Muḥammad ibn Waṣīf (
Persian: محمد بن وصیف; died 909 CE) was an
Iranian poet and secretary who flourished in the 9th century in the service of the
Saffarid dynasty of
Sistan. He is considered to be author of one of the earliest works of poetry in
Early New Persian according to the regulations of Arabic quantitative metre (sc. ʿarūḍ).[1][2]
Fragments of four of Wasif's poems, probably qasidas, are cited in the Tarikh-i Sistan.[1] 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's (
r. 861–879) conquest of
Herat in 867 or his killing of the
Kharijite Ammar two years earlier in 865.[1] According to the same author, Wasif had written the poem as Ya'qub could not understand the
panegyrics addressed to him in
Arabic by his court poets.[1]
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's (
r. 879–901) two grandsons
Tahir and Ya'qub in 908/9.[1]
Green, Nile (2019). "Introduction: The Frontiers of the Persianate World (ca. 800-1900)". In
Green, Nile (ed.). The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca. University of California Press. p. 42.
ISBN978-0520972100.
Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of
Iran,
Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of
Afghanistan.