Manija (Mahsati) Ganjavi, born c. 1089 in Ganja (currently part of Azerbaijan) – died sometime after 1159, was a 12th-century Persian poet. Not much is documented about her life.
Apparently, she worked as a scribe under Seljuq Sultan Sanjar. She had a free spirit, that showed in her poetry and was thus persecuted for her courageous poems against binding dogmas. “Mahsati” was her literary pseudonym.
As a renown poet, she composed quatrains (ruba’is).
For thee hath Heaven saddled Fortune’s steed,
O, King, and chosen thee from all who lead,
Now o’er the Earth it spreads a silver sheet
To guard from mud thy gold-shod charger’s feet
—Translation by Edward G. Browne