TEHRAN – The mud-brick mausoleum of the 11th-century Persian poet Manuchehri Damghani has recently been inscribed on the national heritage list.

Known as the “poet of nature”, Manuchehri was a creative poet, who is said to have invented the form of musammat (stanzaic poems) in Persian poetry. His mausoleum is located in Damghan, north-central province of Semnan. 

The Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism announced the inscription on Monday in a letter to the governor-general of the province, IRNA reported.

Although very little is known of his life, his poetry shows an encyclopedic familiarity with Arabic and Persian verse which was presumably acquired in youth. 

The British modernist poet Basil Bunting published adaptions of several Manuchehri’s poems from 1939 onwards, and a little of Manuhehri’s sound-patterning seems to have influenced Bunting’s English verse.

The main population centers of Semnan province lie along the ancient Silk Road (and modern-day Imam Reza Expressway), linking Rey (Tehran) with Khorasan (Mashhad). While few visitors spend much time in the area, driving through you can easily seek out several well-preserved caravanserais (notably Dehnamak and Ahowan), cisterns (the Cafe Abenbar in Garmsar is a special treat) and ruined mud citadels (Padeh is lumpy but fascinating). The large, bustling cities of Semnan, Damghan, and Shahrud (Bastam) all have a small selection of historic buildings and Semnan has a fine old covered bazaar.

ABU/AFM