Armenia to celebrate Iranian poet

Wed, 09 May, 2007
PRESS TV, Iran

A conference on the poetry and views of the great Iranian epic poet Ferdowsi is set to be held in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, May 16th.

A number of Armenian writers, literary critics and scholars will attend the event, giving speeches on the literary aspects of the Iranian poet's work.

The event was planned during the recent meeting of Iran's cultural attaché to Armenia Reza Otoufi with the director of the Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia Azat Yeghiazaryan.

Referring to the success of a similar conference held last year in Armenia, Otoufi said one of the main outcomes was the proximity of Iranian and Armenian scholars' views.

Yeghiazaryan, for his part, emphasized the proper function of Iran in the international arena and said his country plans to bolster cultural ties with Iran.

Iran's cultural office in Armenia and the Armenian National Academy of Sciences have planned the seminar.

Hakim Abol Qasim Ferdowsi, 935-1020 CE, was born in the Iranian province of Khorasan, in a village near Tus.

His masterpiece, the Shahnameh (The Epic of the Kings), to which he devoted more than thirty five years, is one of the most revered of all Persian poems.

The Shahnameh recounts the tales of the old Persian kings, long before the Muslim conquest of the region.

ST/KB

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