Khūsf

Khusf lies west of Birjand in the dry country of Quhistan. The village was the home of the fifteenth-century poet Ibn Husam Khusfi, a farmer and learned Shiite who wrote in praise of figures revered in Islam. In 1426–27 he completed the Khavaran-nama, a Persian religious epic recounting an imagined journey and exploits of Ali. His work joined the language of heroic poetry to devotion, giving this small oasis a place in Persian literary history.