Nezami Ganjavi is the connecting point of regional countries and, still, after eight centuries, the renowned Persian poet’s works and thoughts are the practice of lovers of the harmonious word, said the head of the ECO Cultural Institute (ECI), Sarvar Bakhti.
Bakhti made the remarks at a virtual conference held to honor the 12th-century Persian poet.
Organized by the association of cultural monuments and honors, and in cooperation with the Iranian Embassy in Tajikistan, the pre-conference on Nezami Ganjavi was held virtually, according to Mehr News Agency.
During the event, cultural figures from two countries delivered speeches describing the great poet.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance plans to commemorate Nezami in a weeklong program beginning on March 12, which is celebrated in the country as Nezami Ganjavi Day.
The Iranian National Commission for UNESCO has also launched an international prize to celebrate studies from across the world on the Persian poet Nemazi Ganjavi.
Iran will hold the first round of the award to be attended by experts in the field of culture, art, and literature.
The first edition of the prize will be presented on Nezami Day.
According to the secretary of the first round of the award, Abdolmehdi Mostakin, the award has been scheduled in seven fields: Literature, research works on Nezami, calligraphy, painting, performing arts, popular culture, and music.
According to Mostakin, “After the Persian poet Ferdowsi, Nezami’s role in protecting the treasure of the Persian language and literature is well-known. A treasury of words, unique illustrations, a collection of poems and his eternal wisdom, as shown in the ‘Five Treasures’, all of these have protected the linguistic and identity borders of Iranians for centuries”.
Nezami Ganjavi is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic. His heritage is also widely appreciated and shared by Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan.
He is mostly known for ‘Khamseh’, the two copies of which that are kept in Iran were inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register List in 2011.
“Khamseh” is a pentalogy of poems written in masnavi verse form (rhymed couplets) and totals 30,000 couplets.
These five poems include the didactic work Makhzan-ol-Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries); the three traditional love stories of ‘Khosro and Shirin’, ‘Leili and Majnun’, and ‘Haft Paykar’; and the ‘Eskandar-nameh’, which records the adventures of Alexander the Great.
There are various copies of ‘Khamseh’ in Iranian libraries, but the two versions kept at the Central Library of Tehran University and the library of Shahid Motahhari School and Mosque in Tehran are registered by UNESCO.
Iran Daily link