The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Abu Said ibn Abi al-Khair
(ä´b sä´d ´bn äb´ äl-khr´) (KEY) , 9671049, Persian poet, a Sufi and a dervish. He was the first to write rubaiyat (quatrains) in the Sufistic strain that Omar Khayyam made famous.