Tehran to host From Balkh to Konya intl. conference

Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Rumi and his contributions to Persian literature will be discussed in an international conference that has been entitled From Balkh to Konya. Experts from the U.S., Canada, Turkey and Kazakhstan have been invited to Tehran for the two-day conference, which will open on December 17. A panel of Iranian literati including Mohammad-Ali Eslami Nodushan, Mohammad-Ali Movahhed, Fat’hollah Mojtabaii, Medi Nurian, Sadeq Sajjadi, Tofiq Hashempur Sobhani and Karim Zamani will also participate in the colloquium to discuss the latest studies on Rumi. The conference has been organized by Iran’s Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia, which held a seminar on the Shahnameh, the celebrated work of the Persian epic poet Ferdowsi last month. Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh, now in Afghanistan. His father Baha ad-Din and his family left their native town in about 1218 due to the threat of the approaching Mongols. In Neyshabur, the family met Farid od-Din Attar, a Persian author of mystical epics, who blessed young Jalal ad-Din. Baha ad-Din and his family made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Afterwards, they reached Anatolia, a region that enjoyed peace and prosperity under the rule of the Turkish Seljuq dynasty. After a short stay at Laranda, where Jalal ad-Din’s mother died and his first son was born, they were called to the capital, Konya, in 1228. Rumi wrote the Masnavi-ye Manavi (“Spiritual Couplets”), which widely influenced Muslim mystical thought and literature. The Divan-i Shams and Fihi ma fihi (“There Is in It What Is in It”) are his other works. MMS/YAW END