Abu Abdollah Rudaki, considered the father of Persian poetry, died around 941. As court poet to the Samanids in Bukhara, he established many conventions of classical Persian verse and composed thousands of lines, though only fragments survive today.

Rudaki's pioneering work in Persian qasida, ghazal, and rubai forms established technical foundations for all subsequent Persian poetry. His elegant simplicity and mastery of meter influenced generations of poets, and his surviving fragments demonstrate the sophistication of early New Persian literary expression.