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522 BCE: Behistun Inscription of Darius I; considered the first example of Persian literature.
330 BCE: Literature of the Achaemenid Empire lost in its conquest by Alexander the Great and the burning of library of Persepolis.
224 CE - 651 CE: Middle Persian dialect in use during the period of the Sassanian Empire; written literature develops in response to religious texts.
651 CE: Sassanian Empire falls to invading Muslim Arabs; Zoroastrian texts and Sassanian literary works destroyed.
750 CE - 1258 CE: Persian literature and culture revive under the Abbasid Dynasty.
819 CE - 999 CE: Persian literature flourishes under the Samanid Dynasty which encourages some its greatest poets.
859 CE - 940 CE: Life of the Persian poet Rudaki, "the father of Persian Literature".
935 CE - 977 CE: Life of the Persian poet Daqiqi who makes first attempt at writing the Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings.
940 CE - 1020 CE: Life of the Persian poet Ferdowsi, author of the literary masterpiece Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings.
1048 CE - 1131 CE: Life of the Persian mathematician, scientist, scholar, and poet Omar Khayyam.
1080 CE - 1131 CE: Life of the Persian poet Sanai, author of The Walled Garden of Truth.
1141 CE - 1209 CE: Life of the Persian poet Nizami.
1145 CE - 1220 CE: Life of the Persian poet Attar.
1207 CE - 1273 CE: Life of the Persian poet Rumi, considered one of the greatest literary artists in the world.
1210 CE - 1291 CE: Life of the Persian poet Saadi.
1315 CE - 1390 CE: Life of the Persian poet Hafiz Shiraz, considered the greatest Persian poet and among the greatest in the world.