TEHRAN – Abbasali Baratipur, an Iranian poet best known for his Islamic ritual compositions and lyrics on Shia saints, died from heart failure at his home in Tehran on Friday. He was 80.

Born in Tehran, he joined the Iran Air Force in 1962. Due to his desire to learn relevant technical subjects,   he was immediately sent to the United States of America to receive intensive training from the U.S. Air Force.

In 1977, he was dispatched to the U.S. to complete his training in electronics. After his return, Baratipur was commissioned to hold courses on electronics and the English language at the Iran Air Force. He continued his career in teaching until 1993 when he retired as a colonel.

His desire to learn technical subjects was matched by the parallel tendency to raise his knowledge of Persian literature.

His debut collection “Gaze in Wonderment” was published in 1990.

His collection “The Rendezvous”, which comprises poems on Imam Mahdi (AS), the twelfth Imam of the Shia, came a year later.

He also composed the three collections “Description of Patience”, “Love’s Green Sina” and “In Brotherhood with Poppies” about Iranian prisoners of war during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

His poems on Hazrat Abbas (AS), the brother of Imam Hussein (AS), were published in the two collections “On the Alqama Riverside” and “The Moon on the Euphrates”.

He also supported Palestinians in his collection “Olive and the Wound” published in 2002.

In his book “On Morning’s Forehead”, Baratipur focused on poems on the Ghadir event, during which the Prophet Muhammad (S) announced his cousin Ali (AS) as his successor and first Imam shortly before his death on the way back home from Hajj in 632.

He was the director of the annual meeting of the poets and literati with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, for 13 years. The meeting is organized every year on the eve of the birthday of Imam Hassan (AS) on the 14th of Ramadan. 

His friendship with Ayatollah Khamenei dates back to the years between 1967 and 1970 when he was in Mashhad for a military mission. 

Photo: This file photo shows poet Abbasali Baratipur talking to Fars at his library on March 18, 2019. (Fars/Hossein Mersad)

MMS/YAW