The al-Balʿamī family were administrators and scholars from Khurāsān and Transoxania. The most famous were Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad b. ʿUbaydallāh al-Balʿamī (d. 329/941) and his son Abū ʿAlī l-Balʿamī (d. 363/974), both of whom rose to high-ranking positions in the bureaucracy of the Sāmānid state and are known, in addition to their administrative roles, primarily for their respective contributions to the development of early New Persian literature. 1. Genealogy The biographical sources preserve two explanations for the purported tribal genealogy (nasab) of Abū