Hassanzadeh-Mostafavi Follows Cats in Literature

Poet, translator, literary researcher and freelance journalist Farideh Hassanzadeh-Mostafavi has released a book on cats, titled “The Four-Legged Qalandars: Footprints of Cats in Poetry, Stories, Paintings, Politics, Religion, Medicine, Cinema and Science.”
It is published by the Tehran-based publishing house Nashrenow, ISNA reported on its Persian website.
In Iran, Central Asia, India and Pakistan, qalandar is an honorific title for wandering ascetic Sufi dervishes or individuals in an advanced spiritual stage and free from mundane cares.
“As a translator specializing in poetry and biography of poets, I never thought one day I’d be writing about cats,” Hassanzadeh said. “But I came across an old manuscript that encouraged me to study cats and their influence on renowned figures in art and literature,” she added.
The motivating passage in the manuscript is about a celebrated Arab grammarian of the 11th century Egypt Abul-Hassan Taher Ibn Ahmad Ibn Babshad of Persian origin and born in the city of Basra, today’s Iraq.