TEHRAN – The National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) held a meeting on Saturday to pay tribute to the celebrated Polish poet and Orientalist Adam B. Mickiewicz.

The meeting was organized to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the passing of Mickiewicz, the NLAI announced in a press release yesterday.

“Mickiewicz’s works are regarded as a piece of the puzzle of the Oriental studies in his homeland,” Irannologist Mohsen Jafari-Maz’hab said at the meeting, which was attended by groups of academics, literati, and anthropologists.

“To study the history of our country, we need to increase our knowledge about Oriental studies in the East-Central European countries, especially in Poland,” he added.

Literary expert Payam Shamseddini talked about the international impacts of Mickiewicz’s thoughts, saying that he inspired many cultural and political figures including, Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of the country.

An expert on Poland, Alireza Dowlatshahi, used the context of Mickiewicz’s poetry to discuss his trend of romanticism, saying that he also influenced the use of folk literary forms in contemporary Polish and even European literature.

Widely regarded as a national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, Mickiewicz (1798–1855) is also known as a dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, professor of Slavic literature and political activist.

Photo: Iranian scholars and academics attend a meeting that the National Library and Archives of Iran held on November 28, 2015 to commemorate the celebrated Polish poet and Orientalist Adam B. Mickiewicz. (NLAI)

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