(Photo by Salar Nayyer-Hoda)

Historical ‘Rakhtshooy Khaneh’ (Wash-house) edifice is located in Zanjan. This place was used for washing clothes by women around the city. It is being used as Zanjan anthropological museum presently.

Saba Makes Azaryazdi Animation

Arts & Culture Desk

Iran’s Saba Center is producing animated series on the life and works of the celebrated Iranian children’s writer Mehdi Azaryazdi.
The 26-episode series, directed by Majid Mohammadi, will be produced in a three-dimensional format.
“The animation features a character who looks like the late Azaryazdi, narrating stories from ‘Good Stories for Good Children’,” said Alireza Rezaiyanzadeh, the film’s producing manager.
Azaryazdi died last July. He is best known for his ‘Good Stories for Good Children’ that won a UNESCO prize in 1966 and was selected as Iran’s best book of the year in 1967.
Born in 1921, Azaryazdi began writing for children in 1956. He wrote seven books, each of which is adapted from a classic of Persian literature and rewritten for children in an easy-to-understand style.
He also authored ‘The Naughty Cat’, ‘The Playful Cat’, ‘Simple Stories’, ‘Poetry of Sugar and Honey’ and ‘Masnavi of Good Children’.

Philosophy of Religion Confab Underway

The International Conference on Contemporary Philosophy of Religion is underway at Iran’s Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies in Tehran.
Reasoning for the existence of God in the East and the West, religious experience, divinity and the devil, technology and religion, and interdisciplinary studies of religion and philosophy are some of the themes of the two-day conference.
Hamidreza Ayatollahi, Seyyed Hassan Hosseini, Qassem Purhassan, Mohammad Ilkhani, Mohsen Javadi and Mahmoud Khatami are among the Iranian scholars who will participate in the event, Mehr News Agency reported.
The US scholars Gary Carl (Mohammed) Legenhausen, Professor Alvin Plant, Tim O’Conner and Peter Van Inwagen will also take part at the event.
The conference aims to establish a unique ground for dialog and understanding among the very influential community of philosophy of religion from both West and East.
The event is organized by the Iranian Association for Philosophy of Religion (PHILOR) in cooperation with the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS).

Georgian Translation of ‘Kalilah and Dimnah’ on Display

A rare Georgian translation of ‘Kalilah and Dimnah’, a book of animal fables from classical Persian literature, has been put on display in an exhibition of manuscripts at the National Archives of Georgia in Tbilisi.
The book had been translated into Georgian by Vakhtang VI, the Iranian cultural attaché’s office in the city announced in a press release on Friday.
Vakhtang VI was the regent of Kartli, eastern Georgia, as a nominal vassal to Iran’s Safavid dynasty from 1703 to 1711. He later became king over the area until 1723, ISNA wrote.
Vakhtang was also known as a notable legislator, scholar, critic, translator and poet. He introduced the printing press to Georgia. He had the Georgian annals edited by a commission of scholars.
His translation of “Kalilah and Dimnah” was edited by Prince Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (1658-1725), who was a eminent Georgian writer.
The original version of ‘Kalilah and Dimnah’ was translated by the famous Sassanid physician Borzuyeh when he was sent off to India to gather the best minds and sources of knowledge of the day.
He rendered the ancient text ‘Panchatantr’ from Sanskrit into Persian and named it ‘Kalilah and Dimnah’.
This became the basis for a Syriac translation as Kalilag and Damnag and a translation into Arabic in 750 CE by Persian scholar Abdullah ibn Muqaffa.
A new Persian version from the 12th century became known as ‘Kalilah and Dimnah’ and this was the basis of Mullah Hossein Kashefi’s 15th century Anvar-e Soheyli (The Lights of Canopus).

Shabaviz Wins India’s AICOI 2012 Award

Iran’s Shabaviz Publications won the Best Content Provider’s award supported by the All India Conference Of Intellectuals (AICOI) on the final days of the 2012 year.
According to public relations office of Shabaviz publications, the award was granted by AICOI, which came into existence 31 years ago by the then Hon’ble Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi.
The award-giving ceremony was held in New Delhi to honor those who have done the best in the fields of education and teaching.
This is the first time that an Iranian publisher manages to win the award from among competitors from countries like the US, the UK, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Japan.
Every year, the AIOCI identifies and recognizes the achievements of some of the finest colleges and institutes, and companies from the private sector and confers them with education excellence awards based on comprehensive research considering various criteria that include but are not limited to infrastructure, faculty, strength of students, placements, annual growth, students and alumni feedback and feedback from the industry.

Mediterranean Art on Show

The Museum of Cycladic Art presents its new archaeological exhibition under the title ‘Princesses’ of the Mediterranean in the dawn of History, curated by the MCA’s Director Professor Nicholas Stampolidis, in collaboration with Dr Mimika Giannopoulou.
The exhibition presents 24 examples of ‘princesses’ from Greece, Cyprus, Southern Italy, and Etruria from 1,000 to 500 BC, and over 500 artifacts. Royal ladies or princesses; priestesses or healers; women of authority or knowledge; local women, who stood apart from the rest; other women, who accepted and adopted the cultural traits of different societies or of the men they married in their homeland-- local or foreign men--or even those women, who for reasons of intermarriage, traveled from one place to another, are the women this exhibition examines, according to ArtDaily.
Through their stories, one can distinctly perceive how these women played a contributing role in broadening the cultural horizons of their time, including their involvement in the development of the archaic Mediterranean culture. This exhibition presents real women. Not mythical or other figures.

Chicago Becomes 3rd Longest-Running Broadway Show

Chicago the musical has entered the history books, by replacing Les Miserables as the third longest-running show on Broadway.
Thursday night’s performance of the 1920s musical was its 6,681st.
The other two longest-running shows are Cats, with 7,500 performances, and The Phantom of the Opera, which is still running after more than 10,300 shows, BBC wrote.
Chicago producer Barry Weissler said it was “a truly remarkable day,” in a statement to Playbill magazine.
“Throughout the past 17 years, this production has exceeded my wildest expectations time and time again,” he said.
“Six Tony Awards, a Grammy Award-winning cast album, a six-time Academy Award-winning film adaptation, celebrated productions in 24 countries and 12 different languages across the globe.
“On behalf of the entire Chicago company, I want to thank the legions of fans and beloved audience members worldwide who have helped our show achieve this incredible milestone in Broadway history.”
Directed by the late Bob Fosse, the original Broadway production of Chicago opened in the summer of 1975 and ran for more than 900 performances.
The show, featuring songs such as All That Jazz, is a satirical look at the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in 1920s Chicago--as a scheming showgirl tries to get away with murder.
The show’s current Broadway revival, which launched in 1996, holds the record for the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.
In 2002, the story was adapted for the big screen by director Rob Marshall. Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere, it won six Oscars the following year, including Best Picture.
The musical closed in London’s West End in September 2012 after 15 years.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

God is pure and loves purity.