Unsuri

Abul Qasim Hasan Unsuri Balkhi (Persian: ابوالقاسم حسن عنصری بلخی; died 1039/1040) was a 10–11th century Persian poet.

‘Unṣurī is said to have been born in Balkh, today located in Afghanistan, and he eventually became a poet of the royal court of Mahmud of Ghazni, and was given the title Malik-us Shu'ara (King of Poets) under Mahmud.

[1] His Divan is said to have contained 30,000 distichs, of which only 2500 remain today.

The following dialog between an eagle and a crow, translated by Iraj Bashiri, is an example.

In it, Unsuri compares his own status vis-a-vis that of a young poet who has joined the court recently.