TEHRAN -- The Iranian Academy of Arts plans to publish a stamp featuring Mahmud Farshchian’s latest miniature work “Shams and Rumi” to commemorate the 800th birth anniversary of Molana Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207-1273).

This latest masterpiece was unveiled during a special ceremony in Isfahan last week.
Farshchian said the work, which took two months to complete, was his way of introducing Rumi’s national identity to the world.
“It is necessary to use cultural strategies in the fight against countries, particularly Arab states, which plan to attribute to themselves the luminaries of the Iranian nation,” he explained.
A number of Arab countries and Turkey depict Rumi in pictures showing him clad in Turkish or Arab costumes