International Congress of Ferdowsi Opens in Mashhad | ||
International Congress of Ferdowsi Opens in Mashhad The 8th International Congress of Ferdowsi commenced at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.
Groups of Iranian literati and experts from Tajikistan and Afghanistan are attending the congress, which has been organized to commemorate the Persian epic poet Ferdowsi just three days before National Ferdowsi Day. A 2.5-meter-tall statue of Rustam, one of the Iranian heroes in Ferdowsi’s magnum opus Shahnameh (Book of Kings), was unveiled at the university on the sidelines of the congress. Iranian sculptor Ali Asadi has created the artwork. In addition, an exhibition of cultural productions of Ghazni, the Afghan city which has been selected as the Capital of Islamic Culture for 2013, opened at the university. The Ferdowsi Hall of the University of Tehran hosted the second day of the congress at 3 p.m. today. Several speeches were arranged for this day. Photos of 30 miniature paintings and calligraphy works on the theme of the Shahnameh stories have also been put on display in an exhibition on the sideline. The photos have been taken by Saeid Mahmudi from some rare copies of the Shahnameh on display at Iranian and foreign museums. Tehran’s Book City Institute also held a meeting at 4:30 p.m. on May 15 to discuss connections between Ferdowsi and Abul-Fazl-i Bayhaqi (995–1077), who wrote a remarkable history of the Ghaznavids that was the first major prose work in New Persian,. Ferdowsi is famous for his Shahnameh Persian national epic, which has remained one of the most popular works in the Persian-speaking world for nearly 1000 years. Completed in 1010, the Shahnameh is a poem of nearly 60,000 verses. Ferdowsi versified and updated the story to the downfall of the Sassanid empire (mid-7th century).
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