Rudaki
Abu Abdallah Ja'far Ben Mohammad known as Rudaki, is the first great Persian language poet and father of Persian poetry. He came to light in the 858 year at Rudak of Samarkand and at the age of eight learned the Koran and memorized it and from that moment on he devoted himself to poetry.
Rudaki, counted among the great and famous poets and oratorios, was blind but nevertheless had a noble spirit, a high thought and a great talent. He played the harp too well, he was gifted with a warm voice, he was fluent in qaside, ghazal and masnavi and composed praises in the Khorasan style.
Rudaki, despite preceding the great poets of Iran, is also considered among the most accredited. The great production of his poems oscillates between 100 thousand and one million verses; what has come down to us does not exceed the 1000 verses and is a collection that contains qaside, masnavi, qet'e and robay (quatrains). Among other works in verse there is "Kelile va demne" which he translated from Arabic into Persian and which Rudaki had rendered in Persian verses and which remains his most important contribution.
Unfortunately, this precious work, like the others and like its masnavi, has been lost and there are only fragments left of it. In his poetry are enclosed, in addition to the power of imagination, the power of expression, solidity and consistency of the speech and for this reason the Samanid court he enjoyed great esteem and a certain position so that the poets after he always aspired to have a life similar to his own.
Rudaki as the father of classical Persian poetry, occupies a place of great importance in the world and various events are always organized to commemorate this Persian language poet. Statues depicting him are placed in the squares of the cities of the countries of Persian language and also to one of the meteoritic craters (astroblema) was given its name.
Rudaki died in the 941 year at 69 years. His mausoleum is located in Tajikistan and some parts of it have been restored by Iranian tilers. From 2002 every year on 22 September, a day dedicated to Rudaki, there is a commemoration ceremony at its mausoleum.
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