Naser-e Khosrow

(full name, Abu Moin Naser-e Khosrow al-Marvazi al-Qubadiyani). Born 1004, in the village of Qubadiyan, near Balkh; died after 1072, in the village of Yumgan in Badakhshan, present-day Afghanistan. Tadzhik and Persian poet, philosopher, and religious figure.

Between 1046 and 1052, Naser-e Khosrow made a journey to Egypt, which he describes in his Safar-name (English translation, Diary of a Journey Through Syria and Palestine, 1888).

After his return, he was driven from his native city of Balkh as a heretic. He spent the end of his life in the mountains of Badakhshan (northwest Hindu Rush).

Naser-e Khosrow propagated the views of the Muslim Ismaili sect. His literary legacy includes religious and philosophical treatises, a diwan consisting of 12,000 bayts, and the narrative poem Rawshanai-name (English translation, The Book of Lights, 1949). Naser-e Khosrow condemned court poetry, castigated the Seljuk feudal lords, and attacked the orthodox clergy that fettered the free development of scientific and philosophical thought. He called for compassion for the poor. Naser-e Khosrow attributed the social evils and hardships of his day to the spread of wicked belief and to unjust government. His works reflected the ideology of the peasant movements. Naser-e Khosrow also played a significant role in the development of the philosophical qasida and the didactic narrative poem.