Magtymguly’s Birth Anniversary Celbrated in Iran

The birth anniversary of Turkmenistan’s Magtymguly was held in Iran with the attendance of Turkmenistan’s ambassador, AVA Diplomatic reports.

The celebration marked the 282^nd anniversary of Turkmenistan’s famous poet and Sufist,  Magtymguly hosting a number of Iran’s officials, foreign host and his fans at his tomb in Aq Toqeh, a village in Zavkuh Rural District, Pishkamar District, Kalaleh County, Golestan Province, Iran.

During the celebration, Ahmit Gurbanov said, “To develop the cultural ties between the two countries equals development in all dimensions.” Gurbanov also called cultural, social, political and economic ties between Iran and Turkmenistan positive.

The representative of the Supreme Leader in Iran’s Golestan took into account some significant features of Magtymguly’s life and underlined, “As a popular Muslim poet, Magtymguly was a lover of the mankind and enjoyed a rather marvelous position.”

Ayatollah Seyed Kazem Nourmofidi stressed the importance of Magtymguly in people’s unity and added, “His poems stemmed from Islamic guidance which asked the people of the time to unify and be of one unanimous vote.”

The message of Iran’s Minister of Culture was later read out by the chairman of Golestan’s Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

The governor of Golestan, Hassan Sadeghloo reiterated, “Magtymguly was an eminent reader of the Quran long before he became a famous poet. Some researchers and experts of Magtymguly’s work present him as Turkmenistan’s Ferdowsi, but as far as I know of him, I would compare him with Rumi and call him Turkmenistan’s Rumi.” Speaking of the quality of Magtymguly’s work, Sadeghloo continued, “He was an outstanding poet who was very different from his peers at the time with his poems teeming with Islamic thoughts and guidance.”

On Magtymguly’s lingo, the governor stated, “Magtymguly was on the belief that if the language of his poems had not been that of the people, then that would have never been his.”

A wake of honor and glory was thrown and once prayers for Magtymguly and his father came to an end, an encyclopedia and spectacular painting of his were revealed.

Magtymguly Pyragy was a Turkmen spiritual leader and philosophical poet who made significant efforts to secure independence and autonomy for his people in the 18th century. Magtymguly is widely believed to have been born in the Hajygowshan village near Gonbad-e Qabus city in what is now the Iranian province of Golestan, the northern steppes of which are known as Turkmen Sahra. He received his early education in the Persian and Arabic languages from his father Döwletmämmet Azady a leading scholar at that time. He went on to study in various madrassahs, including the Idris Baba Madrassah in the village of Gyzyl Ayak, the Madrassah of Shir Gazi Khan in Khiva, and may have also studied in Bukhara for some time. Some of Magtymguly’s poetry, along with stories collected from Turkmen oral traditions, suggest that the poet was taken prisoner at some point in his lifetime, likely in Mashad, Iran. It is unknown who took him captive, yet such events were common in 18th century Iran and Turkmenistan. The Iranian government has inaugurated a mausoleum on his grave.