Iranian foundation to unveil book on Ferdowsi

TEHRAN,March 1(MNA) -- Iran’s Ferdowsi Foundation plans to unveil the “Second Book of Ferdwosi Studies” at the Aqabozorg Award ceremony next week. The book, which contains 40 articles about Ferdowsi and his epic, the Shahnameh, has been published by the Khane-ye Ketab Publishing Company, foundation General Secretary Yasser Movahhedfar told on Tuesday. The articles have been written by scholars and literati from Germany, Austria, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Ferdowsi’s homeland, Iran. “The book can be used as a sourcebook for scholars,” Movahhedfar said. “The book has shed light on the influence of Ferdowsi and his work on some prominent literary works of the world,” he added. The winner of the first edition of the Aqabozorg Award will be announced at the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research in Tehran on March 6. A number of Shahnameh experts will also be honored on the sideline of the ceremony. The Ferdowsi Foundation established the award to commemorate the best study of the year on the Persian epic poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi. It was named after one of the founding fathers of the Ferdowsi Foundation, Professor Hossein Aqabozorg, who died in February 2011. Member of the Institute of Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences Nosratollah Rastegar, professor of Iranian studies at the Sapienza University of Rome Carlo Cereti and Iran’s Association for Preservation and Purification of Persian Language Director Ziaeddian Hajari are among the jury members for the award. Ferdowsi Foundation Director Mohammad-Hossein Tusivand and Movahhedfar are the other members of the panel