(also Abu al-Majd Majdud ibn Adam). Born 1070 in Ghazni; died there circa 1140. Persian and Tadzhik poet.

Sanai was the creator of the genre of didactic religious poetry, which expounds dogma and illustrates it with parables and anecdotes drawn from history and daily life. Until about the age of 40, Sanai lived in various cities of Khorasan, writing panegyrics and works of a hedonistic character, including verses and the long narrative poem Tale of Balkh (c. 1105). After undergoing a religious conversion, he wrote a long poem entitled The Journey of the Servants to the Place of Return. In 1125 he returned to Ghazni, and in 1131 he wrote his major work, The Garden of Truth, a long, didactic religious poem, which served as a model for many later poets, including Nizami Ganjevi. Sa-nai’s works reflect some of the teachings of moderate Sufism. His utterances against tyranny are worthy of note. Sanai’s poetry contains elements of the mannered rhetorical style, later developed in many Eastern literatures.