Establishing research centers for Persian poets Khayyam and Attar in Nishabur, a city in Khorasan Razavi Province, where documents and study findings on the two literary giants can be collected and preserved, was stressed by Minister of Culture and Islamic guidance Ali Jannati.
“Independent foundations for Khayyam and Attar studies are much needed projects, and I promise to assist and support their implementation,” ISNA quoted Jannati as saying, at a commemoration ceremony of Khayyam in Nishabur on Monday (May 18), where he was awarded the ‘Turquoise Simurgh’ emblem for his services to Iranian arts and culture.
Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, besides being a poet.
He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, and Islamic theology.
“Khayyam has a profound and atypical character. Making optimum use of time and learning from experiences are repeatedly highlighted in his works,” he said.
Better known by his pen-names Farid al-Din and Attar (literally the perfumer), Abu Hamid bin Abu Bakr Ibrahim was a Persian Muslim poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer from Nishabur, who had an immense and lasting influence on Persian poetry and Sufism.
In February 2015, Ahwaz city (in Khuzestan Province) beat Nishabur to be selected as Iran’s Book Capital after it won the award from the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO.
“The two cities were both cutting it close, and I’m sure Nishabur will win the title in the coming years if it promotes book reading,” Jannati said, adding that as the national literary critic Shafiei Kadkani says, “Nishabur is a condensed version of the Great Iran”.
