TEHRAN -- In Tehran, a gathering devoted to the Palestinian poet and political thinker Tamim Barghouti brought together literature, political memory and the enduring cultural ties between Iran and the Arab world.

Titled For Freedom: From the River to the Sea, the event examined Barghouti’s poetry, his writings on Palestine, and his public positions during the recent U.S.-Israeli terrorist war on Iran.

Barghouti, a Palestinian-Egyptian poet and political scientist who teaches at Boston University, has become one of the most recognizable voices of contemporary Arabic poetry.

His work moves between classical Arabic poetic traditions and the political realities of the present, giving historical forms new relevance in an age of occupation, displacement and war.

The gathering included several panels devoted to Palestinian literature, Barghouti’s poetry, his writings on Iran, and literary expressions of solidarity with Palestinian children.

One of its central moments was the presentation of The Third Burda, a 200-line qasida composed in praise of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) and translated into Persian by Muhammad Reza Zaeri. Published by Kheymeh Publications, the volume places Barghouti within a much older Arabic tradition of devotional and prophetic poetry.

In a message to the event, Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Seyyed Abbas Salehi, described Palestine not simply as an occupied territory but as part of the contemporary historical and cultural conscience of the Muslim world.

He emphasized the capacity of poetry to preserve collective memory, stating that literature can transform suffering from an ephemeral event into a lasting cultural record.

Barghouti himself sent a message to the gathering, expressing appreciation that Iranian scholars and cultural figures had assembled to discuss his poetry during a period of war.

He invoked Iran’s literary heritage, particularly the continuing cultural significance of poets such as Hafez and Saadi, and presented literature and beauty as forms of cultural endurance in the face of violence.

The speakers repeatedly returned to the tension—and productive relationship—between classical tradition and contemporary political poetry. Literary scholar Muhammad Reza Sangari argued that Barghouti’s return to the classical Arabic qasida distinguishes his work within contemporary Arabic literature.

He also highlighted the influence of Barghouti’s family background: his mother, the Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour, and his father, the Palestinian poet Murid Barghouti, placed him within a distinctly literary household shaped by exile, narrative and political consciousness.

Barghouti’s poetry, speakers noted, frequently brings mourning and heroism into the same poetic space. His celebrated poem In Al-Quds (Fi al-Quds) exemplifies his ability to combine political commitment with historical reflection and emotional restraint. Rather than treating poetry simply as political rhetoric, his work uses memory, irony, history and classical form to construct a language capable of addressing the present.

The discussion of The Third Burda extended this question into religious poetry. Muhammad Reza Zaeri spoke of his early encounter with the famous Qasida Burda Sharif by Imam al-Busiri and explained how that tradition eventually led to his engagement with Barghouti’s contemporary response to the form.

Other speakers observed that Barghouti’s poem draws upon Qur’anic narrative, the sira of the Prophet and classical Arabic poetic conventions while simultaneously addressing contemporary political power.

Several participants also called for a broader revival of literary exchange between Persian- and Arabic-speaking cultures. Poet and academic Reza Zanganeh stated that Iranian literary institutions have yet to engage sufficiently with contemporary Arabic poetry and suggested that translation should become a sustained cultural project rather than an occasional enterprise.

The gathering ultimately presented Barghouti not only as a poet of Palestine, but as a figure through whom several literary histories intersect: classical Arabic poetry, modern Palestinian literature, Persian literary culture and the political imagination of the contemporary Middle East.

Its most compelling proposition was perhaps also its simplest: poetry cannot stop a war, but it can determine what a society remembers after the war is over.

In Barghouti’s work, verse becomes a vessel for memory—carrying Palestine, exile, faith, political struggle and the possibility of hope across languages and generations.