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This paper by Dr Firuza Melville was a part of the Rudaki Day, organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Tajikistan in London.
In 1958 the first great 1100th anniversary of Rudaki was very widely celebrated, when many events were organised. Among them the monuments were erected, a jubilee coin, a stamp and a medal were issued, and even a film was made, called the ‘Fate of the poet’.
Rudaki is known as both Adam al-Shu‘ara and Malek ash-Shuara as he was the first chief poet at the Samanid court who started to write high quality poetry in his native language after two centuries of silence, two centuries of the Arab linguistic domination.
There are so many mysteries about Rudaki and his legacy - about his blindness, his involvement in the Karmatian movement, the disappearance of his legendary divan, and especially the reasons of his fall and disgrace after such a cosmic career.
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