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'''Richard Nelson Frye''' (b. ], ], 1920 - ) is a distinguished scholar of ] and ] studies, and ] Professor Emeritus of Iranian at ]. His professional areas of interest are Iranian ], and the history of ] and ] before 1000 CE. '''Richard Nelson Frye''' (b. ], ], 1920 - ) is a well-known and eminent scholar of ] and ] studies, and ] Professor Emeritus of Iranian at ]. His professional areas of interest are Iranian ], and the history of ] and ] before 1000 CE.


Born to a family of immigrants from ], "Freij" has four children, his second marriage being to an ] scholar, Dr. Eden Naby, from ] who teaches at ]. He speaks fluent ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and has extensive knowledge of ], ], ], and other Central Asian languages and dialects, both extinct and current. Born to a family of immigrants from ], "Freij" has four children, his second marriage being to an ] scholar, Dr. Eden Naby, from ] who teaches at ]. He speaks fluent ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and has extensive knowledge of ], ], ], and other Central Asian languages and dialects, both extinct and current.

Revision as of 19:02, 3 May 2006

Richard Nelson Frye (b. Birmingham, Alabama, 1920 - ) is a well-known and eminent scholar of Iranian and Central Asian studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Iranian at Harvard University. His professional areas of interest are Iranian philology, and the history of Iran and Central Asia before 1000 CE.

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

Career

He served with the Office of Strategic Services during WWII. Frye graduated from Harvard university in 1946. He taught at Harvard from 1948 to 1990. He has also served as faculty, guest lecturer, or visiting scholar at:

Professor Frye founded the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, the first Iranian studies program in America. He also served as Director of the Asia Institute in Shiraz (1970-1975), was on the Board of Trustees of the Pahlavi University at Shiraz (1974-78), and Chairman, Committee on Inner Asian Studies, at Harvard (1983-89), and as Editor of the Bulletin of the Asia Institute (1970-1975 and 1987-99).

Among Frye's students, one can mention Annemarie Schimmel, Oleg Grabar, Frank Huddle (US Ambassador to Tajikistan), John Limbert (, former faculty member at Shiraz University), and Michael Chrichton, whose Hollywood blockbuster The 13th Warrior is loosely based on Frye's translation of Ibn Fadlan's account of his travels up the river Volga. (Greater Iran, p.90, 150)

Frye was also directly responsible for inviting Iranian scholars as distinguished visiting fellows to Harvard University, under a fellowship program initiated by Henry Kissinger. Examples of such guests include Mehdi Haeri Yazdi (1923–1999), Sadegh Choubak, Jalal al Ahmad, and others. (Greater Iran, p.103,174)

Frye as proponent of Persian culture

House of Ghavam, where the famous Shiraz University Asia Institute was founded. Frye headed the institute during the 1970s.

Frye felt that Persian civilization was under-appreciated by other Muslims, and Arab Muslims in particular. Frye wrote:

"Arabs no longer understand the role of Iran and the Persian language in the formation of Islamic culture. Perhaps they wish to forget the past, but in so doing they remove the bases of their own spiritual, moral and cultural being…without the heritage of the past and a healthy respect for it…there is little chance for stability and proper growth."

Iranians responded enthusiastically to his appreciation.

In August 1953, shortly before Mosaddegh's fall, the prominent Iranian linguist Ali Akbar Dehkhoda gave Frye the title (laqab): "Irandoost" (meaning "a friend of Iran").(Greater Iran, p.142)

A ceremony was held in Iran on June 27, 2004 to pay tribute to the six-decade endeavors of Professor Frye on his lifetime contribution to Iranology, research work on the Persian language, and the history and culture of Iran.

In his will, Professor Frye has wished to be buried next to Zayandeh-rud in Isfahan. Two other American Iranologists, Arthur Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, are already buried there.

Quotes by Frye

In a March 2005 lecture at UCLA, Professor Frye made the point that Iranians need to learn how to survive as minorities overseas and how to protect their identity.

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The following is also attributed to him, originating from the same lecture :

  • The culture is what is important about Iran.
  • Aryans believed in a cyclical view, like plants and trees, dying and coming back, rebirth and change of things, while Semites believed in a linear view; it is a time straight ahead to the end.
  • Iranians believe in cycles and continuity.
  • Iran is the classical land of dualism.
  • A contribution of Iran is Secular law, before them, law and religion were one. The Hakhamanesh brought universal and secular law not related of the locals.
  • The gate of inquiry should always remain open, this is Shia'ism.
  • If Sistani behaves like an Iranian and not an Arab, Iraq will be secular.
  • We have gone back to the middle ages of religious wars.
  • Iranians need to learn how to survive as minorities overseas and how to protect their identity.
  • Iranian poetry is world poetry, no one is better than the Iranian poets.
  • Iran is an island, in which there is no religious war.

Lecture excerpts can be heard here:

Frye on the architectural development of Tehran

See "Architecture of Tehran"

Other quotes

Here is a quote from F. Rosenthal's translation of Ibn Khaldun's work, The Muqaddimah, which Richard Frye quoted in one of his own works:

"…It is a remarkable fact that, with few exceptions, most Muslim scholars…in the intellectual sciences have been non-Arabs…thus the founders of grammar were Sibawayh and after him, al-Farisi and Az-Zajjaj. All of them were of Persian descent…they invented rules of (Arabic) grammar…great jurists were Persians… only the Persians engaged in the task of preserving knowledge and writing systematic scholarly works. Thus the truth of the statement of the Prophet becomes apparent, 'If learning were suspended in the highest parts of heaven the Persians would attain it' …The intellectual sciences were also the preserve of the Persians, left alone by the Arabs, who did not cultivate them…as was the case with all crafts…This situation continued in the cities as long as the Persians and Persian countries, Iraq, Khorasan, and Transoxiana (modern Central Asia), retained their sedentary culture".

Bibliography

  • The Near East and the Great Powers, Harvard University Press, 1951
  • Iran, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1960
  • The Heritage of Persia: The pre-Islamic History of One of the World's Great Civilizations, World Publishing Company, New York, 1963
  • Bukhara: The Medieval Achievement, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965
  • The Histories of Nishapur, Harvard University Press, 1965
  • Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, vol. III, Dura-Europos, London, 1968
  • Persia (3rd edition) Allen and Unwin, London, 1969
  • The United States and Turkey and Iran, Archon Books, 1971
  • Sasanian Remains from Qasr-i Abu Nasr. Seals, Sealings, and Coins, Harvard University Press, 1973
  • Neue Methodologie in der Iranistik, Wiesbaden, 1974
  • The Golden Age Of Persia: The Arabs in the East, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1993
  • The heritage of Central Asia from antiquity to the Turkish expansion Markus Wiener, Princeton, 1996
  • Notes on the Early Coinage of Transoxania; Numismatic Notes, 113, American Numismatic Association, New York
  • Greater Iran, Mazda Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1568591772
  • Ibn Fadlan's Journey To Russia, 2005, Markus Wiener Publishe, ISBN: 155876366X

See also

External links

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