This is a universal quality characteristic in genius: they do not merely leave a legacy, but also create models and paradigms, formulas that are employed for centuries, allowing later generations to build upon these starting points and respond to their exemplary forebears in the spirit of their own age. Countless writers and poets have followed in the footsteps of Abulkasim Ferdowsi, Nizami Ganjavi, Sadi and Hafez Shirazi, and Muhammad Fuzuli – both in the past and today, and undoubtedly in the future as well. Baba Tahir Uryan of Hamadan was one of the extraordinary thinkers and poets of the eleventh century and belongs to this group of great figures. Although the amount of his surviving work is much smaller than that of the other classical poets, he still managed, with his limited poetic legacy, to become a model and an inspiration. By tracing the process of literary influence and inspiration in Persian poetry over nine centuries based on the legacy of a single poet the eleventh-century thinker Baba Tahir – we can see, on the one hand, a constant devotion to tradition in Muslim Eastern poetry, and on the other, the ability of a timeless literary heritage to adapt to each new era and serve as a fresh source of inspiration.