Ruba'iyats of Two Great Female Persian Sufi Poets Mahsati Ganjavi & Jahan Khatun Translation & Introduction Paul Smith The ruba'i is perhaps the oldest form in Persian Sufi Poetry. In its four lines, most rhyming, can be found the wisdom, suffering, love and mysticism of two of its greatest female exponents of Sufi Spirituality and ordinary human love, despair and grief. Mahsati Ganjavi's (1098-1185) lived in Ganjeh when Sultan Sanjar reigned and as was a poet at his court she would have known Anvari. She was a court, dervish and ribald poet. She knew Nizami (she is said to have been buried...