.jpg "A bust of Persian poet Kamal ad-Din Masud Khujandi (1318-1400) in Tajikistan")
TEHRAN -- Sughd Governor Abdurahmon Qodiri, who is also the first deputy speaker of the Tajik parliament, has taken a sack of earth from the grave of Kamal ad-Din Masud Khujandi (1318-1400) in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz to symbolically put in a monument that Tajikistan plans to build for the Persian poet.
Qodiri and a group of Tajik literati from Khujand, the second-largest city of Tajikistan and the capital of the northernmost province of Tajikistan, now called Sughd, visited the tomb of Kamal Khujandi during a ceremony on Tuesday, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Wednesday.
A number of the officials of Tabriz attended the ceremony.
“This deed is performed to commemorate the great poet and mystic in Tajikistan,” Qodiri said during the ceremony.
“The plan to take some earth from the tomb of Kamal Khujandi was initiated by the Tajik president,” he added.
The government of Tajikistan plans to build a monument in a garden covering seven hectares.
“The President of Tajikistan is scheduled to place this sack of earth in the monument during a ceremony during the Noruz celebration in March 2015,” Qodiri said and asked Iranians to attend the ceremony.
Tajik cultural delegation’s visit to Iran was organized by the Iran-Tajikistan Friendship Society. The group arrived in Iran on last Monday to meet a number of Iranian cultural figures. They also attended poetry sessions during their three-day sojourn in Iran.
Kamal Khujandi was born in Khujand, which today is the capital of Sughd Province in Tajikistan. He lived in Tabriz and died in 1400 CE.
He is counted among the great romantic poets of the 14th century, like Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, Khwaju Kermani and Hafez.
MMS/YAW
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