Edirne hosts session on Persian lit., poetry

Tehran, Dec 20, IRNA – A session of Persian literature and poetry was held in Turkey’s Edirne city on Friday. The Trakya University in Edirne hosted the session which was attended by professors of Istanbul University as well as Iranian officials, including Mohsen Mortezaei-far, Iran's Consul General in Istanbul and Javad Amini the cultural attaché of Iran's consulate in Istanbul, the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization reported. At the commence of the conference, Mohsen Mortezaei-far discussed the joint history of Iran-Turkey’s culture and history and the efforts of both of the countries’ scholars for introducing it to the next generation. “Those who expanded this precious treasure, were scholars who handed over the legacy to us in its highest place”, he added. During the ceremony, the words of noted Persian poet Hafez and the impact of his poems on the culture of regional countries were discussed by Kavoos Hassanli, Iranian professor at Istanbul University and head of the Hafez center in Shiraz. “The Divan of Hafez has been rendered into Turkish-language several times. Many Turk poets of the Ottoman era were inspired by Hafez ,which can be seen in works of Sultan Cem and Sultan Selim”, he noted. “The main message of Hafez is friendship, peace and moderateness”, he underlined. Elsewhere, the head of the Language Department of the University of Istanbul Ali Güzelyüz discussed the styles of Persian poetry in detail and then the university’s Persian literature professor Mehmet Atalay talked about the interaction and impact of Persian and Turkish language and literature. Edirne is a city in the Turkish region of East Thrace, close to its borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the third capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1363 to 1453, before Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) became the empire's fourth and final capital./end