Nasir-I Khusraw

The Diwan, or Divan, is a collection of poems written and compiled by Nasir Khusraw (1004-1088 AD). Khusraw composed most of his poems in the Valley of Yumgan, a remote mountainous region in Badakhshan (in present-day Afghanistan). The Divan contains around 11,000 verses of Khusraw's own poetry, reflecting philosophical, religious, and personal themes. The majority of poems contained in the Diwan are odes composed in the traditional Persian qasida (a structured form of poetry with an elaborate metre). The qasida consists of a single rhyme carried throughout the entirety of the poem. In terms of rhythm, each line (bayt) of the qasida consists of two equal parts. The Divan also contains quatrains and shorter poems (as qasidas can be relatively long). Khusraw, in his Divan, employs sophisticated rhetorical and poetic devices characteristic of Persian poetry.".