ABSTRACT
The present chapter carries the history of Persian poetry down to the time of the Mongol invasion. For general chronological orientation we have taken the LubQb al-albab of cAufI (completed before 625/1228) and the KitGb al-mucjam of Shams i Qais (after 628/1230-1). Between them cAufi and Shams quote virtually all of the significant Persian poets of the pre-Mongol period.1 Other poets are included only if there is a fairly strong reason to assume that they flourished prior to the date of these two authorities. Anonymous narrative poems that have been ascribed to pre-Mongol times are described in appendix I.
