KABUL: Who can lay claim to Rumi, one of the world’s most beloved poets? A bid by Iran and Turkey to do so has exasperated Afghanistan, country of his birth eight centuries ago.
Tehran and Ankara asked to list the work of Jalal ud-Din Muhammad Rumi as their joint heritage on the UN’s “Memory of the World” register in May.
But the Afghan government has denounced the bid, which mainly concerns the 25,600 verses of “Masnavi-i-Ma’navi,” one of the most influential works in Persian literature.
The poet and philosopher “was born in Balkh in Afghanistan and made us proud,” the Ministry of Information and Culture insisted.
UNESCO “never asked us” about the proposal, Harron Haklimi, the ministry’s spokesman, said, acknowledging that Kabul had been beaten to the punch but hoping they can yet convince the organization that Afghanistan has the better claim to the poet.
For Afghans, who learn his poems in primary school, Rumi is “Maulana Jalaludin Balkh,” or “Maulana” (literally “our master“), or simply “Balkhi.”
Most researchers agree he was born in Balkh, Afghanistan in 1207 — though this too has been the subject of debate: a few argue he was born just across the border, in what is modern day Tajikistan, in a region also known as Balkh.
The powerful governor of Balkh province, former warlord General Ata Mohammad Noor called on Afghanistan’s representative to the United Nations to protest.
Afghan fury as Iran, Turkey claim Rumi
Afghan fury as Iran, Turkey claim Rumi
