People from Balkh

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, commonly known as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a Sufi mystic, poet, and founder of the Islamic brotherhood known as the Mevlevi Order. His family hailed from Balkh. Rumi is an influential figure in Sufism, and his thought and works loom large both in Persian literature and mystic poetry in general. Today, his translated works are enjoyed all over the world.

Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. In the oldest Zoroastrian scriptures, the Gathas, which he is traditionally believed to have authored, he is described as a preacher and a poet-prophet. Some have claimed, with much scholarly controversy, to find his influence in Heraclitus, Plato, Pythagoras, and, perhaps less controversially, in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, parti

Persian astrologer and philosopher (787–886)

ascetic Sufi saint

thumb|Qajar Iran|Qajar-era miniature of the poets [[Ferdowsi, Unsuri, and Asjadi]] '''Abu'l-Qasim Hasan Unsuri Balkhi' (; died 1039/1040) was a 10th–11th-century Persian poet. Unsuri 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. His Divan is said to have contained 30,000 distichs, of which only 2500 remain today. It includes the romance epic Vamiq u 'Adhra, which ultimately derives from the Ancient Greek novel Metiochus and Parthenop

Founder of the Samanid dynasty

Tajik poet

8th-century Abbasid-era official and governor

8th-century Sunni Mufassir (Qur'ānic Exegete)

Seljuq vizier

the first Jewish Bible critic

Iranian poet

Spiritual leader of the Naqshbandi order of Sufism

Abbasid general