PESHAWAR: The Cultural Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to start classes on ‘Javed Nama’ which is the Persian masterpiece of the great poet-philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal.
Syed Ghayyur Hussain, an academician and literatus of Persian, will take the class every Friday after the Maghrib (evening) prayers. The class is being launched keeping in view the demand by the Persian lovers.
‘Javed Nama’, or Book of Eternity, was first published in the year 1932. The work is inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, and just as Dante’s guide was ‘Virgil’, Iqbal is guided by Moulana Rumi. The book was translated into English by Arthur J Arberry and into German by Annemarie Schimmel and in Italian by Alessandro Bausani. The Cultural Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran or Khana-e-Farhang Jamhoori Islami Iran has been offering literary and cultural services in Peshawar for the last 50 years. The centre arranges Persian learning, art and calligraphy classes besides providing a platform to local literati to promote native languages. Syed Ghayyur Hussain has been teaching Persian at the centre for over three decades. He has to his credit several books.