Bābā Ṭāhir ʿUryān (-1020)

Baba Taher was an 11th century persian poet and mystic. Baba Taher is known as one of the most revered and respectable early poets in Iranian literature. Most of his life is clouded in mystery. He probably lived in Hamadan, the capital city of the Hamedan Province in Iran. He was known by the name of Baba Taher-e Oryan (The Naked), which suggests that he may have been a wandering Dervish. Legend tells that the poet, an illiterate woodcutter, attended lectures at a religious school, where he was not welcomed by his fellow-students. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. One source indicates that he died in 1019. If this is accurate, it would make Baba Taher a contemporary of Ferdowsi and Pour Sina (Avicenna) and an immediate precursor of Omar Khayyam.