TEHRAN – Scholars from the Persian-speaking countries of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan gathered at the National Library of Tajikistan on Monday to commemorate Abu Abdullah Jafar ibn Mohammad Rudaki (858-941), who is widely regarded as the father of Persian poetry.

Speaking at the ceremony, Tajik writer Saifiddin Nazarzoda expressed thanks to the organizers for holding the poet’s birth anniversary and called Rudaki the heritage of the Persian-speaking nation.In his brief speech, Iran’s cultural attaché in Dushanbe Ebrahim Khodayar also said that Rudaki played a major role in the formation of the Persian language, adding, “His tales and stories are endless narratives and that is why he is called the father of Persian poetry”.Khodayar also gave brief details on the publication of books about Rudaki in Iran.Director of Iran-Tajikistan Friendship Association Mirzu Mullah Ahmad regarded Rudaki a poet who attracted the attention of everyone during his lifetime and this characteristic of the poet is still remarkable.He gave a detailed report on research that has been carried out on Rudaki and asked for more collaboration by experts from the three countries.The ceremony was brought to an end with the scholars discussing thoughts and works by Rudaki.Born in the village of Rudak (Panjrud) in Khorasan, which is now located in Tajikistan, Rudaki was the first great literary genius of the modern Persian language who composed poetry in “New Persian”, which is written in the Perso-Arabic alphabet script.Most of his biographers assert that he was totally blind, but the accurate knowledge of colors shown in his poems makes this very doubtful. Of the 1,300,000 verses attributed to him, only 52 elegies, ghazals and quatrains remain.RM/YAWEND