EMINENT PERSIANS: Iranologist Richard Frye at Reza Shah's mausoleum (1970's)

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EMINENT PERSIANS: Iranologist Richard Frye at Reza Shah's mausoleum (1970's)
by Darius Kadivar
03-Aug-2010
 

With Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin and other scholars, mausoleum of Reza Shah, Rey in the outskirts of Tehran, Iran (Late 1970s). The Mausoleum was entirely destroyed after the Revolution as a symbolic act against what the revolutionaries deemed as Pahlavi "tyranny".

Photo Courtesy: Richard Frye's Official Website

Harvard Professor Nelson Richard Frye speaks on CNN on his wish to be buried in Greater-Iran (Aryanam-Vaejah):

Richard Frye interview with IRIB in Persian:

(Note: If you cannot see embedded Video Click Here)

Interview with Richard Fry by Faraamarz Foruzande ( Royalist TV):

Frye was amongst the rare foreign public figures ( amongst which George Galloway ) invited by controversial President Ahmadinejad at a gathering in Iran of Iranian Expats in what appears to be an endorsement of his policies. Whether or Not Frye himself approves the Iranian president's domestic or foreign policies is not clear. At 87, I suppose he simply wishes to maintain his ties with Iran where he hopes to be buried:

Bio:

Richard Nelson Frye (born c. 1920) is an American scholar of Iranian and Central Asian Studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Harvard University. His professional areas of interest are Iranian philology, and the history of Iran and Central Asia before 1000 CE.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama to a family of immigrants from Sweden, "Freij" has four children, his second marriage being to an Iranian-Assyrian scholar, Dr. Eden Naby, from Urmia, Iran who teaches at Columbia University. He speaks fluent Russian, German, Arabic, Persian, French, Pashto, Uzbek, and Turkish,[1] and has extensive knowledge of Avestan, Pahlavi, Sogdian, and other Iranian languages and dialects, both extinct and current.

He and his wife Eden Naby were also teaching in Afghanistan´s schools and Universities (Daneshgah-e Kabul o Daneshgah-e Balkh and Habibia School in Kabul).

Frye first attended the University of Illinois, where he received an AB in history and philosophy in 1939. He received his MA from Harvard University in 1940 and his PhD from Harvard in 1946, in Asiatic history.

Frye served with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He was stationed in Afghanistan and traveled extensively in the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia.

He returned to Harvard to teach. He was a member of the Harvard faculty from 1948 until 1990. He is now a professor emeritus at Harvard.

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Darius Kadivar

benross Jaan I agree

by Darius Kadivar on

Quite True.

Frye's attachment to Iran and his knowledge of our country's heritage and past is above all political considerations or any short term political calculations.

The man's life has been dedicated to Iran and deserves applause no matter how one looks at it.  

 


benross

What a lovely personality

by benross on

I fully understand why the interviewer was leading the questions the way he was doing. But for such scholar and apolitical personality, it was a futile attempt and he knew it! You can't get a political statement 'of the day' out of such personality. The interviewer was aware of that and very careful to limit his line of questioning toward some clearance of message for his audience but it should have been avoided altogether in my view. That could have produced more clearance.


Sargord Pirouz

He might actually be my

by Sargord Pirouz on

He might actually be my favorite academic.

Thanks to his reasoning, I accept the convention of "Persian" in English, instead of using "Farsi".


Darius Kadivar

Akhareh Omri ... On Fait des Conneries ...

by Darius Kadivar on

And It rhymes ;0)

  The Brain as explained by John Cleese :
 
  //www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQjgsQ5G8ug