Baba Taher is known as one of the most revered early poets in Persian literature. Little is known of his life. He was born and lived in Hamadan, the capital city of the Hamadan Province in Iran. He was known by the name of Baba Taher-e Oryan (The Naked), which suggests that he may have been a wandering dervish. Legend tells that the poet, an illiterate woodcutter, attended lectures at a religious school, where he was not welcomed by his fellow-students. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. It is said that Baba Taher lived for seventy-five years. At the time when Baba Taher lived in the 10th century, there were great changes occurring in the development and growth of literature and art. Medieval artists and poets in Persia were greatly respected and valued and had the right to express their thoughts freely. He could be described as the first great poet of Sufi love in Persian literature. In the last two decades his couplets have often been put to music.
