Biography
Nasir Khusraw (c. 1004-c. 1088) was a Persian poet, philosopher, and traveler born in Qubadiyan in Khorasan. Secretary to the treasury of the Seljuk sultan, he abandoned his post in December 1045 after a founding dream and undertook a seven-year journey across the Muslim Near East. His Safarnama, the first great travel journal of Persian literature, is the account of that journey. On his return, converted to Ismailism, he became a missionary and preacher, was persecuted by the Sunnis, and ended his days in exile at Yumgan in Badakhshan (present-day Afghanistan), where he composed philosophical treatises and poems still celebrated today throughout the Persian-speaking world.
