TEHRAN -- The Shanghai International Studies University celebrated Iran’s National Attar Day during a ceremony on Friday.

 

Iranians commemorate the Iranian classic poet and mystic Farid ud-Din Attar (c. 1145-1221) as an annual ritual observing National Attar Day which falls on April 13 this year.

 

During the ceremony, the Iranian professor Mohammad-Kazem Kahduii spoke about life, works and mysticism in Attar’s poems.

 

He also talked about his mausoleum in the city of Neyshabur in Iran, and about his followers and fans.

 

At the event, the university expressed appreciation for the cooperation of Iran’s cultural attaché’s office in Shanghai with the university.

 

In Neyshabur, the mausoleum of Attar is adorned with flowers as an annual ritual.

 

The Neyshabur Municipality has also organized several programs for the day including art and cultural programs and music performances.

 

Several experts on Attar were invited to attend a conference arranged one day ahead of the national day on April 12 at the Simorgh Cultural Center in Neyshabur.

 

Asrar-Nama, Mantiq at-Tayr (Conference of the Birds), Mosibat-Nama, Elahi-Nama, Mokhtar-Nama, Khosrow-Nama and Tadkerat al-Awliya are among Attar’s masterpieces.

 

Attar’s most famous work “The Conference of the Birds” is an allegorical poem describing the quest of the birds, which symbolically represent Sufis, for the mythical Simorgh, or Phoenix. 

 

SB/YAW

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