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Varqa u Gulshāh
Ayyuqi (Persian: عیوقی) was a 10th-century Persian poet. A contemporary of Mahmud of Ghazni, he wrote the epicVarqa u Gulshāh (ورقه و گلشاه) in 2,250 verses, story of the love between a youth named Varqa and a maiden, Golshah. According to the poet himself, the story is based on the Arabic work ‘Orwa wa ‘Afra. The work survives in a unique manuscript at Istanbul (in picture). He also wrote some qasidas. No reliable information about Ayyuqi has come down.[1] His works are characterized by paired rhyme interspersed with ghazal.
Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of Iran, Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.