#019 Iran...Thanks Mahdi!

The 3R stamp on the top-right is 1983 Week of the Government issue,commemorating the 2nd death anniv. of Pres. Rajai.and Prime Minister Bahonar. They were both assassinated on August 30, 1981.

The 1200R stamp celebrates 17th Round of Book Week held during Nov.14-21,2009.The year’s motto is "Book, Sagacity, Capacity" which was ratified by the head quarter’s members.

The 650R stamp was issued on Nov.6,2008,showing a statue of Sheikh Abul-Hasan Kharaghani.

Sheikh Abul-Hasan Kharaghani is one of the great Sufis of Islam. He was born in 963 in a village called Kharaqan (today located in Semnan province of Iran, near Bustam) and died in the day of Ashura (10th of Muharram) in 1033.

He was the disciple of Shaikh Abul-Abbas Qassab Amili in tariqah but had deep spiritual relation (Uwaisi) with Bayazid Bastami, a well-known Sufi Master who died almost a century before him but had spoken about the personality and state of Abul Hassan Kharaqani.

Farid al-Din Attar, a famous Persian poet and sufi, devoted a large part of his book Tadhkiratul-Awliya (Biography of the Saints) about the personality, state and stories of Abul Hassan Kharaqani. Attar has called him as Sultān-e Salāteen-e Mashāyekh (The King of the kings of Sufi Masters), Ocean of the spiritual knowledge, Sun of the Lord, Mystery of the Lord and Qibla (focus of attention) of his people.

Abul-Hassan Kharaqani was the Master or Shaikh of the famous Persian sufi and poet, Khwajah Abdullah Ansari. Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Shah Mahmood of Ghazna, Abu-Saïd Abul-Khair and Nasir Khusraw had traveled to Kharaqan to meet him and expressed their deep admiring feelings and respect to him.

Mawlana Jalaluddin Balkhi (Rumi), Farid al-Din Attar, Khwajah Abdullah Ansari, Jami and others have narrated many poems about Shaikh Abul Hassan and have reported his several stories.

He was illiterate but had wide inspirational knowledge about the Quran and Hadith; his sayings and speeches are significantly magnificent due to their philosophical views. He practiced Shafi`i sect, a school of Sunnite Islam.