Photo exhibit on Orientalist Hammer-Purgstall underway at Tehran complex

An exhibition of photos on Austrian Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall is currently underway at the Abi Hall of Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Historical Complex, AVA Diplomatic reports.

The weeklong showcase entitled “Bridge” opened on Saturday during a special ceremony attended by Austrian Ambassador Friedrich Stift, some of his colleagues, and the deputy director of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization, Mohammad-Hassan Talebian.

Earlier last week, the National Library and Archives of Fars in Shiraz commemorated Hammer-Purgstall in a program titled “Hammer-Purgstall, a Bridge between Hafez and Goethe”.

Born in 1774, Hammer-Purgstall is mostly renowned for the first ever complete translation of the Divan of Hafez into a Western language.

Before his death in 1856, he already had a gravestone prepared bearing inscriptions in the ten languages that he had mastered.