Abū al-Fatḥ al-Bustī, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (d. 400/1010), was a bilingual (dhū al-lisānayn, referring to Arabic and Persian) secretary, minister and poet of the 4th/10th century. His father's name is recorded as Aḥmad and his grandfather's name as Ḥasan (al-Samʿānī, 2/226; Yāqūt, Buldān, 1/612; al-Subkī, 5/293). Even though his hometown of Bust, an ancient city in the south of present-day Afghanistan, and his poems in Persian testify to his Persian origins (see Sezgin, 2/640; Manūchihrī, 140, verse …