For the historians of Persia, the thirteenth century recalls the dramatic changes brought about by the Mongol invasions. In fact, the emergence of two full-fledged artespoeticae, entirely conceived and composed in Persian just a few years apart, at the opposite ends of the Iranian plateau (Shiraz, Alamut), could not easily be predicted. With his Compendium on the Standards of the Poetry of the Persians (Ketāb al-mu‘jam, fī ma‘āyīr aš‘ār al-‘ajam), Šams-e Qeys-e Rāzī (ca. 1175-1240) delivered the indisputable classic of the genre. This comparative reading of the texts aims to shed some light on their unique endeavor and to recapture sparkles of their insight into the nature of poetry.