TEHRAN, April 12--A number of musicians from Bushehr and their African counterparts gave a performance of songs from southern Iran.
According to Mehr news agency, some pieces of southern Iranian music, particularly those from Bushehr, were performed as a joint program by Bushehri and African artists.
The program, which took three years to be completed, features Bushehr’s devotional ceremonies in which music plays a significant role.
’Hanabandan’ ceremony, in which Henna is applied to the body, ’Feast of Lunar Eclipse’ and ’Lullabies’ were among the pieces performed.
Habib Meftah-Bushehri, a musician and composer for percussion instruments, directed the compilation, performance and recording of the pieces.
The inclusion of pristine songs, which was one of the prime features of the event, led to the three-year delay in completing the program.
The program, which includes solo and group performances, has been undertaken by a group of 10 people.

TEHRAN, April 12--Iran’s embassy in Rome has declared that based on a historical map dating back to 1563, the name of the Persian Gulf has been recorded as ’Golf di Persia’.
According to a letter, a copy of which was received by IRNA, following the recent action of the US publication, National Geographic in distorting the name of the waterway off the southern coast of Iran by referring to it as the (Arab) Gulf in their maps, an assessment of records at Italian museums and archives led to the discovery of historical document in this connection.
“In accordance with the historical document associated with a 500-year-old map of Iran, the Persian Gulf was called the ’Golf di Persia’.
The old map is now maintained at Italy’s Florence Museum which is among the most reputable in the world, added the letter.
The Washington-based ’National Geographic’ magazine published an atlas in late fall of 2004, in which it used a distorted name for the Persian Gulf in parenthesis besides its original name.
The move came in for strong objections by official Iranian institutions both at home and abroad, in response to which the National Geographic Institute corrected the mistake. However, the relevant ambiguities have not yet been fully removed.

TEHRAN, April 12--A researcher of literature and Hafez studies has criticized the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for dereliction of duty in authorizing the publication of an English version of fake poetry attributed to Hafez.
Behrooz Servatyan strongly criticized government institutes responsible for cultural affairs for inaction to the publication of fake poetries attributed to the great Iranian poet Sheikh Shamsoddin Hafez Shirazi, said ISNA.
He recalled that at a conference on Hafez Studies in Shiraz, a lecturer had expressed concern about the publication of an English version of Hafez’s poetry in the US several years ago which sold several million copies. This was a completely distorted version which had nothing to do with Hafez’s works, he said calling on the government to set up a center to monitor interpretations of poetry by great Iranian poets.
Servatyan said that even the poem inscribed on Hafez’s tombstone was not penned by him and those against the poet’s mysticism have attributed this to the great Iranian poet.
He pointed out that Hafez had said, “If you pass by my soil (tomb), appeal for help, because it will become the place for pilgrimage of the faithful liberals.“
However, the poem inscribed on the tombstone read: ’Do not stand on my soil (tomb) without drink and musician and leave my tomb in dance’. Needless to say that in Islamic culture, no body bequests to drink wine on his tomb, secondly, Hafez has such a great personality and never spoke of futility.
He appealed to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to strongly deal with such spurious works which are attributed to Hafez and bring to justice those involved in such a crime.

TEHRAN, April 12--Reconstruction of ’Marvi Alley’, an original and old area in southern Tehran, will start next week, IRNA said.
Announcing this, managing director of Tehran Municipality’s Beautification Organization, Abolqasem Vahdati said that the ancient thoroughfare will be rebuilt using the latest engineering techniques in a way that visitors will actually get a feeling of old Tehran when they pass through the alley.
Vahdati said that the fa�ade of buildings in Marvi Alley beginning from Naser Khosrow to Pamenar streets is unsatisfactory. He said that the reconstruction will be conducted in such a way that the old features are not damaged and its architectural designs are restored.
Vahdati said that executive works on the reconstruction will begin with the restoration of the floor of the thoroughfare, pavements and fa�ade of the buildings situated along the street.
Marvi Alley is 72 years old and is located in the 12th district of Tehran Municipality.

TEHRAN, April 12--The eleventh anniversary of the martyrdom of revolutionary artist Morteza Avini was held here late Sunday in a ceremony attended by cultural and artistic figures.
One of the speakers at the ceremony, Abdolmajid Hosseini-Rad said that Avini, as a Muslim intellectual made every effort to be in the current of events of the time and at the same time promote the moral aspects of life, ILNA reported.
He had a broad political insight and a very deep approach to religious analyses of developments taking place during his lifetime.
Addressing the same gathering, Hojjatoleslam Mohseni said that Avini pursued the truth both before and after the victory of the Islamic Revolution.
He said that Avini became acquainted with lifestyle and thoughts of westerners and acquired a good talent in the analysis of arts, cinema, music, literature and philosophy.
He said that Avini passed through the ’Process of Nihilism in West’ to ’The Last Period of Ordeal’ as a way to paradise.
Akbar Nabavi, Hamid Ajami also presented their views about Avini’s efforts for the advancement of arts.
Nabavi said that Avini had a theoretical approach to cinema and believed that philosophy and wisdom should be promoted in the film industry.
Ajami also paid tribute to Avini’s personality and said that even his artistic works fall short of displaying his integrated personality.