Muhammad Reza Fakhr-Rohani

Muhammad Reza Fakhr Rohani is a translator in the field of Ashura literature.

Muhammad Reza Fakhr Rohani
Nationality	Iranian
Occupation	Translator and Author

Biography

Muhammad-Reza Fakhr-Rohani was Born in Qom, Iran. He has worked   on Ashura literature,  especially poetry in Englishand has been active in teaching, editing, and translating Shi’i Islamic literature from Persian and Arabic into English.

Education  

• (1372 Sh/ 1993) B. A., Honors degree, English language and literature, University of Tehran
• (1375 Sh/ 1996) M. A., Linguistics, Institute for Cultural Studies and Humanities, Tehran
• (1382 Sh/ 2003) Ph. D., Linguistics, University of Tehran

Activities 

• Member of Linguistic Society of America ,Washington, D.C. , USA .
• Board member and Editorial Board Hussein Revivalism magazine, Karbala, Iraq
• Co-convener, Language and Religious Beliefs, 39^th Poznań Linguistic Meeting (PLM), Geniezno, Poland.
• Co-editor, Annual Review of Islam in Eastern Africa (ARIEA) journal,( a journal co-published by Pwani University College, Kilifi, Kenya; University of Qom, Qom, Iran; and the Cultural Section, Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nairobi, Kenya.)
• Board of Literature and Foreign languages, Council for Critical Examination of Humanities Texts, Tehran .
• Editorial Board, Imam al-Husayn's Sacred Sanctuary Publishers   

Publications

Translation

• From Medina to Karbala in the Words of Imam al-Husayn, written in Persian by the late Ayatollah Muhammad-Sadiq Najmi.Birmingham, UK: Sun Behind the Cloud, with Imam alHusayn's Sacred Sanctuary, Karbala, Iraq, 2012.
• Ashura Poems in English, Explained and Annotated, vol. 1, 2nd ed.; and vol. 2, Karbala: Imam al-Husayn's Sacred Sanctuary; and Qom: Al-Mustafa International University., 2011

Selected poems  

Imam Husain ( H. Wells)

Pitched upon the scorching desert, The tent of Husain lay,

Encompassed round with Satan‘s hounds Upon that black sad day.

They numbered less than eighty strong,         5

Women and children too,

While Yazid‘s thousands stood around, Awaiting the fiend‘s might.

Driven away from the cooling stream,

His children waiting for water.          

Awaiting with patience extremely sublime Like sheep for the butcher‘s slaughter.

Oh! How valiantly fought that pitiful few, Against Yazid‘s wild murderers,

Fought with a courage unequalled in Time    

Fought with a fierceness that was surely Divine. The earth quaked and trembled as noon drew near. But still the survivors knew no fear

But fewer grew that pitiful band,

For Islam, God, and Husain they stand.   

At last, all were dead, the devil had won, Blood red sank down the merciless sun, Trampled and torn lay the gallant Husain,

For Islam, God, and the faithful were slain.

Tragedy of Muharram (Ethel M.Pope)

Gold moonbeam shed their misty light O‘er a saddened world;

To sound of deepest funeral dirge. Islam‘s banner is unfurled,

With slow and measured step, ‗tis borne,     

Aloft amid the throng,

The emblem of a mighty hand E‘er raised to right a wrong,

In by-gone days its silken folds,

Waved proudly in Iran;          

From Continent to Continent, The Arab symbol ran.

Its path was marked by victory, The triumph of the right;

Till darkest Africa‘s heathen hands,  

Were bathed in purest light. That day of happiness is gone; No more in ecstasy borne,

The banner heads a sobbing throng;

Whose duty is to mourn.        

The loss of him beloved by all A hero without stain,

Whose noble sacrifice has made The world ring with his name

With open hand he gave his all;

Articles

• (2008/ 1387 Sh) "Ashura" in Some English Reference Works, A Quarterly for Shi'ite Studies, 6.1 (Spring): 59-82. [In Persian, with an English abstract]  
• (2009, 15 April) "Ashura," a definition contributed to The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. (in preparation).
• (2009/ 1388 Sh) "[[Hazrat Zaynab]] in the Mirror of Some English References", Safineh, 6. 22 (Spring): 45-51. [In Persian, with an English abstract]
• (2009) "Editing Ashura Poetry in English: Problems and Prospects," paper presented at the Society for Textual Scholarship, City University of New York, 18-21 March.
• (2009, October-December/ Mehr-Azar, 1388) "The Maqtal Genre: A Preliminary Inquiry and Typology," Payam e' Mehr, 1.2: 114-130.
• (2010/ 1389 Sh, Summer-Autumn) "Jelveh-yi az showq va eraadeat-e Hinduhaa beh [[Imam Hoseyn]]," Farhang-e Ziarat, 1.3-4: 243-246. 
• (2011) "Some traits of Ashura literature," Hussein Revivalism [Karbala, Iraq: Imam al-Husayn's Sacred Sanctuary], 6 (2011): 30-31.
• (2011) "Ashura literature: Its status amongst the world literatures and for comparative studies," Hussein Revivalism, No. 8 (2011): 32.
• (2012) "The ziarat-texts issued in favor of Imam al-Husayn", Hussein Revivalism, 9 (2012): 12.   

Source

• Muahmad Reza Fakhr Rohani' CV