Mohammad-Amin Riahi

Who was Mohammad-Amin Riahi?

Mohammad-Amin Riahi was a prominent Iranian literary scholar of Persian literature, a historian, writer and statesman. Apart from being one of the authors of Dehkhoda Dictionary and Encyclopædia Iranica, he was the author and editor of several well-known scholarly books. Mohammad-Amin Riahi received his PHD on Persian literature from Tehran University under the supervision of Badiozzaman Forouzanfar. Riahi is best known for his scholarly works on Shahnameh and Ferdowsi, Hafiz, and the ancient language of Azerbaijan. He has produced critical editions of some of the major classical Persian texts such as Mersad-al-ebad and Nozhat-al-majalis. During a course of 60 years he published numerous scholarly articles, a selection of which are gathered in a volume titled Forty essays on language, literature and history of Iran.

Among numerous cultural positions he held during his career, Riahi was a professor of Tehran University, the founding member and later president of the Shahnameh Foundation, vice-chairman of the Iranian Academy of Literature and Arts, and Iranian Minister of Education. .