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43-609: Iranian studies is broader than and distinct from Persian studies , which is the study of the modern Persian language and literature specifically. The discipline of Iranian Studies focuses on broad trends in culture, history, language and other aspects of not only Persians , but also a variety of other contemporary and historical Iranian peoples , such as Kurds , Lurs , Gilakis , Talysh , Tajiks , Pashtuns , Ossetians , Baluchis , Scythians , Sarmatians , Alans , Parthians , Sogdians , Bactrians , Khwarazmians , and Mazandaranis . The medieval Persian poet Ferdowsi , author of

86-504: A Columbia University professor. Jackson was known for producing a grammar of the Avestan language . The monumental Encyclopedia Iranica project was started in 1985 and led by retired Columbia University professor, Ehsan Yarshater . Richard N. Frye developed Iranian studies program in the 1950s at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts . An Iranian studies program was created at

129-822: A candidate has worked extensively with one of the jury members over the past two years, or has a direct and regular relationship with him or her. In 2020, the average age at recruitment was 33.9 years for chargés de recherche (research fellows), with wide variations between sections (in the humanities and social sciences, it was 36.3 years). In 2020, the average recruitment rate was 21.3 applicants for each single open position, again with variations to this rate between sections. The most competitive sections are usually Section 2 (theoretical physics), Section 35 (literature, philosophy and philology), Section 36 (sociology and law), and Section 40 (political science). In 2023, in Section 35, there were 158 applicants for four open positions, hence

172-413: A laboratory an "assistant engineer"). Following a 1983 reform, the candidates selected have the status of civil servants and are part of the public service. All permanent support employees are recruited through annual nationwide competitive campaigns ( concours ). Separate competitives campaigns are held in each of the forty disciplinary fields covered by the institution and organized in sections. In

215-463: A more specifically Islamic perspective. Ferdowsi's work follows earlier semi-historical works such as the lost Sasanian-era Khwaday-Namag . Persian historiography strictly speaking begins with the Tarikh-i Mas'udi of Abulfazl Bayhaqi (995-1077), whose fluent prose style was highly influential on subsequent Persian literature . Persian historical writing reached its peak two centuries later with

258-478: A numeric code attached and is typically headed by a university professor or a CNRS research director. A research unit may be subdivided into research groups ("équipes"). The CNRS also has support units, which may, for instance, supply administrative, computing, library, or engineering services. In 2016, the CNRS had 952 Joint Research Units, 32 proper research units, 135 service units, and 36 international units. The CNRS

301-406: A recruitment rate of 2.53%. By comparison, Section 12 (molecular chemistry) received 33 applications for five open positions. The CNRS was created on 19 October 1939 by decree of President Albert Lebrun . Since 1954, the centre has annually awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals to French scientists and junior researchers. In 1966, the organisation underwent structural changes, which resulted in

344-666: Is a nonprofit founded in 1981 in Bethesda, Maryland, and since 1982 they host an oral history program. The Ilex Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts, formed to study Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations. The Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) is a nonprofit founded in 1995 by Ali Ansari in the United Kingdom; and the parallel organization the Iran Heritage Foundation America

387-542: Is a nonprofit founded in 2010 in New York. The Societas Iranologica Europaea (SIE) was founded in 1983 in Rome, with members from European and non-European countries. SIE works to promote and support Persian and Iranian philology , linguistics, literature, history, religions, art, archaeology, philosophy, ethnology, geography, human sciences, and jurisprudence . Persian studies Persian studies ( Persian : مطالعات فارسی)

430-450: Is divided into 10 national institutes: The National Committee for Scientific Research, which is in charge of the recruitment and evaluation of researchers, is divided into 47 sections (e.g. Section 41 is mathematics, Section 7 is computer science and control, and so on). Research groups are affiliated with one primary institute and an optional secondary institute; the researchers themselves belong to one section. For administrative purposes,

473-413: Is governed by very strict, well-defined legal rules, including the sovereignty and impartiality of the jury and the rules governing conflicts of interest: candidates are strictly forbidden to have any contact with a member of the jury, and no one may put pressure on the jury in any way whatsoever. If a member of the jury belongs to the candidate's family, he or she may not sit on the jury. The same applies if

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516-402: Is not a general rule (a research scientist can head a group or even a laboratory and some research directors do not head a group). Employees for support activities include research engineers, studies engineers, assistant engineers and technicians. Contrary to what the name would seem to imply, these can have administrative duties (e.g. a secretary can be "technician", an administrative manager of

559-709: Is the Societas Iranologica Europaea , founded in 1981. The Iran Heritage Foundation was founded in 1995 and is based in London. They support Iranian studies at several universities and sponsors a wide range of public cultural events. Other Iran studies programs in the United Kingdom are at the University of Cambridge , the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), Durham University , University of Oxford , University of St Andrews , University of London , and

602-686: Is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engineers and technical staff, and 7,085 contractual workers. It is headquartered in Paris and has administrative offices in Brussels , Beijing , Tokyo , Singapore , Washington, D.C. , Bonn , Moscow , Tunis , Johannesburg , Santiago de Chile , Israel , and New Delhi . The CNRS operates on

645-532: Is the largest comprehensive Persian dictionary ever published, in 15 volumes (26,000 pages). Germany historically has one of the more prolific places for research and writings about Iran, outside of Iran itself. Iranian studies (German: Iranistik ) in German-speaking countries goes as far back as 1654 AD and the publication of Golestan Saadi with translation by Adam Olearius . Classical Iranology in German began in

688-556: Is the study of the Persian language and its literature specifically. It is differentiated from Iranian studies which is a broader, more interdisciplinary subject that focuses more on the histories and cultures of all Iranian peoples . The study of language in Iran reaches back many centuries before Islam . The Avestan alphabet , developed during the Sassanid Empire , was derived from

731-947: The Jami al-Tawarikh of Rashīd al-Dīn Fadhl-allāh Hamadānī (1247–1318). Other important historical works include the Tarikh-i Jahangushay by Ata-Malik Juvayni and the Zafarnamah of Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi , a history of the Turco-Mongolian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane; 1370–1405). Among the most prominent scholars of Iranian Studies in Iran during the twentieth century may be counted Badiozzaman Forouzanfar , Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub , Zabihollah Safa , Mojtaba Minovi , Mohsen Abolqasemi, Ahmad Tafazzoli , Alireza Shapour Shahbazi , and Fereydoon Joneydi. The Loghat-nameh by Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda

774-839: The French National Centre for Scientific Research . The earliest recorded Swedish visitors to Iran were in the 17th century, with Bengt Bengtsson Oxenstierna (1591–1643) and Nils Matsson Kiöping  [ sv ] ( c.  1621 –1680). However a Swedish gold coin from 1700s was found in an Iranian bazaar, which may indicate earlier contact between the cultures. Early Swedish scholars of Iranian studies included Nathan Söderblom (1866–1931), Henrik Samuel Nyberg (1889–1974), Geo Widengren (1907–1996), Stig Wikander (1908–1984), and Sven Hartman (1917–1988). Among contemporary Swedish Iranologists are Bo Utas (b. 1938), Carina Jahani (b. 1959), and Ashk Dahlén (b. 1972). A major European scholarly organization devoted to Iranian Studies

817-735: The Library for Iranian Studies . There are Iran studies programs in the Austrian Academy of Sciences , Austria; Jagiellonian University , and Warsaw University in Poland; the University of Salamanca in Spain; and the Scandinavian Society for Iranian Studies (SSIS) at various locations in Scandinavia. A. V. Williams Jackson was an early American scholar on Indo-European languages and worked as

860-606: The University of California system, programs in Iran Studies are taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Irvine , and San Francisco State University . The International Society for Iranian Studies (previously known as the Society for Iranian Studies) was founded by a group of Iranian graduate students in 1967 and began producing a journal, Iranian Studies . The field expanded considerably during

903-729: The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1963 in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC) that was established by Wolf Leslau a few years before, in 1959. The doctoral program at UCLA is the largest program in North America, and was the home institution of Professor emeritus Hanns-Peter Schmidt who used to read Old Iranian and Old Indic (Indo-Iranistik), and is now led by M. Rahim Shayegan who also specializes in Ancient Iran. In 2021, UCLA hosted an Indo-Persian Musical Confluence gathering, which spanned several days and

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946-665: The University of Toronto is one of the most prestigious honor in the field. In 2021, the University of Toronto partnered with the Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation for a multiyear partnership to create the Iranian Women Poets and Iranian Cinema digital projects. The American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS) is a nonprofit founded in 1967, formed to promoted Iranian and Persian studies in American educational institutions. The Foundation for Iranian Studies

989-737: The 1970s, with a number of Americans having served in the Peace Corps in Iran taking up academic positions. Close relations between Iran and the US facilitated the growth of academic programs as well as the Asia Institute in Shiraz and the American Institute of Iranian Studies . The University of Toronto has an Iranian studies program. The Yarshater Lectureship in Avestan and Pahlavi Languages established at

1032-473: The CNRS is divided into 18 regional divisions (including four for the Paris region). Researchers who are permanent employees of the CNRS, equivalent to lifelong research fellows in English-speaking countries, are classified in two categories, each subdivided into two or three classes, and each class is divided into several pay grades. In principle, research directors tend to head research groups, but this

1075-619: The Iranian national epic the Shahnameh , can be considered the founder of Iranian studies in the sense that in his work he made a deliberate effort to highlight Persian culture prior to the Arab conquests . In this sense Ferdowsi's nationalistic approach can be contrasted with that of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari , the famous ninth-century Iranian historian whose History of the Prophets and Kings reflects

1118-707: The Islamic Orient. It was in the Eastern reaches of the Caliphate, far from the seat of Arab power in Baghdad, where New Persian reemerged as a literary and courtly language. Persian was the lingua franca of a wide area, not limited to Iran. The first Europeans to encounter the Persian language were the envoys and diplomats of early modern European nations sent first to Ottoman Turkey and then to other places. The earliest motivation for

1161-655: The Pahlavi alphabet and remained one of the most phonologically sophisticated alphabets until the modern period. The Zoroastrian liturgies until that point had been orally transmitted, and the ability to set these ancient texts in writing helped to preserve them. Even earlier than that, however, the invention of the Old Persian syllabary , whose shapes were adapted from preexisting cuneiform systems demonstrates that Iranian peoples could think critically, logically, and imaginatively about their language. The coming of Islam announced

1204-557: The Persian language meant the study of the language as it was used in these works. The first edition of the Gulistan of Sa'di was published in 1654 CE. As British trade with the Indian subcontinent increased, the focus of learning Persian shifted to the "colonial" Persian of India. During this period of intense interest in the Orient, Persian proved to be one of the most important languages for

1247-553: The United States where Iranian Studies classes are offered include the University of Chicago ; Princeton University ; Stanford University ; Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; the University of Arizona ; the University of Oklahoma ; the University of Maryland ; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor ; Ohio State University ; Quinnipiac University ; University of Texas at Austin ; University of Virginia ; University of Washington ; and Indiana University, Bloomington . Within

1290-473: The Western powers. It was at this point that modern educational institutions in Western tradition were first opened in Iran. Iran would never be the same, and the study of language there merged with the tradition in Europe. Library guides: French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (French: Centre national de la recherche scientifique , CNRS )

1333-422: The basis of research units, which are of two kinds: "proper units" (UPRs) are operated solely by the CNRS, and Joint Research Units (UMRs – French: Unité mixte de recherche ) are run in association with other institutions, such as universities or INSERM . Members of Joint Research Units may be either CNRS researchers or university employees ( maîtres de conférences or professeurs ). Each research unit has

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1376-420: The context of the competition, the section is made up of an eligibility jury, which reads the application files, selects some for the orals, holds the orals, and draws up a ranked list of potential candidates, submitted to the admission jury, which validates (or not) this ranking; the admission jury can make adjustments within this list. At the end of the admissions jury, the results are announced. The competition

1419-718: The creation of two specialised institutes: the National Astronomy and Geophysics Institute in 1967 (which became the National Institute of Sciences of the Universe in 1985) and the Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules (IN2P3; English: National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics) in 1971. The effectiveness of the recruitment, compensation, career management, and evaluation procedures of CNRS have been under scrutiny. Governmental projects include

1462-768: The early nineteenth century with the research and writings of Georg Friedrich Grotefend . Iran studies programs in Germany are at Freie Universität Berlin and the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . The emergence of comparative Indo-European linguistics and the translation of the Avesta happened in the late eighteenth century, by French scholar Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron . Iranian studies programs in France are at Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3 , and

1505-706: The empires of Babylonia Assyria , Sumer , Elam , and so on is indirectly indebted to the knowledge of the Persian language. During the Qajar dynasty , Iranians first encountered Europeans in the context of the rise of the West. Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798 CE was the first European intrusion into the Muslim Middle East and prefigured many more disruptions for the peoples of this region, especially Iran. Iran lost territory in several wars with Russia and Britain. Iran's economy suffered greatly as European sea lanes bypassed

1548-592: The end of the world of Antiquity and the replacement of Zoroastrianism with Islam as the most important faith of the Iranian plateau . Iran became part of the great Islamic community, the Ummah , and saw the rise of Arabic as the new language of literature and learning. Iranian-born grammarians, rhetoricians, scientists, philosophers, and theologians, contributed to the intellectual vitality of this new and vibrant civilization alongside other Muslims from other nationalities. Among

1591-488: The incipient field of Comparative Linguistics . Many scholars in prior centuries had commented on the similarities between Germanic and Iranian languages, but in the 19th century, scholars for the first time postulated a common ancestor to languages like Sanskrit , Persian , and European languages which has since come to be called the Proto-Indo-European language . As important was the deciphering of Old Persian ,

1634-413: The language of dozens of inscriptions which still stand in Iran. Sir Henry Rawlinson first discovered that the language of these inscriptions was an ancient form of the Persian language. Since these inscriptions often included inscriptions in other Cuneiform scripts, this decipherment became like a Rosetta Stone for the languages of ancient Mesopotamia . All that we know of the languages and histories of

1677-403: The legendary Silk Road which had always been a pillar of Iran's economy. New industrial processes of production made traditional ways of living impossible for Iranians. As in many other countries during this time like Japan , China , and Turkey , a nationalist reaction occurred in Iran as Iranians realized the importance of modernizing as quickly as possible to fight off the encroachment of

1720-421: The most prominent are: Many regions of this Arab Empire saw the almost total replacement of the indigenous language by Arabic: the pre-Islamic languages of Syria , Iraq , Egypt , and North Africa exist only in isolated communities and have been largely replaced by Arabic. Not so in Iran, where the Persian language continued, albeit with an infusion of Arabic vocabulary, and thrived as the courtly language of

1763-453: The study of Persian was to win converts to Christianity. Grammars and dictionaries of the Persian language were first composed in the 17th century during which efforts were made to understand the "Persian of the people". Later on, Persian, as it was used, declined in importance as Classical Persian literature was introduced to the continent. During this century, Europeans discovered the rich store of Classical Persian literature, and study of

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1806-572: The transformation of the CNRS into an organization allocating support to research projects on an ad hoc basis and the reallocation of CNRS researchers to universities. Another controversial plan advanced by the government involves breaking up the CNRS into six separate institutes. These modifications, which were again proposed in 2021 by think tanks such as the Institut Montaigne, have been massively rejected by French scientists, leading to multiple protests. Important reforms were also recommended in

1849-465: Was focused on the history between the sitar and setar instruments. During the Iranian Revolution (1978–1979) the American academic centers in Iran were closed and their assets seized. Over the past three decades since then, lack of funding and the difficulty of research travel to Iran have been major obstacles to Iranian Studies scholars that are based in North America. Other universities in

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