The most famous Persian poets are Ferdowsi, Rumi, Saadi, Hafez, Khayyam, Nezami and Attar. These 25 questions test their major works, where they are buried, the ghazal, robâ’i, masnavi and qasideh forms, famous lines in the original Persian, and living traditions such as fâl-e Hâfez.
Classical Persian poetry runs from Ferdowsi, who finished the Shahnameh around 1010, to Hafez in fourteenth-century Shiraz, and Iranians still quote these poets in everyday conversation. Most poems are built from couplets: each بیت (beyt, couplet) has two half-lines called مصراع (mesrâ’), and the forms differ in how the couplets rhyme. Browse our Persian poetry section for complete poems with translations.
Be careful with quotations found online: many popular English “Rumi quotes” do not appear anywhere in his Persian works. The lines in this quiz are quoted in the original Persian from the poets’ own books. To check whether an English quotation is genuine, see our guide to real Rumi quotes.
In the Persian lines below, the slash (/) marks the break between the two half-lines of a couplet.
The poets
1. Who wrote the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), Iran’s national epic?
2. In the Shahnameh, which hero unknowingly kills his own son, Sohrab?
3. Which long poem in six books is Rumi’s masterpiece?
4. Rumi’s great collection of ghazals, the Divan-e Shams, is named after whom?
5. Which two books did Saadi write?
6. Shams al-Din Mohammad of Shiraz is known by which pen name, meaning someone who knows the Quran by heart?
7. Which poet, also a mathematician and astronomer, became famous in English through Edward FitzGerald’s 1859 translation?
8. Leyli and Majnun and Khosrow and Shirin are part of which poet’s Khamsa (Five Treasures)?
9. In Attar’s The Conference of the Birds, the birds set out to find which mythical bird?
Where the poets rest
10. Which city has the tombs of both Hafez and Saadi?
11. Where is Ferdowsi buried?
12. Where is Omar Khayyam buried?
13. Rumi died in 1273 and is buried in which city?
Poetry traditions
14. On Yalda night, many Iranian families take a fâl-e Hâfez. What does that involve?
15. Besides the seven items starting with س, which poet’s Divan is a common sight on the Nowruz haft-sin table?
16. Naqqâli, the dramatic storytelling performed in Iranian coffeehouses, traditionally retells stories from which work?
Poetic forms
17. In a classical ghazal, what usually appears in the final couplet?
18. How many lines (mesrâ’) does a robâ’i have?
19. How does the rhyme work in a masnavi?
20. Which form is a long poem on a single rhyme, traditionally used to praise a ruler or patron?
Famous lines
21. Who wrote بنی آدم اعضای یکدیگرند / که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند, the lines displayed at the United Nations?
22. Fill in the blank in the opening line of Rumi’s Masnavi: بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند / از ____ حکایت می‌کند
23. Who wrote بسی رنج بردم در این سال سی / عجم زنده کردم بدین پارسی?
24. Ferdowsi’s line توانا بود هر که دانا بود means:
25. Which poet’s Divan opens with الا یا ایها الساقی ادر کأسا و ناولها / که عشق آسان نمود اول ولی افتاد مشکل‌ها?
Answer key with explanations
- C. Ferdowsi: فردوسی (Ferdowsi) spent about thirty years on شاهنامه (shâhnâme, Book of Kings), which tells the history of Iran from the first mythical kings to the Arab conquest in roughly 50,000 couplets.
- D. Rostam: رستم (Rostam), riding his horse رخش (Rakhsh), is the Shahnameh’s greatest hero; he fights سهراب (Sohrab) without knowing he is his son and learns the truth only as the young man dies. Esfandiyar is another hero, whom Rostam also fights and kills.
- D. The Masnavi: مثنوی معنوی (Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, the Spiritual Masnavi) is a mystical poem of more than 25,000 couplets, full of stories and teachings. In Iran, Rumi is usually called مولانا (Mowlânâ, our master) or مولوی (Mowlavi).
- D. Shams of Tabriz, his spiritual companion: شمس تبریزی (Shams-e Tabrizi), a wandering dervish, transformed Rumi’s life when they met in Konya, and Rumi often signs his ghazals with Shams’s name instead of his own. Hosam al-Din is the disciple who encouraged him to compose the Masnavi.
- D. The Golestan and the Bustan: سعدی (Sa’di) wrote بوستان (Bustân, The Orchard), entirely in verse, in 1257 and گلستان (Golestân, The Rose Garden), prose mixed with short poems, in 1258. Both are collections of moral tales, and passages from them are still taught in Iranian schools.
- B. Hafez: حافظ (Hâfez) means one who has memorized the Quran; his Divan of ghazals is found in many Iranian homes, and he is also called لسان‌الغیب (Lesân-ol-gheyb, Tongue of the Unseen). Attar, by contrast, means perfumer or druggist.
- B. Omar Khayyam: FitzGerald’s free version, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, made خیام (Khayyâm) one of the best-known poets in English. In his own time, Khayyam was known mainly as a scientist who worked on algebra and on reforming the calendar.
- C. Nezami Ganjavi: نظامی گنجوی (Nezâmi Ganjavi), from Ganja in today’s Azerbaijan, wrote five long narrative poems known as the Khamsa or پنج گنج (panj ganj, five treasures). His love stories were retold by many later poets.
- B. The Simorgh: In منطق‌الطیر (Mantegh-ot-teyr), only thirty birds survive the journey, and they discover that they themselves are the سیمرغ (Simorgh): سی مرغ (si morgh) means thirty birds. The Homa is a different bird of Persian legend, said to bring good fortune.
- A. Shiraz: Both poets were born in شیراز (Shirâz) and are buried there, in gardens called حافظیه (Hâfeziye) and سعدیه (Sa’diye). Visitors often recite lines or take a fâl at Hafez’s tomb.
- B. Tus: Ferdowsi was born near and buried in توس (Tus), close to Mashhad in northeastern Iran, where his mausoleum stands today. Ghazni, in Afghanistan, was the court of Sultan Mahmud, to whom he dedicated the Shahnameh.
- C. Nishapur: Khayyam’s tomb is in his hometown, نیشابور (Neyshâbur), in Khorasan. Attar, author of The Conference of the Birds, is also buried in Nishapur.
- A. Konya, in today’s Turkey: Rumi was born in 1207 in the Balkh region, but his family moved west and he spent most of his life in قونیه (Ghuniye, Konya). His tomb there is now the Mevlana Museum, Mevlana being the Turkish form of Mowlânâ.
- B. Making a wish, then opening Hafez’s Divan at random and reading the ghazal as an answer: فال (fâl) means omen: you make a نیت (niyyat, intention or wish), open the Divan, and read the ghazal on that page as Hafez’s answer. Learn how to read one in our fâl-e Hâfez guide.
- D. Hafez: Many families place a copy of the دیوان حافظ (Divân-e Hâfez) on the haft-sin, and some open it for a fâl when the new year arrives. Khayyam is famous, but his quatrains are not a haft-sin tradition.
- A. The Shahnameh: A نقال (naghghâl, storyteller) acts out Shahnameh episodes such as the battles of Rostam, often in a قهوه‌خانه (ghahve-khâne, coffeehouse). UNESCO added naqqâli to its list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding in 2011.
- B. The poet’s pen name (takhallos): A غزل (ghazal) is a short lyric poem, often 7 to 12 couplets on one rhyme, and the poet names himself in the last couplet with his تخلص (takhallos, pen name). That is why so many final lines of Hafez’s ghazals contain the word حافظ.
- D. 4: A رباعی (robâ’i, quatrain) has four half-lines, usually rhyming in lines 1, 2 and 4; the name comes from the Arabic for four. Its plural, رباعیات (robâ’iyât), gave FitzGerald his title, Rubaiyat.
- D. Each couplet has its own rhyme (aa, bb, cc…): In a مثنوی (masnavi), the two half-lines of each couplet rhyme with each other, so the poet can tell a long story without running out of rhymes. The Shahnameh, Rumi’s Masnavi, Saadi’s Bustan and Nezami’s Khamsa all use this form.
- A. The qasideh: A قصیده (ghaside, qasideh) keeps one rhyme throughout and often runs to dozens of couplets, on praise, religion or moral advice. The دوبیتی (dobeyti) is a short folk quatrain, made famous by Baba Taher.
- A. Saadi: These lines from Saadi’s Golestan mean “Human beings are members of one another, for in creation they are of one essence”; گوهر (gohar) means essence or jewel. They are displayed at United Nations headquarters in New York.
- B. جدایی‌ها: “Listen to this reed as it complains; it tells of separations”: جدایی‌ها (jodâyi-hâ, separations). The نی (ney, reed flute) cut from its reed bed stands for the soul longing for its origin; some editions begin بشنو از نی (beshno az ney, listen to the reed).
- A. Ferdowsi: Ferdowsi says, “I suffered much in these thirty years; I brought the Persians back to life with this Persian,” referring to his decades of work on the Shahnameh. عجم (‘ajam) is the old Arabic term for Persians.
- B. Whoever has knowledge is powerful: توانا (tavânâ) means powerful and دانا (dânâ) means knowing or wise. The couplet continues ز دانش دل پیر برنا بود (ze dânesh del-e pir bornâ bovad): through knowledge, an old heart stays young.
- B. Hafez: The first ghazal of Hafez’s Divan opens with an Arabic half-line, “O cupbearer, pass the cup around and offer it,” then turns to Persian: که عشق آسان نمود اول (ke ‘eshgh âsân nemud avval), “for love seemed easy at first, but difficulties arose.”
How to start reading Persian poetry
Start with Saadi’s Golestan: its prose is clear, its stories are short, and its verses are easy to memorize. Then read a single Hafez ghazal slowly, one beyt at a time, with a translation beside it.
Listen as well as read. Many ghazals by Hafez, Saadi and Rumi are sung in Persian classical music, and hearing the meter makes the lines far easier to remember.