TEHRAN -- The tenth day of the month of Tir in the Iranian calendar (July 1), has been named after the Persian poet Saib of Tabriz (1601-1677).
Iran’s High Council of Public Culture approved a proposal to register the day on the Iranian calendar, the head of the council Mansur Vaezi told the Persian service of MNA on Wednesday.
The date was selected by calculating the numerical value of the letters of ‘Saib of Tabriz’ using the method of “Abjad”, which is a decimal numeral system in which each of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet is assigned a numerical value.
The Saib of Tabriz commemoration ceremony is also held annually on July 1 in Isfahan, Iran.
Saib of Tabriz was one of the greatest masters of a form of classical Arabic and Persian lyric poetry characterized by rhymed couplets and known as the ghazel.
Saib was educated in Isfahan, and in about 1626/27 he traveled to India, where he was received into the court of Shah Jahan, the Mogul emperor who built the Taj Mahal.
He also spent a few years in Kabul and in Kashmir. After his return, Safavid king Shah Abbas II bestowed upon him the title of King of Poets.
Saib’s reputation is based primarily on some 300,000 couplets, including his epic poem Qandahar-nama (“The Campaign against Qandahar”). His “Indian style” verses reveal an elegant wit, a gift for the aphorism and the proverb, and a keen appreciation of philosophical and intellectual endeavor.
SB/YAW
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