The history of modern European powers in the East dates back to the Renaissance period. Ariana was one of the earliest countries to have come into contact with the West. At first it was the Christian missionaries who set foot on Muslim lands with a view to propagating their religion. They were, thus, introduced to the rich treasure of advanced sciences that had accumulated there through centuries but were unknown to the West. They learnt the Arabic and the Dari languages it order to acquaint themselves with the rich philosophical thought and the subtle beauties and artistries of Dari literature. At first works of Dari classics were rendered into Latin and soon after these were published in some other prominent European languages such as French, English, German, and Italian.

The earliest Dari work to have been translated into a European language was Oulist~m of Sa'di. Gradually, the works of Firdausi, Iiafiz,,'UmarKhayyam,

Nizami, Jami, Jalal al-Din Ri mi, Farid al-Din `Attar, Nasir Khusrau, and others were also translated. These eminent stars on the firmament of Dari literature are now regarded in all Western countries as amongst the great immortals of world literature. It was the dissemination of their thought which provided stimulus to numerous European poets and writers of the thirteenth/nineteenth century to take inspiration from Dari writers. This influence was at times fully revealed in their works and at others was reflected in their thought. One of the earliest amongst them was Dante, the Italian

poet, who was inspired to write his Divine Comedy in which he describes his spiritual flight into heavens and the next world under the influence of Aryan literature. Next it was the great German poet Goethe who was thrilled

by the sheer beauty of Dari literature through German translations of Dari poetry, and who bad even pursued for some time the study of Dari language in order to have a fuller appreciation of its literature. He even dedicat­ed to it one of his famous works West-ostlicher Divan, and gave to a section of this book the title of "Kitab-i Hafiz." The well-known English poet Edward

Fitzgerald also published a small collection known as Ruba'iyat-i 'Umar Khayyam which he claimed to have translated from the Dari collection of Khayyam's quatrains. Actually, however, not all these quatrains are by Khayyam himself; some of these are the work of other Dari poets. As such, this collection reflects the thought of a number of Aryan philosophers.

Many of the European poets and writers who acquainted themselves with the thought of Dari poets through translations in Western languages have produced delightful works associated with Dari literature. Mainly, however, they have come under the spell of Khayyam, Sa'di, and Hafizz.