Sarajevo society to honor Persian author Mahmud Dowlatabadi today

TEHRAN,Sep.3(MNA) – Veteran Iranian author Mahmud Dowlatabadi is scheduled to be honored during a ceremony today at the Sixth Biennial Convention of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The ceremony has been arranged by Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, a professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the organizing committee of the congress, ASPS has reported on its website. Artistic Director Ariana Barkeshli from Dutchess Community College is due to give a piano performance at the ceremony as well. Born in 1940, short-story writer and novelist Dowlatabadi was the most prominent Iranian novelist of the 1980s. Self-educated and forced to work from childhood, he spent part of his younger adult years as a stage actor in Tehran. “The Colonel”, “Kalidar”, “Desert Strata”, “The Trip”, “The Legend of Baba Sobhan”, “The Cowherd”, “Aqil”, “Man” and “Missing Soluch” are among Dowlatabadi’s credits. Over 250 scholars from different countries are participating in the ongoing congress (September 2-6, 2013) in which topics such as “Iranian National Traditions”, “Safavids: History and Diplomacy”, “Themes in Persian Myth and History”, “Ancient Contacts Between Iran and The Balkans”, and “Social and Political Currents of Modern Iranian History” are being discussed. In addition, several programs have been arranged on the side section including a classical Persian and Bosnian folk music concert and an exhibition of Persian manuscripts selected from libraries across Sarajevo.