Raeisi dubs Nizami as ‘generative spring’ of Persian literature
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi described renowned Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi as a “generative spring” of Persian literature.
In a Monday message to a second annual event marking a week of commemoration for Nizami in Iran, Raeisi said Nizami’s works have represented a revival of Iranian-Islamic culture and have caused Persian literature to become more dynamic, IRNA reported.
“Nizami is one of the generative springs of Iranian literature and philosophy and his poems are full of Qur’anic concepts, divine verses and moral elucidations,” said the Iranian president in his message.
The message was read by Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaeili during a ceremony held in Tehran’s Vahdat Hall.
“Naming March 12 for Nizami is a precious opportunity to renew the covenant with the sweet Persian language as the second language of the Islamic world and the language of the great Iranian civilization, and beyond that, the day is a tribute to the wise Persian orator who is among the prominent figures of the language.”
“Today, it is the duty of each one of us to protect the Persian language as the greatest cultural capital and one of the most important factors in the identity and unity of the Iranian nation. A country that has such a rich literary background deserves to protect its rich identity against foreign words and expressions,” his message continued.
Nizami Ganjavi, a 12th-century Muslim poet, is considered one of the greatest romantic epic poets in Persian literature.
He is highly known for ‘Khamseh’ (Quintet), a collection of five long narrative poems that he wrote between 1188 and 1197, with a total of 30,000 couplets.
These five poems include the didactic work Makhzan ol-Asrar (The Treasury of Mysteries); the three traditional love stories of Khosrow and Shirin, Leili and Majnun, and Haft Peykar; and the Eskandarnameh, which records the adventures of Alexander the Great. Each of these works is a masterpiece of Persian literature, and each contributes to the literary world in its unique way.
Nizami’s Haft Peykar was translated into English in 1924 by Charles Edward Wilson.