TEHRAN -- Today marks the birth anniversary of Molana Jalal ad-Din Rumi.

Turkey is to celebrate Rumi’s birthday with a giant whirling dervish sama performance and the celebration will be aired live in eight different countries using 48 cameras.
“300 dervishes are scheduled to take part in this ritual, making it the largest performance of sama in history,” the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey Ertugrul Gunay told the Turkish Daily News on Friday.
Iran has organized its own festivities to celebrate the 800th birth anniversary of Rumi and will be holding Iran’s Rumi week from October 26 until November 2.
The program for this week will include lectures by Rumi scholars, a Masnavi-reciting session and exhibitions of paintings and photos. Four plays are to be staged on the theme of Rumi, and Afghan, Tajik, and Iranian bands will perform concerts.
In addition, an international Rumi convention, in which scholars will present academic papers, will be held in Tehran, Khoy, and Tabriz.
The Persian service of ISNA noted that the Iranian professor of Persian language and literature Jalaleddin Kazzazi believes that Rumi’s thoughts are those of a great man who grew up in the culture of Iran, but whose philosophy is not restricted to any land or border.
“Rumi’s thoughts break the bounds of time and place. Even those who do not understand Persian and cannot read his poetry in its original language, feel astonished when they read translated versions,” he remarked.
Researcher Morteza Kakhi also believes that since Rumi wrote the Masnavi in Persian, this book has become the custodian of the language. He regards it as a great blessing that will preserve the Persian language for future generations