At its core, my scholarship focuses on pre-modern Persian poetry; I bring seemingly distant towering poets such as Sa’di (d. 1291) and Rumi (d. 1274) to life. The Persian poetry of that era is often treated as an exquisite assemblage of gemstones, elegant but devoid of movement. I bring out the movement, the struggle, and the laughter which are at the heart of this literature’s worldly posture.