TEHRAN – The fourth international congress on Persian poet and mystic Mirza Abdul-Qadir Bidel Dehlavi (1644-1721) opened in the Grand Hall of the Interior Ministry in Tehran on Wednesday.

Experts on Bidel and poets from 20 countries are participating in the two-day congress, the Persian service of MNA reported. 

Bidel Dehlavi was born in Azimabad (present day Patna, India). He mostly wrote ghazals and quatrains in Persian and was the author of 16 books of poetry, which contain nearly 147,000 verses.

The Iranian Literature Center director Hadi Kiasari in his brief words called Bidel one of the great literary figures who had found worthy answers for many great questions of mankind.

“During all the years mankind has existed on earth, no language has had the honor to express such a great amount of wisdom and philosophy by itself as has Persian,” he added.

The former ECO Cultural Institute (ECI) president Iftikhar Husain Arif, as one of the guests at the congress, called Bidel a complex poet.

“Although not much has been written about Bidel, whatever exists is of good quality,” he added.

Academy of Persian Language and Literature director Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel and chairman of the Leader’s office Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, who were both due to attend the congress, were not present.

Last year, a foundation was named after Bidel in Tehran. The Bidel Dehlavi Foundation has been established to promote Persian language and literature in the international arena, while it also helps boost research related to the thoughts of and works by Bidel.

Photo: Pakistani poet Iftikhar Husain Arif speaks during the fourth international congress on Persian poet and mystic Bidel Dehlavi at the Grand Hall of the Interior Ministry in Tehran on January 18, 2017. (Mehr/Majid Asgaripur)

RM/YAW