Tajikistan’s Communist Party has asked Tajik President Emomalii Rahmon for permission to save the statue. The Communists want to transfer the statue to their party headquarters.
The statue was erected in Central Park in 1926. The park is currently being redesigned and the Rudaki statue will be erected in September 2008 to commemorate the 1150th birth anniversary of the poet.
Born in 858 in Rudak (Panjrud) in Iran’s realm in the 9th century, Rudaki was the first poet of note to compose poems in the “New Persian” written in the Arabic alphabet and widely regarded as the father of Persian poetry. He ended his life in wretched poverty in 941, having returned to his native village.
SB/HG
END
MNA