Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani, also spelled asFakhraddin Asaad Gorgani (Persian:فخرالدين اسعد گرگانی), was an 11th-centurypoet. He versified the tale ofVis and Rāmin, a story from theArsacid (Parthian) period. The Iranian scholarAbdolhossein Zarrinkoub, however, disagrees with this view, and concludes that the story has its origins in the 5th-centurySasanian era. Besides Vis and Rāmin, he composed other forms of poetry. For example, some of his quatrains are recorded in theNozhat al-Majales.

Fakhruddin As'ad Gorgani was born in Jorjan or Gorgan (Persian: گرگان, also Romanized as Gorgān), the central city ofHyrcania in northern Iran, to aPersian family.^{[citation needed]}

Gorgani accompanied theSeljuk rulerTughril I during his campaigns inIran. When Tughril seizedIsfahan from theKakuyids in 1051, he appointedAmid Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar as its governor. Gorgani thereafter settled in Isfahan, where he established good relations with its governor, who took him under his protection.^[1]

One day, when Gorgani and Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar were talking, Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar asked the following question: “What do you say about the tale ofVis and Rāmin?” Gorgani then told him that the story was only written inMiddle Persian. Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar then asked Gorgani to versify the story, which he did; during theMehregan festival, Gorgani presented the poem to him, in which he praises Tughril, thevizierAbu Nasr Kunduri, and Abu'l-Fath Muzaffar.^[1] Gorgani diedc. 1058.

The tale of Vis and Ramin had a noticeable influence onPersian literature. Significantly,Nezami Ganjavi, himself a major poet of Persian romantic traditions, took the bases of much of his rhetoric from Gorgani.^[2] The romance also has had its influence beyond Persian culture. The story became very popular inGeorgia through a 12th-century free translation in prose known asVisramiani, which had a long-lasting effect onGeorgian literature. Being the oldest known manuscript of the work and better preserved than the original, it is of great importance for the history of the Persian text and helps restore several corrupted lines in the Persian manuscripts.^[3]

Some scholars have suggested thatVis and Ramin may have influenced theTristan and Iseult legend, and the two plots have distinct resemblances. Nevertheless, views have differed about the connection between these two stories.^[4]

• Gorgani,Le roman de Vis et Ramin, traduit par Henri Massé, Société d'Edition Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1959
• Jan Rypka,History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company.ISBN 90-277-0143-1OCLC 460598LCC PK6097.R913ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K
• Vīs and Rāmīn, by Fakhr al-Dīn Gurgānī, translated from Persian by George Morrison,UNESCO Collection of Representative Works: Persian heritage series, no. 14, xix, 357 p. (Columbia University Press, New York, 1972).ISBN 0-231-03408-3.
• Pierre Gallais,Genèse du roman occidental. Essais sur Tristan et Iseut et son modèle persan, Sirac, Paris 1974
• Gorgani, Fakhraddin.Vis and Ramin Trans. Dick Davis. Washington DC: Mage, February 2008ISBN 1-933823-17-8.[3] Now available as aPenguin ClassicISBN 0-14-310562-0
• Nahid Norozi,Esordi del romanzo persiano. Dal Vis e Ramin di Gorgani (XI sec.) al ciclo di Tristano, preface by F. Benozzo, Mimesis Edizioni, Roma 2021
• Meisami, Julie Scott (2002). "GORGĀNI, FAḴR-AL-DIN ASʿAD".Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XI, Fasc. 2. pp. 162–163.

• People from Gorgan
• 11th-century Persian-language poets
• 1058 deaths
• 11th-century Iranian people

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• Year of birth unknown