The poems of Malaye Jaziri (c. 1570-1640 CE) represent the fundamental genesis of Kurdish poetry, because he was the first to deploy Classical Perso-Arabic forms in Kurdish verse. He adopted and adapted the ruba‘i and ghazal, most notably, as forms for poetry in the Kurdish language, thereby establishing a written medium for the Kurdish poetic tradition, which, prior to his pioneering work, had been almost exclusively oral. As a language of literacy, in Malaye Jaziri’s handling, Kurdish emerged as a viable vehicle for poetic expression in the schools, royal courts, and written records of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires, and his work left an indelible influence on Kurdish poetry today.