DUSHANBE, February 20, Asia-Plus - On February 25, the Ziyodullo Shahidi Republican Museum of Musical Culture will organize an exhibition dedicated to 800th anniversary of Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Balkhi, known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi.

Books about life and work of this great poet and the most prominent Sufi master will  be put on display at this exhibition.  The books and materials are provided by the library of the museum and Iranian Cultural Center.

The exhibition starts at 13-00 in the Ziyodullo Shahidi Republican Museum Musical Culture, 108 Loiq Sherali Street, Dushanbe. 

The Ziyodullo Shahidi Museum was established in 1989 on an initiative of his wife and his daughter Mounira Shahidi.  

Mounira Shahidi said in an interview with Asia-Plus that museum’s activity includes collection and classification of samples of Tajik musical culture, as well as materials related to the lives and activities of known Tajik artistes.  

The library of the museum formed on the basis of Ziyodullo Shahidi’s personal library has been improved significantly over the past decade, according to her.  Manuscripts and other records of the archive have been indexed and systematized.

Museum artifacts have been replenished primarily through gifts made by inheritors of other Tajik musicians. They include musical instruments, private archives and photographic documents.  On the basis of the museum’s collection and study of collected materials, the current museum exhibition was formed and is constantly being enriched.

Today, unique musical instruments such as tanburs that belonged to Boboqul-aka Faizulloyev and Shohnazar Sohibov (the last court musicians of the Emir of Bukhara and the first Shashmaqom performers in Soviet Tajikistan), are exhibited in the museum. These tanburs were made by Usto Tohir, the famous Central Asian maker of the musical instruments.

Among the museum’s exhibits are also tanbur of Aka Sharif Jurayev, the outstanding Hofiz traditional singer, and dutor of Muhammadjon Khalilov, the famous Lahuti National Drama Theater actor, as well as ghijak, which was made by composer Fazil Soliev.

For getting more information about museum you can visit website: www.shahidifoundation.org .