Muḥammad ibn Waṣīf ( fa, محمد بن وصیف; died 909 CE) was an

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

poet and secretary who flourished in the 9th century in the service of the

Saffarid dynasty The Saffarid dynasty ( fa, صفاریان, safaryan) was a Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian origin that ruled over parts of Persia, Greater Khorasan, and eastern Makran from 861 to 1003. One of the first indigenous Persian dynasties to eme ...

Sistan Sistān ( fa, سیستان), known in ancient times as Sakastān ( fa, سَكاستان, "the land of the Saka"), is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran ( Sistan and Baluchestan Province) and Southern Afghanistan ...

. He is considered to be author of one of the earliest works of poetry in

Early New Persian Persian (), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision of th ...

according to the regulations of Arabic quantitative metre (sc. '' ʿarūḍ''). Fragments of four of Wasif's poems, probably ''

qasida The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; is originally an Arabic word , plural ''qaṣā’id'', ; that was passed to some other languages such as fa, قصیده or , ''chakameh'', and tr, kaside) is an ancient Arabic word and form of writin ...

s'', are cited in the ''

Tarikh-i Sistan The ''Tarikh-i Sistan'' (''History of Sistan'') is an anonymous Persian-language history of the region of Sistan, in modern north-eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, ا� ...

''. The anonymous author of the ''Tarikh-i Sistan'' mentions that the first of the poems had been written by Wasif around the time of

Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar , title = Amir of the Saffarid dynasty , image = مجسمه یعقوب لیث در زابل.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = Statue of Ya'qub in Zabol, Iran , reign = 861–879 , coronation = , predecess ...

's (861–879) conquest of

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Saf ...

in 867 or his killing of the

Kharijite The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the ...

Ammar two years earlier in 865. According to the same author, Wasif had written the poem as Ya'qub could not understand the

panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc, ...

s addressed to him in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

by his court poets. Wasif's career lasted for over fifty years, as the last fragment in the ''Tarikh-i Sistan'' mentions the captivity of

Amr ibn al-Layth Amr ibn al-Layth or Amr-i Laith Saffari ( fa, عمرو لیث صفاری) was the second ruler of the Saffarid dynasty of Iran from 879 to 901. He was the son of a whitesmith and the younger brother of the dynasty's founder, Ya'qub ibn al-Layth a ...

's (879–901) two grandsons

Tahir Taher ( ar, طاهر) (spelled Tahir and Tahar in English and French, Тагир in Russian; Pashto,Urdu and Persian: طاهر,; ) is a name meaning "pure" or "virtuous". The origin of this name is Arabic. There are several Semitic variations tha ...

and Ya'qub in 908/9. Wasif died in 909.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Muhammad ibn Wasif 9th-century Iranian people Iranian poets 9th-century Persian-language poets Saffarid dynasty 9th-century births 909 deaths Year of birth unknown Fa:محمد بن وصیف سجزی