Key Figures of Islamic Tradition, According to Marshall Hodgson (7)

Classical Persian Belles-Lettrists to 1291, with a Few Arabic Writers [Arabic names in brackets]

fl. 930s, Rudaqi, Samani poet, first important poet in "New" (Islamic) Persian language

c. 974, Balami, Samani vizier, translator into Persian of Tabari's History

c. 980, Daqiqi, Samani poet, sympathetic to Zoroastrianism, began a Shah-Namah which Firdawsi incorporated into his version

c. 1020, Firdawsi, composer of the epic Shah-Namah

c. 1039, al-Unsuri, panegyrist at court of Mahmud, "Arabic style" poetry and influences strong

1049, Abu-Said b. Abil-Khayr, "First" Sufi poet in Persian, user of quatrains (Rubaiyyat)

1060, Nasir-e Khusraw, Ismaili writer of qasidahs, speculative treatises, travel account

1092, Nizamulmulk, vizier to the Seljuks, composer of Siyaset-NAmah (Mirror for Princes), a ruler's handbook

1122, Umar Khayyam, mathematician, astronomer, Faylasuf, and writer of quatrains

c. 1150, Sanai, "first" great Sufi poet

1144, [al-Zamakhshari, Mutazili exegete]

1153, [al-Shahrastani, heresiologist, mutakallim]

1150s [al-Idrisi, geographer at Roger II's court in Sicily]

c. 1191 Anvari, panegyric poet in erudite style, satirist

c. 1200 Attar, Sufi writer and allegorist

1203, Nizami "Ganjavi", poet of the five "epics", the Khamsa, of romantic themes

1229, [Yaqut, encyclopedist, authoritative geographical compiler]

1234, [Ibn-al-Athir, historian]

1235, [Ibn-al-Farid, Sufi poet]

1273, Jalaluddin Rumi, Sufi composer of the Masnavi

1274, [Ibn-Said, Andalusian poet and adib]

1282, [Ibn-Khallikan, compiler of biographical dictoniary]

1286, [al-Baydawi, exegete]

1289, Iraqi, ecstatic Sufi poet, influnced by Ibn-al-Arabi

1292, Sadi, moralist prose writer and poet