical Text list

8. Nasir-i Khusrau of Merv (d.1077) - traveler, skeptic, poet, Ismaili; ascribed works include long prose theology/philosophy, divan, travel diary

9. Ansari of Herot (d.1088) - one of the best and oldest composers of Sufi Quatrains (bolded per Levy's comments)

10. Omar Khayyam (d.1123) - mathematician, astrologer-astronomer, famed mystico-philosophical Quatrains / Rubaiyat translated

11. Sanai of Ghazna (d.1131) - mystical poet, forerunner of Attar, Garden of Truth, mathnavis, divan

12. Nizami Arudi of Samaqand (active 1H-12th c.) - poet, Chahar Maqala, [author of Khamsah --that Amir Khusrow imitate -- is another Nizami Ganjavi]

13. Anvari, Auhad al-Din (d.1190) - qasida, eulogist, satirist

14. Khaqani of Shirwan (d.1199)- travel mathnavi

15. Attar, Farid al-Din (d.1220) - Sufi, mathnavis (from this point on, bold are just names I have come across before, thus presumably somewhat important)

16. Rumi (d.1273) - most prolific Sufi poet, mathnavi, divan

17. Juvaini, Ala al-Din Ata (d.1283) - historian

18. Sadi of Shiraz (d.1291) - Bustan, Gulistan, ghazals, qasidas 

19. Iraqi (Fakhr al-Din of Hamadan) (d.1289) - Sufi ecstatic prose / verse

20. Mustaufi, Itard Allah, Qazvina (d.1329/30) - general history, cosmography

21. Hafiz (d. 1389/90) - best known of ghazal writers, last true Sufi poets

22. Jami (d.1492) - Sufi/didactic, divans, mathnavis, essays

23. Davlatshah of Samaqand (active ~1487) - standard biographical dictionary of poets