The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has deliberately distorted Iranian history in a recently published news report.
In the news report ‘Tajik capital’s last Lenin plea’ published on its website on Nov. 9th 2007, BBC deliberately distorted the Iranian history by claiming the 9th century Persian poet Rudaki was ‘Tajik’.
“The communists want to move the statue to their party headquarters when the park in which it stands is redesigned. It will be replaced by a statue of the ninth-century Tajik poet, Rudaki…. They believe a statue of Rudaki, the founder of Tajik literature, is a more fitting ideological figure for the city.”
The BBC knows or should have known that Rudaki was in fact Iranian (not Tajik) and numerous reliable sources including ‘Britannica’ have confirmed him to be the ‘Father of Persian poetry’ and the first Iranian poet to compose poems in the ‘New Persian’ in Arabic alphabet.
Rudaki was born c. 859, Rudak, Khorasan of Iran. A talented singer and instrumentalist, Rudaki served as a court poet to the Samanid ruler Nasr II (914-943) in Bukhara until he fell out of favor in 937. He ended his life in wretched poverty.
Approximately 100,000 couplets are attributed to Rudaki, but of that enormous output, fewer than 1,000 have survived, and these are scattered among many anthologies and biographical works. He died in 940/941, Rudak.
SBB/HGH