Abbas Zaryab or 'Abbās Zaryāb (
Persian: عباس زریاب; full name: Abbas (Zaryab) Khoyi عباس (زریاب) خویی; August 13, 1919 – February 3, 1995) was a
historian,[1]translator,
literature Professor[2] and
Iranologist. He was the author of several books, including a life of
Muhammad,[3] and articles in The Persian Encyclopedia (published in Iran), Western peer reviewed Journals as well as Iranica.
Biography
Abbas Zaryab Khoi was born in
Khoy,
West Azerbaijan in
Iran. From an early age, he showed an exceptional talent and memory, becoming distinguished among his classmates. Through a distinguished academic achievement, he was given a free scholarship to
Germany. He obtained his doctorate from
Mainz University in Germany from the history department. His Ph.D. thesis covered the topic of
Timur's successor according to the book: Tarikh-e-Kabir Ja'fari. He had mastery over the
Persian language,
Azerbaijani language,
Arabic language and European languages such as
German,
English and
French.
Among the distinguished rank he held, was the head of the library of congress in Iran and the head of the literature department at
Tehran University. At the invitation of the eminent
Iranologist, Professor
Walter Bruno Henning, he taught Persian language and literature in
University of California, Berkeley between 1962 and 1964. But he came back to Iran, due to his love for his homeland and took a position at Tehran University. He died in 1995.
His works are quoted in Western publications and by Western scholars including
Franklin Lewis,[4] Charles Melville,[5] G. Michael Wickens,
Juan Cole, Kamran Ekbal,[6] Lutz Richter-Bernburg,[7]Josef van Ess,[8] H. R. Roemer,[9] etc.[10]
Books and articles
Non-Persian languages
Some selected writing of his in non-Persian languages.
'A. Zaryāb, ĀḠĀJĪ BOḴĀRĪ in Encyclopædia Iranica[11]
Contemporary Persian and Classical Persian are the same language, but writers since 1900 are classified as contemporary. At one time, Persian was a common cultural language of much of the non-Arabic Islamic world. Today it is the official language of
Iran,
Tajikistan and one of the two official languages of
Afghanistan.