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Ancient Persian poet
honored at UN
Posted: 06/19
From: MNN
The Permanent Missions of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan to the United Nations
in New York commemorated Persian poet Abu Abdullah Jafar ibn Mohammad Rudaki
''858-941'' in a ceremony attended by the UN chief on Wednesday.
Rudaki is considered the founder of Persian classical literature.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
plans to commemorate the 1150th birth anniversary of Rudaki by holding
projects with the support of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan in 2008.
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Permanent Representative of Iran to UN
Mohammad Khazaee and his Afghan and Tajik counterparts Zahir Tanin and
Sirodjidin Mukhridinovich Aslov respectively addressed the ceremony.
A number of literati also elaborated on the character of the founder of
Persian classical literature and his works during the event.
An exhibition opened on the sidelines of the ceremony featuring artworks of
Iranian, Tajik and Afghan artists. The show will be running for two weeks.
Rudaki was the first great literary genius of the modern Persian language who
composed poems in ""New Persian" comprising the Perso-Arabic
alphabet script.
He was born in Rudak (Panjrud), a village in Khorassan, Persia, which is now located in Panjakent,
Tajikistan.
Most of his biographers assert that he was totally blind, but the accurate
knowledge of colors shown in his poems makes this very doubtful. He was court
poet to the Samanid ruler Nasr II (914-943) in Bukhara, but he eventually
fell out of favor and ended his life in poverty.
Of the 1,300,000 verses attributed to him, there remain only 52 elegies,
ghazals and quatrains. --IRNA
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WATCH
UN WEBCAST
1 Hour and 38 minutes in original
language
WEBCAST IN ENGLISH only
Special Event: Panel discussion on "The 1150th anniversary of the birth
of Abu Abdallah Rudaki - the eminent poet and a founder of Persian/Dari/Tajik
classical literature" (organized by the Permanent Missions of
Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Tajikistan). Remarks by the
Secretary-General.
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