Niẓāmī ʿArūżī Samarqandī

Aḥmad b.ʿUmar b. ʿAlī was born some time toward the end of the 5th/11th century according to what he tells us in his Čahār maqāla (“Four Discourses”), his only work to survive in its entirety. He was known by his pen-name Niẓāmī though always spoken of as Niẓāmī-I-ʿArūẕī (the "prosodist") of Samarqand to distinguish him from other more celebrated Niẓāmīs (particularly the great Niẓāmī of Ganja). Considered to be one of the most remarkable writers of Persian prose, “one of those who throws a far fuller light…on the intimate life of Persian and Central Asian Courts in the twelfth century of our era,” Niẓāmī was a court poet of the Ğūrid princes for 45 years, under whose auspices he composed his Čahār maqāla.