Attar Day commemorated in Moscow

TEHRAN,April 15(MNA)--Iranian and Russian literati celebrated Iran’s National Attar Day a day before during a ceremony at the Iranian cultural attaché’s office in Moscow on Saturday. Iranians commemorate the Persian classical poet and mystic Farid ud-Din Attar (c. 1145-1221) on National Attar Day, which was on April 14 this year. The ceremony was organized by the Iranian cultural attaché’s office in Russia. Several Iranian scholars and officials including the Iranian cultural attaché Abuzar Ebrahimi-Torkaman attended the event. Member of the council for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alikber K. Alikberov delivered a short speech about Attar. “Unfortunately, little is known about Attar in Russia due to the lack of professional Russian translators for his works,” he said. He said that Attar is not only a poet but also a mystic, which can be understood from his poetry. Afterward, the Iranian professor at the Moscow State University Mehdi Mohabbati talked about the mysticism in Attar’s poetry. Over 300 fictions are told about the life of Attar, he added. The chairman of the Russia–Iran friendship group Alexander Polischuk also delivered a lecture about the place of Attar in world’s literature. “I knew Attar since I was young, and Iranian scholar Jahangir Dorri, who was my professor, helped me greatly to better understand Attar’s poems,” he said. Attar’s most famous work Mantiq at-Tayr (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. Attar’s credits also include Asrar-Nama, , Mosibat-Nama, Elahi-Nama, Mokhtar-Nama, Khosrow-Nama and Tadkerat al-Awliya.