Ehsan Yarshater (Persian:احسان يارشاطر; April 3, 1920 – September 1, 2018)[2] was an Iranian historian[3] and linguist who specialized inIranology. He was the founder and director of the Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies atColumbia University.
He was the first Persian full-time professor at a U.S. university since World War II.[4]
He had published a number of articles on modern western Iranian dialects, notably Tati andTaleshi, and theJewish dialects of Persian (including Lotara'i), and on Persian mythology.
His parents wereIranian Jews who had converted to theBaháʼí Faith, but he had no affiliation with the Baháʼí Faith as an adult.[9][10]
Theorems and Remarks (al-Isharat wa'l-tanbihat) by Avicenna, tr. into Persian in the 13th century; annotated edition. Tehran, National Monuments Society, 1953.
Five Treaties in Arabic and Persian (Panj Resala) by Ibn Sina, annotated edition. Tehran, National Monuments Society, 1953.
Šeʿr-e fārsi dar ʿahd-e Šāhroḵ yā āḡāz-e enḥeṭāṭ dar šeʿr-e farsi ("Persian Poetry underShah Rokh: The Second Half of the 15th Century or the beginning of decline in Persian poetry"). Tehran, Tehran University Press, 1955.
Legends of the Epic of Kings (Dastanha-ye Shahnama). Tehran: Iran-American Joint Fund Publications, 1957, 1958, 1964; 2nd ed. 1974, 1982 (awarded aUNESCO prize in 1959).
Old Iranian Myths and Legends (Dastanha-ye Iran-e bastan). Tehran: Iran-American Joint Fund Publications, 1957, 1958, 1964 (Royal Award for the best book of the year, 1959).
With W.B. Henning (eds.).A Locust's Leg: Studies in Honour of S.H. Taqizadeh. London, 1962.
Modern Painting (Naqqashi-e novin). 2 vols. Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1965–66; 2nd printing, 1975.
A Grammar of Southern Tati Dialects, Median Dialect Studies I. The Hague and Paris, Mouton and Co., 1969.
Iran Faces the Seventies (ed.). New York, Praeger Publishers, 1971.
With D. Bishop (eds.). Biruni Symposium. New York, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University, 1976.
Selected Stories from the Shahnama (Bargozida-ye dastanha-ye Shahnama), Vol. I. Tehran, BTNK, 1974; reprint, Washington, D.C., Iranian Cultural Foundation, 1982.
With David Bivar (eds.).Inscriptions of Eastern Mazandaran, Corpus Inscriptionem Iranicarum. London, Lund and Humphries, 1978.
With Richard Ettinghausen (eds.).Highlights of Persian Art. New York, Bibliotheca Persica, 1982.
Sadeq Hedayat: An Anthology (ed.). New York, Bibliotheca Persica, 1979.
Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. III: Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian Periods (ed.). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Persian Literature (ed.). New York, State University of New York Press, 1988.
History of Al-Tabari: Volumes 1-40 (ed.). New York, State Univ of New York Press, 2007.
Farangis Mohebbi,Dr Yarshater: Lambton predicted theIranian Revolution, An interview with Professor Yarshater concerning the late ProfessorAnn Lambton, in Persian, Radio Zamaneh, August 13, 2008,[1]. Audio:[2].
Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language ofIran,Tajikistan and one of the two official languages ofAfghanistan.
