Hanzala Badghisi

Who is Hanzala Badghisi?

Hanzalah of Badghis was one of the earliest Persian poets.

Hanzalah was born in Badghis, Persia and lived in the time of the of Tahirids, one of the early Persian dynasties after the Arabic attack on Persia.

Persian biographer, Muhammad Aufi, praises the verses of Hanzalah by saying the graceful flow of his expression is like the "Water of Paradise, and his verses have the freshness of cool wine and the agreeableness of the northern wind.

So well known were the poems of Hanzalah that they were worth gathering into a Persian Divan, or 'Collection,' only a few fragments of which however, remain.

Here is a quatrain, which contains an odd conceit founded on an old superstition; the poet warns his sweetheart that it is futile for her to throw rue-seed on the fire to avert the influence of the evil eye.