Tariq Akbar's video: rumi: ghazal 95: ahmad shamlu: amazing love : : :

The poet: Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273 CE). The reciter: Ahmad Shamlu was born on 11 December 1925 CE in Tehran, Iran. Those were chaotic times in the history of Iran. The ruling Imperial family of Iran had become a puppet in the hands of the colonizing powers, most importantly Britain and Russia. The establishment of the Persian Cossack Brigade in 1879, under the command of Russian officers, had made the kings of Qajar Dynasty (1796-1925) helpless puppets of Russia. The Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911 had resulted in the establishment of a parliament. The Revolution was crushed by the Russian / Cossack soldiers invading Tabriz in 1911. In the chaos of the following years, Britain strengthened its hold in Persia. An officer of the Cossack Brigade, Reza Khan, with the British prodding and support, established the Pehlavi Dynasty in 1925, the year when Ahmad Shamlu was born. His father was an army officer, so he moved with the family as his father was posted to different cities and towns. The recently discovered oil had made Persia vital for the war effort of the Allies during the Second World War (1939-1945). He decided to join the nationalist struggle against colonialism, rather than formally finishing his high school. Throughout his life, Ahmad Shamlu continued his struggle for human dignity and freedom. He refused to accept both foreign domination and local suppression, either by the people who donned imperial robes or those who dressed in religious robes. A look at his life makes it clear that nobody could suppress or chain his restless but free soul. He was arrested several times in his life, by the Red Army, by the British, by the Iranian nationalists, and by the Pehlavis, but nobody could silence him. Once he, along with his father, was condemned to be shot by a firing squad, but the sentence was not carried out for some reason. His works were considered dangerous and hence destroyed. But he kept the struggle alive with whatever he could contribute as a poet, as a journalist, as a translator, and as a reciter of his beloved Persian poetry, thinking about his beloved countrymen, as this recording shows. He is considered one of the most important voices of modern Farsi poetry. He left Iran in 1977 in a self-exile, and returned to Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He passed away after a protracted illness on 23 July 2000 at his home in Dehkadeh in Karaj, Iran. Tariq Akbar 01 July 2017