Iraj Afshar

Who was Iraj Afshar?

Iraj Afshar was a bibliographer, historian, and an iconic figure in the field of Persian studies . He was a consulting editor of Encyclopædia Iranica at Columbia University and a full professor emeritus of University of Tehran.

Iraj Afshar recorded the monuments of Yazd in his three-volume "yādegār-hāye Yazd". He was known as "the doyen of standard Persian language bibliographers". Afshar played a significant role in the development of the field of Iranology in Iran and throughout the world during the second half of the 20th century. He was the editor of Sokhan, a prolific Iranology journal, under the responsibility of Parviz Natel-Khanlari and also the editor of rāhnamāye ketāb, Mehr, farhang-e Iranzamin and Ayandeh.

He was the chief bibliographer of Persian books at Harvard University. Afshar was associated with UNESCO and taught at the University of Bern and University of Tehran.

He was on the advisory council for the Iranian Studies Journal.