Abu Abdullah Jafar ibn Mohammad ibn Hakim ibn Abdurrahman ibn Adam Rudaki Samarghandi, (Persian: ابوعبدالله جعفر ابن محمد رودکی, entitledآدم الشعرا Ādam ul-Shoara or Adam of Poets) also written as Rudagi or Rudhagi, (858 - ca. 941) was a Persian poet, and is regarded as the first great literary genius of the Modern Persian, who composed poems in the Perso-Arabic alphabet or "New Persian" script. Rudaki is considered a founder of Tajik-Persian classical literature.

He was born in 858 in Rudak (Panjrud), a village then in Khorasan, Persia , and now located in Panjakent, Tajikistan. Even though most of his biographers assert that he was completely blind, some early biographers are silent about this or do not mention him as being born blind. His accurate knowledge and description of colors, as evident in his poetry, renders this assertion very doubtful. He was the court poet to the Samanid ruler Nasr II (914-943) in Bukhara, although he eventually fell out of favour; his life ended in poverty.