Iran and Turkey Jointly to Submit Rumi’s Masnavi to UNESCO

The two countries have reached an agreement jointly to submit the Masnavi-ye Manavi, the masterpiece by Persian poet Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, Salehi-Amiri announced.

Other subjects, including exchanges of experts and holding rare manuscripts exhibitions, were also discussed at the meeting.

IFP: Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, known in Turkey as Mevlana and in the West as Rumi, was a 13^th Century Persian poet, scholar, theologian and mystic. He was born in what is now Tajikistan or Afghanistan, and travelled widely across the Middle East, eventually settling Konya, which is in modern-day Turkey. For this reason, he is widely renowned and revered across the region, and although he wrote in Persian, many nations still feel kinship with his poetry and his spiritual teachings.