The Pyramid texts (2464-2355 B.C.)
Enheduanna (born c. 2300 B.C.)
from The epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2000 B.C.)
Adapa: the man (second millennium B.C.)
The shipwrecked sailor (c. 2040-1650 B.C.)
The tale of the doomed prince (c. 2040-1650 B.C.)
The book of the dead (c. 1500 B.C.)
Ancient Egyptian love poems (1554-1085 B.C.)
The old testament (eleventh to first centuries B.C.)
Intertestament: Jewish pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea scrolls, Jewish-Christian odes, gnostic scriptures (second century B.C. to third century A.D.)
Muallaqat (sixth to early seventh centuries)
The Quran (seventh century)
Rabia the mystic (c. 712-801)
Abu Nuwas (b. between 747-762, d. between 813-815)
The thousand and one nights (c. ninth to fourteenth centuries)
Usamah ibn Munqidh (1095-1188).
Solomon ben Gabirol (1021/22-c. 1055)
Judah Halevi (c. 1075-1141)
Abu l-Hasan al-Husr (d. 1095)
Ibn Abi l-Haytham (uncertain period)
Abu l-Hasan ibn al-Qabturnuh (d. 1134)
Abu l-Qasim al-Manisi (twelfth century)
Ferdowsi (Abul Qasim Hasan Ferdowsi) (c. 940-1020)
Omar Khayyam (c. 1048-1131)
Attar (Farid ad-Din Attar) (c. 1120-c. 1220)
Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Rumi) (1207-1273)
Hafiz (Khajeh Shamsoddin Mohammad Hafez-e Shirazi) (c. 1320-1390)
Traditional song (from uncertain period)
Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933)
Mririda Naït Attik (1919- )
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998)
Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (1926-1964)
Adunis (Ali Ahmed Said) (1930- )
Nawal al-Saadawi (1931- )
Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967)
Dahlia Ravikovitch (1936- )
Mohamed el-Bisatie (1938- )