Khalilullah Khalili (1907–1987; Persian: خلیل‌الله خلیلی - Ḫalīlallāḥ Ḫalīlī; alternative spellings: Khalilollah, Khalil Ullah) was Afghanistan's foremost 20th century poet as well as a noted historian, university professor, diplomat and royal confidant.

In 1929, when Habībullāh Kalakānī – a local Tajik from Kalakan – deposed Amānullāh Khān, Khalili joined his uncle Abdul Rahim Khan Safi, the new governor of Herat, where he remained for more than 10 years.

Following the April 1978 Communist coup, Khalili sought asylum first in Western Germany and then in the United States where he wrote much of his most powerful poetry about the war in his native land.

He published 35 volumes of poetry, including his celebrated works "Aškhā wa Ḫūnhā" ("Tears And Blood"), composed during the Soviet occupation, and "Ayyār-e az Ḫorāsān" ("Hero of Khorasan").

With the exception of a selection of his quatrains[5] and the recent An Assembly of Moths,[6] his poetry remains largely unknown to English-speaking readers.