Ayyuqi

{{Short description|11th-century Persian poet}}

File:Varka i Golshah.jpg

Ayyuqi ({{langx|fa|عیوقی}}) was an 11th-century Persian poet. A contemporary of the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud of Ghazni ({{reign|998|1030}}) he wrote the epic Varqa wa Golshāh ({{lang|fa|ورقه و گلشاه}}) in 2,250 verses, which is a story of the love between a youth named Varqa and a maiden, Golshah. In the introduction, he eulogizes Mahmud of Ghazni. According to the poet himself, the story is based on the Arabic work ‘Orwa wa ‘Afra. The work survives in a unique manuscript dated to the mid-13th century and made in Konya (Seljuk Rum), which is now located in the Topkapi Museum (Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Hazine 841 H.841).{{cite book |last1=Ettinghausen |first1=Richard |title=Arab Painting |date=1977 |publisher=Rizzoli |location=New York|isbn=978-0-8478-0081-0 |pages=91–92 |url=https://archive.org/details/arabpainting0000etti/page/92/mode/2up?q=%22Illustration+page+91%22}} Ayyuqi also wrote some qasidas. No reliable information about Ayyuqi has come down.{{Encyclopædia Iranica|volume=3|fascicle=2|title=ʿAyyūqī|first=Dj.|last=Khaleghi-Motlagh|pages=167-168|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ayyuqi-a-poet|access-date=February 26, 2012}} His works are characterized by paired rhyme interspersed with ghazal.