Hyderabad: V Srinivas Goud, Minister of Culture, Archeology and Tourism, in Telangana, inaugurated on Tuesday an exhibition of photographs on Shiraz to mark the National Day of Hafez, a poet of Persian language who is famous the world over.
Hafez lived in Shiraz some 600 years ago, hence he is known as Hafez Shirazi.
Speaking before the event was opened to the public Goud said that Hyderabad imbibed many cultural traits of Iran because the Qutb Shahi sultans who ruled Golconda State for a long had come from that part of the world. “In our Hyderabad State Farsi (Persian) was the State language for a long time. Urdu was replaced with Farsi as the State language during the reign of Mahboob Ali Khan, the Sixth Nizam.
Therefore, we in Hyderabad have a deep connection with Iran,” he informed a large number of people who had gathered for the opening of the exhibition.
The Minister also informed the audience that the State government was trying to get World Heritage status for Qutb Shahi Tombs, Golconda Fort and Charminar.
Mahdi Shahrokhi, Consul General of Iran in Hyderabad, along with the minister, was accompanied by Syed Ainul Hasan, Vice-Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), and Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, Managing Editor of Siasat Urdu Daily. The exhibition will remain open for the public for the next few days.
The exhibition also has some rare calligraphy samples from the collection Siasat Urdu Daily as well as the Salar Jung Museum.
The consul general spoke about the contribution of Hafez Shirazi to the world of poetry across the world, especially in India. There are several poets in India who have been influenced by his works, he revealed.
Prof. Ainul Hasan described Shirazi as the best poet in the Persian language. When a governor of Bengal invited Hafez Shirazi to visit his state he could not make it. But he made it up by writing a beautiful couplet on Bengal which is still remembered by the people, he added.
The Vice-Chancellor lamented the condition of the tomb of Hafez Shirazi he found. When he visited Shiraz in 2019 he found the tomb was surrounded by shops and restaurants making the surrounding absolutely unattractive.
Though he wrote poetry some 600 years it is still “the best in the Persian language,” he noted.
