Program of Iranian Studies The Program of Iranian Studies at UCLA, established half a Division of Humanities century ago, in 1963, is the largest and most comprehensive doctoral program of its kind in the Americas. It covers the entire spectrum David Schaberg of Iranian studies across disciplines, linguistic boundaries, and periods.ABOUT Among its THEdistinctive POURDAVOUD strengths is the focus onCENTER Old and Dean of Humanities Middle Iranian philology, ancient Iranian history and religions, archaeology,Established as well inas the2017 study as ofthe classical premier and research modern Persiancenter for literature. In addition, courses in Judeo-Persian literature are Presents the study of ancient Iran, the mission of the Pourdavoud Ehsan regularly read in the Program. Center for the Study of the Iranian World is to engage in Near transformativeEastern Languages research on and all aspects Cultures of Iranian antiquity, Yarshater The missionincluding of the its receptionDepartment in theof Nearmedieval Eastern and modernLanguages periods, and The APourdavoud Homage Center Cultureby is expanding the discovery, on the interpretation, traditional domainsdissemination, of Old andIranian preservationstudies of humanand promotingvalues created cross-cultural over a period ofinterdisciplinary five or more thousandscholarship. years in an area that was the cradle of civilization. The for the Study of the department provides a holistic understanding of Near Eastern civilizations through the prism of language, history, culture, archeology,The and Pourdavoud religion, offering Center degree operates programs as indisciplinary Ancient Near home Iranian World Easternto stimulatingCivilizations intellectual(including Assyriology,encounters Biblicaland exchanges Studies, for Egyptology,scholars Hebrew, working Near onEastern ancient Archaeology, Iran and andthe ancientOld Iranian world, On the Occasion of the Studies,and as contributeswell as Middleto the development Eastern Languages of collaborative and Cultures research 130th Anniversary of (includingprojects Arabic in andsuch Islamic, diverse Armenian,areas as Art Hebrew History, and Assyriology, Jewish Studies, as well as Iranian Studies). Professor Ebrahim Pourdavoud Biblical Studies, Central Asian studies, Classics, Egyptology, Divisionancient of HumanitiesHistory, Indology, Near Eastern and Levantine and the Archaeology, Sinology, and the Study of Religion. The Division of Humanities at UCLA offers a remarkable 95th Anniversary of breadth of study, from philosophy and classics to art history Mrs. Pourandokht Pourdavoud Naficy and the languages and literatures of every part of the world. The Division takes the best traditions from the past to inform exciting innovations for the future. We Eventpreserve Details centuries-old approaches June 18, 2016 to research and teaching, focus on abiding questions of meaning, value and truth, and Advancedencourage registration our students is requested. to explore widely, to analyze deeply,For and more to information think critically and to andRSVP, independently. please visit: By exposing our studentshttp://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/events/ehsan-yarshater/ to the long legacy of human thought and to the most recent expressions of human creativity, our faculty ready students to live well,Parking: to respondParking iswith $12 versatility at Lot 2 onto thethe cornerchallenges of of our times, and to make lastingHilgard contributions and Westholme to Ave.the betterment of human experience.Parking attendants will be available at the gate. Center of the for Study the Iranian World For moreFor informationmore information UCLA Iranian Studies UCLA Pourdavoud Center 378 Humanities360 BuildingRoyce Hall (310) 825-4165(310) 206-6042 [email protected]@pourdavoud.ucla.edu www.iranian.ucla.eduwww.pourdavoud.ucla.edu Pourdavoud Hall 358 & 360 Royce Los Angeles, CA 90095 November 19, 2018 | 4:00-8:30 p.m. UCLA Faculty Center, California Room A Aspects of history spects of And epic in Ancient irAn Ehsan Yarshater 1920-2018 Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of From Gaumāta to Wahnā Ehsan Iranian Studies, Columbia University hsan Yarshater was born in Professor Yarshater authored several books and served as the Editor or Hamadan on April 3, 1920. General Editor of numerous scholarly works. His books include Persian h EGrowing up mostly in Tehran, Poetry in the Second Half of the 15th Century (in Persian, 1953), and Southern Yarshater he finished his secondary education at Tati Dialects (1970). He edited the third volume of Cambridge History of the top of his class, with this success Iran, in two parts, covering the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods istory And A Homage earning him a scholarship to study at the (1983 and 1986), and Persian Literature (1988). He was the Founding Faculty of Literature and the Teacher’s General Editor of the Persian Text Series, the Persian Heritage Series, November 19, 2018 | 4:00-8:30 p.m. College of the University of Tehran. the Persian Studies Series, and the Modern Persian Literature Series. The UCLA Faculty Center, California Room Upon graduation from the Teacher’s annotated translation of Tabari’s History in 40 volumes was completed College in 1941, he joined the service under his General Editorship. He was also the Founding Editor of of the Ministry of Education as a the Encyclopædia Iranica, arguably the world’s most extensive scholarly, on the cover M. Rahim Shayegan 4:00–4:15 teacher at Elmieh High School in groundbreaking, and comprehensive reference work dedicated to the Refreshments Tehran. By 1944, he was appointed broad and inclusive study of all aspects of Iranian civilization in the Deputy Director of the Preparatory Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, Educational College (Danesh-sara-ye Moqaddamati) in offering a comprehensive and detailed overview of its subject. He was 4:15–4:30 Tehran. While working in the field of education, he studied at the Faculty also the Founding Editor of A History of Persian Literature, a 22-volume, The Senmurv Silk. Fragment of woven silk This study is concerned with the content of one the most important inscriptions Introductions of Law and earned his B.A. In addition, he pursued the study of Persian authoritative survey designed to reflect the status and significance of M. Rahim Shayegan (University of Californian, Los Angeles) literature at the University of Tehran, receiving a Doctorate in 1947. He Persian literature. It includes extensive, and carefully selected specimens showing a mythical beast, the senmurv. of the Ancient Near East: the Bisotun inscription of the Achaemenid king Darius I then continued his studies in England after receiving a scholarship from of poetry and prose with translations and commentary by prominent 4:30–4:55 the British Council. Under the tutelage of W.B. Henning, he studied Old scholars. e Ehsan Yarshater’s Career – An Overview and Middle Iranian Languages and received an M.A. in 1953. In 1960, he Rudi Matthee (University of Delaware) earned a second Ph.D. from the University of London by defending his Professor Yarshater was an honorary member of Societas Iranologica Iranian, ca. 8th century. Victoria and Albert (6th century BCE), which in essence reports on a suspicious fratricide and pic in dissertation, Southern Tati Dialects, during the meeting of the Congress of Europaea and the Association for Iranian Studies, for which he served the Orientalists held in Moscow that year. as President. He was also a life member of the American Institute of 4:55–5:20 Iranian Studies. Lecture series in his name have been instituted at the Museum, 8579-1863. subsequent coup-d’état. Ehsan Yarshater and the Study of While working towards his second Doctorate, he founded The [Royal] University of London, the University of California, Los Angeles, the Iranian Dialects and National History Institute for Translation and Publication (Bongah-e Tarjomeh va Nashr-e University of Paris, the University of Maryland, Yale University, and Image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Prods Oktor Skjærvø (Harvard University) Ketab - BTNK). Since its foundation in 1953 until the Islamic Revolution until 2005 at Harvard University. The Ehsan Yarshater Fellowship Fund of 1979, the institute published over 500 volumes, encompassing three at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University was 5:20–5:45 series (a Persian text series, a series on Iranian Studies, and a series of established in 2012. In August 2018, Columbia University received a $10 Moreover, the study shows how the inscription’s narrative would decisively A Break classic works translated into Persian), and general knowledge books million gift from the Persian Heritage Foundation to endow the Ehsan intended to enrich the lives of a wide audience. The BTNK has been Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies, ensuring the lasting legacy of his ncient 5:45–6:10 lauded as the most important publisher to come into being in Iran. scholarship and vision for years to come. influence the Iranian epic, epigraphic, and historiographical traditions well Ehsan Yarshater and Persian Poetry In 1953, Ehsan Yarshater was appointed first as an Assistant Professor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater transformed Iranian studies, creating a Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak (University of California, Los Angeles) Persian Literature and the following year of Old Persian in the Faculty of legacy at Columbia University and worldwide that will continue to into the Sasanian and early Islamic periods.