We begin the blog with an Arab bedouin poem from the 6th C. by 'Antara, because the Arabs originated the ghazal and the qasida and the meters.  These pre-Islamic poems so provoked and challenged the poets of greater Khorasan that they took up the Arabic meters, formats, genres, tropes,and then out-performed the Arabs at their own game. The Turks were not far behind. After the poem by 'Antara there are 20 poems of Mohammad Shams-u-Din Hafiz 'Hafiz Shirazi.' (c. 1320/807).  We have a proposal for a Central Asia Literary Rediscovery Initiative - funding literary prizes in Central Asia, including Iran. Find it on to http://centralasialawreview.blogspot.com, at the front, 'Our Parthian Shot: Giving Back to Afghans Their Own Literature.'