Death of Iran’s most revered singer, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, draws thousands to the streets
- Vocalist who helped define Iranian culture died of kidney cancer at age 80
- Despite his huge following, Shajarian found himself stifled by Iranian conservatives after backing protesters in 2009
Iran’s most revered classical musician, vocalist Mohammad Reza Shajarian, has died at age 80, after a career that helped define Iranian culture but was stifled by conservative ideologues once he backed protests a decade ago.
His death from kidney cancer will be felt by millions of Iranians and Persian-speakers throughout the world for whom he symbolised their rich literary and musical heritage.
Crowds flocked to the hospital where he was treated in Tehran, many wearing masks as the country fights a spiralling outbreak of coronavirus.
Shajarian’s illness had returned in recent years and as his condition worsened this week Iranians gathered at the hospital to sing one of his most celebrated works, Morgh-e Sahar, or Bird of Dawn. The lyrics were written by an Iranian poet imprisoned in the early 20th century amid a popular uprising that stripped some authority from an all-powerful monarchy.
The words found new meaning after 1979, when music was shunned by zealous clerics who were deciding how to run the Islamic republic after ousting the shah. In the first tumultuous decade of the new regime, musical instruments were virtually banned.
Shajarian was born in 1940 in the holy city of Mashhad and began his training reciting the Koran as a small child.