Muhammad ibn Wasif

Muḥammad ibn Waṣīf was an <a href="/facts/Iranian_peoples/gnzfoI8h">Iranian</a> poet and secretary who flourished in the 9th century in the service of the <a href="/facts/Saffarid_dynasty/8K7lbWqB">Saffarid dynasty</a> of <a href="/facts/Sistan/reeaj5nC">Sistan</a>. He is considered to be author of one of the earliest works of poetry in <a href="/facts/Early_New_Persian/jfUYbHbt">Early New Persian</a> according to the regulations of Arabic quantitative metre (sc. <a href="/facts/Arabic_prosody/Xqgfg9wf">ʿarūḍ</a>).
Fragments of four of Wasif's poems, probably <a href="/facts/Qasida/B84kmH90">qasidas</a>, are cited in the <a href="/facts/Tarikh-i_Sistan/jLSKGKYp">Tarikh-i Sistan</a>. The anonymous author of the Tarikh-i Sistan mentions that the first of the poems had been written by Wasif around the time of <a href="/facts/Ya%2527qub_ibn_al-Layth_al-Saffar/NHFlVtlr">Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar</a>'s (r. 861–879) conquest of <a href="/facts/Herat/v6YgdQkM">Herat</a> in 867 or his killing of the <a href="/facts/Kharijites/RSYbTWSf">Kharijite</a> Ammar two years earlier in 865. According to the same author, Wasif had written the poem as Ya'qub could not understand the <a href="/facts/Panegyric/xcb04j61">panegyrics</a> addressed to him in <a href="/facts/Arabic_language/A1e66hVV">Arabic</a> 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 <a href="/facts/Amr_ibn_al-Layth/XGfzT67B">Amr ibn al-Layth</a>'s (r. 879–901) two grandsons <a href="/facts/Tahir_ibn_Muhammad_ibn_Amr/FCJ6UW9F">Tahir</a> and Ya'qub in 908/9. 
Wasif died in 909.

Muhammad ibn Wasif open-in-new

Muhammad ibn Wasif