TEHRAN – Reciting humorous poetry, which is traditionally accompanied by indigenous music, has been registered on Iran’s National Intangible Cultural Heritage list, CHTN reported. 

Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Minister Ali-Asghar Mounesan announced the inscription on Sunday in letters submitted to the governors-general of 31 provinces across the country. 

Humor has been quite visible and has played important role in various contexts during the long history of Persian literature. It has also been widely varied in style and form. There have been both verbal and fictional satire, some of the soft and subtle, others coarse and even obscene, but all of them more or less amusing. 

According to Encyclopedia Iranica, in modern Persian literature certain forms of classical humor in poetry and prose survived, but they were applied in new ways and in new genres, which were introduced mainly under Western influences.

ABU/AFM