How is Iran Honoring Its Top Historian Abulfazl Bayhaqi?
Iran has honored Persian historian and litterateur Abulfazl Bayhaqi by registering 1 Aban on the national calendar after his name as the father of Persian prose. Accordingly, 1 Aban, which falls on October 23 this year, will be celebrated as the Day of Abulfazl Bayhaqi, the Father of Persian Prose, Reza Shojamoqaddam of the Sabzevar Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced in a press release on Wednesday. The proposal to name a day after Bayhaqi was put forward by the department and was approved by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, he said. The decision has been communicated to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to prepare the necessary arrangements for celebrating the day, he added. He noted that Bayhaqi is considered as the father of Persian prose, therefore he should be celebrated more extensively than what is organized every year in his hometown of Sabzevar in the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan Razavi. The Sabzevar Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance planned to select a day in the month of Shahrivar (August-September), which marks his death anniversary. But the plan was not implemented as 1 Aban was chosen, while the department gave no reason for its choice. Abulfazl Mohammad ibn Hosayn Bayhaqi, a secretary at the Ghaznavid court and renowned Persian historian, was born in 995 in Haresabad in Bayhaq, modern Sabzavar the in the Khorasan region. In his youth, Bayhaqi studied in Neyshabur, which at that time was an important cultural center. He later joined the secretariat of Mahmud of Ghazna, where for nineteen years he worked under Abu Nasr Moshkan, becoming his assistant and protg. His masterpiece Tarikh-i Bayhaqi, (Bayhaqis History) is seen as the most reliable source of valid information about the Ghaznavid era. It was written in exquisite and vivid Persian prose that would become an ideal model for several eras. Bayhaqi was one of the most gifted and graceful writers of Persian prose. In the age in which Bayhaqi worked, the position of court scribe was highly regarded. Such a scribe had to be highly proficient in both Arabic and Persian, and adept at the composition of various types of letters. From his history, it is clear that Bayhaqi had total command of Persian and Arabic, an elegant writing style, and great erudition. He died in 1077. This article has been adapted from its original source.