‘Abdu’l-Rafi‘ Haqiqat

Rafi’ Haqiqat, ‘Abd al-Rafi’ Haqiqat (b. 1934), son of Karim Rafi’zadih. A poet with the nom de plume Rafi’, hailing from Semnan. When he was six months old, he lost his father, a prominent merchant in Semnan, and his guardianship was assumed by his paternal uncle, Hajj Muhammad Qasim Haqiqat and his childless wife, Rafi’s maternal aunt. Having received his primary and secondary education in his hometown and having studied with Ayatullah Aqa Shaykh Muhammad Salih ‘Allama Ha’iri Mazandarani Simnani, he found government employment in 1956 and taught for a while. He was transferred to Tehran in 1962 and having served in Ray and Tehran in different offices, he retired in 1976. He took graduate courses in history at the Faculty of Humanities and Letters, University of Tehran, and studied administrative management at the Higher School of Commerce while he held administrative jobs in the former. He embarked upon his journalist career from 1957, contributing his poetry and research articles to periodicals, like Armaghan, Wahid, Gawhar, Tehran, the Economist, Ayandih, Danishmand, Hilal (Pakistan), and Hukht. He published his poetry at times with the nom de plume Sitigh-i Alburz (the Alburz Summit). He also collaborated with a number of literary and cultural institutions in Tehran and served as the editor-in-chief of the Gawhar, a scholarly periodical, the administrative secretary of the Gawhar Literary Society (1973-1988), and a member of the department of history in Iran’s National Radio and Television. He is presently on the directorate board and the director general of Iran’s Writers’ and Translators’ Corporation, publication director of the Aftab-i Haqiqat Publications, and the administrative secretary of the Center for Research and Publications of Freethinkers of Iran, publishing works on history, culture, and literature. His works include: Tarikh-i Semnan; Tarikh-i Qawmis; Tarikh-i Nahzat-ha-yi Milli-yi Iranian (12 vols.); Tarikh-i Nahzat-ha-yi Milli-yi Iran (5 vols); Khumkhanih-yi Wahdat; edition of the complete works (Divan) of Shaykh ‘Ala’ al-Dawla Simnani; Iqbal-i Sharq; I’tiqad wa Dilbastigi-yi ‘Amiq-i Iranian bih A’in-i Kuhan-i Milli; Nigin-i Sukhan (12 vols.); edition of Shaykh ‘Ala’ al-Dawla Simnani’s Chihil Majlis (Forty Discourses); Junbish-i Zaydiyya dar Iran; Qiyam-i Sarbidaran; edition of Shaykh Abu al-Hasan Kharaqani’s Nur al-‘Ulum; Sultan al-‘Arifin Bayazid Bistami; Azadandishi wa Mardumgara’i dar Iran; Tarikh-i Junbish-i Sarbidaran wa Digar Junbish-ha-yi Iraniyan dar Qarn-i Hashtum; Kitab-i Aftab (Kand u Kaw); Iran az Didgah-i ‘Allama Muhammad Iqbal Lahuri; edition of complete poetical works (Divan) of Furughi Bistami; Tajalli-yi Tarikh-i Iran (collection of lectures and articles on literary and historical topics); Farhang-i Sha’iran-i Zaban-i Parsi az Aghaz ta Imruz (2 vols.); Farhang-i Hunarmandan-i Irani az Aghaz ta Imruz. Ninety five poetical compositions of his have appeared in six issues of the Nigin-i Sukhan Journal.

Farhang-i Sha’iran-i Zaban-i Parsi az Aghaz ta Imruz (1/ 235-238).