Hanzala Badghisi  Ḥanẓalah of Badghis () (about 850 A.D.) was one of the earliest Persian poets. Hanzalah was born in Badghis, Persia (modern-day Badghis Province, Afghanistan) and lived in the time of the Tahirids (AD 820-872), one of the earliest Persian dynasties after the Arab conquest of Persia. Persian biographer Muhammad Aufi praises the verses of Hanzalah by saying the graceful flow of his expression is like the "water of Paradise, and his verses have the freshness of cool wine ("shamul") and the agreeableness of the northern wind ("shamal")." So well known were the poems of Hanzalah that they were worth gathering into a Persian "divan", or collection, only a few fragments of which remain, however. Here is a quatrain (the earliest ruba'i thus far quotable), which contains an odd conceit founded on an old superstition: the poet warns his sweetheart that it is futile for her to throw "sipand" or Syrian rue ("Peganum harmala") seed on the fire to avert the influence of the evil eye. More potent, however, was the charm in another stanza ascribed to Hanzalah, for it inspired a simple ass-herd to win a crown. Chancing one day to read four of Hanzalah's verses, this donkey-driver became fired with the ambition to make an attempt to gain the throne, and, rising triumphant over every obstacle, he finally grasped the sovereignty. The inspiring stanza which served the ass-herd king, Ahmad of Khujistan, as a motto for his life's success was this :  Jackson, A. V. Williams. 1920. "Early Persian Poetry: From the Beginnings Down to the Time of Firdausi". New York: Macmillan; pp. 17–19. (in the public domain).