Bam Citadel in Iran

NEW YORK, July 13--Ranging from a small church in upstate New York, Haji Piyada Mosque in Balkh, Afghanistan, Bam Citadel in Iran to the entire country of Iraq, the 2006 list of the world’s 100 most endangered artistic, historical and cultural sites spans thousands of years, 55 countries and seven continents, the World Monuments Fund reported in a letter received by Iran Daily on July 12.

Bam Citadel in Iran

“This is the first time we have listed a country as endangered,“ said Bonnie Burnham, president of the fund, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of global heritage sites.
This also marks the first time the fund’s watch list of endangered places includes locations in Bangladesh, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Iran, Mauritania, Samoa and Sierra Leone. Overall, the 2006 roster includes 22 sites in Africa and the Middle East; 26 in the Americas; 18 in Asia; 32 in Europe and one each in Australia and Antarctica. Of those, 26 are holdovers from the last biennial list, published in 2004.

Haji Piyada Mosque in Balkh, Afghanistan

raq, considered the ’cradle of civilization’, has seen its rich trove of 10,000 archeological sites--such as the Nineveh and Nimrod palaces and Irbil Citadel listed in 2004--as well as tens of thousands of artifacts threatened by decades of international sanctions and conflict with Iran. The situation worsened with the 2003 US-led invasion and the ensuing looting and insurgency, which also have restricted conservationists’ access to sites, Burnham said at the fund’s Manhattan headquarters.
For example, on April 1, insurgents used either bombs or mortars to damage the top of the 9th century spiral minaret in Samara--a site often evoked by artists as the Tower of Babel--in an effort to keep it from being reoccupied by the US military.
“It is not only the heritage of Iraq that is at stake here,“ said Feisal Amin Al-Istrabadi, the deputy permanent representative of Iraq to the UN. “It is, in fact, world heritage.“
Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the World Monuments Fund has listed more than 374 at-risk locations in 100 countries since it began its biennial watch list of endangered heritage sites in 1996. Since then, more than 75 percent of those endangered sites have been ’substantially helped’ by the fund which has raised $162 million to provide training, financial support, technical assistance and advocacy for the conservation of those sites, Burnham said

Chiguetti Mosque in Mauritania

“We’ve not lost any sites that have been listed in the last 10 years,“ said John Stubbs, the fund’s vice president for programs.
The final list is chosen by an international panel of experts from hundreds of nominations; criteria include significance, immediacy of danger and the viability of actions proposed to address the threat.
Unlike the World Heritage List, managed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), nominations for the World Monuments Fund may come from anyone. The fund was founded to address the threat to world heritage posed by the catastrophe of the flooding of Venice in the 1960s. Since then, conflicts and catastrophes remain among the key issues the fund faces in such countries as Eritrea, where the ancient Red Sea port town of Massawa has been damaged in the conflict with Ethiopia, or in Afghanistan, where the 9th century Haji Piyada Mosque, the oldest mosque in the eastern Islamic world, has suffered neglect and decay during centuries marked by wars.

The 2006 watch list also contains more modern buildings than before, reflecting the need to extend conservation to 20th century architecture. Among the nine buildings listed, at least two may be lost to major alteration or demolition, which would mark the end of the list’s unbroken record of preservation, Stubbs said.

TEHRAN, July 13--The death anniversary of the renowned Iranian poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi, a poet who showed the way to mysticism through eloquent poetry, reportedly falls on July 12.
According to IRNA, Molana, who is as undoubtedly one of the most distinguished literary figures in the world, reached the pinnacle in Persian literature because of his deep insight in mysticism.
Molana is matchless among Persian poets. He is not only a world-class poet but also an enlightened mystic who invited human beings to perfection.
Molana’s ideal manifests humanistic characteristics within mankind which can be achieved by purifying from within, developing knowledge about God, self-sacrifice, love and kindness.
Molana Jalaleddin Rumi was born in 1207 AD in Balkh--one of the northeastern provinces of Persia (present day Afghanistan). His father Baha Al-Din was a renowned religious scholar. Under his guidance, Rumi received his early education from Syed Borhan Al-Din. When he was about 18 years old, the family (after several migrations) finally settled at Konya (Turkey) and at the age of 25, Rumi was sent to Aleppo (Syria) for higher education and later to Damascus. Rumi continued his education till he was 40, although on his father’s death Rumi succeeded him as a professor in the famous Madrasah at Konya.
He primarily received his mystical training from Syed Borhan Al-Din and later he was trained by Shams-e Tabrizi. He became famous for his mystical insight, his religious knowledge and a Persian poet. He used to teach a large number of pupils at his Madrasah and also founded the famous Molavi Order in Tasawwof (Sufism). He died in 1273 A.D. at Konya and was buried there.
Apart from the Mathnavi, he also wrote his Divan (collection of poems) and Fihe-Ma-Fih (a collection of mystical sayings). However, it is the Mathnavi itself that has largely transmitted Rumi’s message. Soon after its completion, other scholars started writing detailed commentaries on it, in order to interpret its rich propositions on Tasawwof (Sufism), Metaphysics and Ethics. Several commentaries in different languages have been written since then.

TEHRAN, July 13--A group of Iranian poets will visit France to hold ’Dialogue of Nature’ with their French peers, reported CHN.
The group, which will include Mohammad Ali Sepanloo, Medya Kashigar, Pegah Ahmadi, Alireza Behnam, Abdolali Azimi, Bahareh Rezaei, Mansour Ouji, Shapour Jourkesh, Kavoos Hassanli, will go to France to hold dialogue with French poets Alain Lance, Clude Esteban and Jean-Batistepara. Tom Jill Otie, the translator of Sadi’s poems into French will also be among the French poets.
The group will visit Paris in response to a trip by French poets to Iran last year. The French poets visited Jondi Shapour University of Ahvaz and Maragheh, East Azarbaijan last October.
Danielle Veznie, French Embassy’s cultural attachŽ in Tehran told CHN that the visit will be part of a cultural exchange program being carried out in light of Iran’s longstanding role in founding science and culture and forging closer bonds between the two cultures.
He said that another program will be undertaken as part of the ’Beautiful Strangers’ program in France.

TEHRAN, July 13--Khonia Music Group’s ten years of activities will be reviewed in a concert at Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Complex from July 19-22.
Head of Khonia Music Group, a traditional Iranian band, said that the concert will be held in two sections featuring a selection of music programs performed by Khonia Group in the past several years, CHN said.
Pari Maleki noted that in the first section some music pieces will be performed in the Bayat style while the second section will include musical performances in Homayoun and Mahour styles.
The group has 11 members and all musical instruments except the piano are traditional Persian. “Khonia music group was established in 1997. After Seyyed Mohammad Khatami was elected president in May 1997, women were also allowed to attend musical concerts,“ she added.
Maleki pointed out that fortunately people follow up music performances more seriously these days. “It used to bother me very much to see that a section of the audience came to concerts only to have fun and while away their time,“ she concluded.

TEHRAN, July 13--Renowned Iranian film director Vahid Mousaeian will produce a 30-part film called ’Dreams of Nations’, according to a press release by the Public Relations Office of Another Cinema.
Each part of the film will last three minutes.
Mousaeian has directed several short films and three feature films during his career.
’Dreams of Nations’ will feature a variety of cultures in the world, including that of Iran, in an innovative way.
Prominent Iranian composer Fereydoun Shahbazian will serve as an advisor to the film director. The innovative film will be designed and produced by Mohammad Afarideh.
Several other filmmakers will also offer advice on producing the film.
The film is sponsored by Channel 2 of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
’Another Cinema’, which is a group involved in producing the film ’Dreams of Nations’, has also invited interested filmmakers to send their works for broadcasting on television. Entries should not exceed 15 minutes, concluded the press release.

TEHRAN, July 13--The 10th edition of ’Scribble’ by Houshang Ebtehaj will be published soon.
According to ISNA, ’Scribble’, a collection of poetry by Houshang Ebtehaj (pseudonym H.A. Sayeh), a contemporary Iranian poet, which was published five years ago, will be reprinted soon.
The first, second and third editions of the book were published by Tous and Amir Kabir Publishing Houses, the fourth and fifth editions were printed by Karnameh Publishing House.
The latest edition will be ready in the next 15 days and will also include new poems by Ebtehaj.
Meanwhile, Karnameh Publishing House will print another book ’Hafez as Seen in Sayeh’s Poetry’ next month.
Poetry by Ebtehaj (Sayeh) which had not been published so far has received permission for printing and it will soon appear in bookstores.
In the meantime, a translated version of poem by German poet Niche into Persian will be published by Meshki Publishing House.
Ali Abdollahi has translated Niche’s poetry from German language.
Niche has compiled love poems from India and Egypt and published them in Germany in a book called ’Niche for Contemporary’.
Abdollahi also translated another book ’Philosophy of Niche’ which is written in a simplified language and will be published soon. It helps readers get an insight into Niche’s approach to philosophy.

A broad array of historic Islamic sites is included on the 2006 Watch List, eight in addition to those in Iraq. These include the ninth-century Haji Piyada Mosque in Afghanistan, one of the earliest structures in the eastern Islamic world; two sites in historic Cairo, the sixteenth-century Tarabay Al-Sharify complex and the seventeenth-century Sabil Ruqayya Dudu; the thirteenth-century Chiguetti Mosque in Mauritania, considered the ’seventh city’ of Islam and home to a unique collection of important Islamic manuscripts; and Teotihuac?n, and the Valley of the Kings (now part of the West Bank 2006 Watch listing), to such lesser-known sites as the Larabanga Mosque in Ghana, and the National Art Schools in Cuba.