George Michael Wickens was a distinguished Canadian-British Persianist as well as Arabist, translator and a University lecturer.
Born in
London England, in 1918, died in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada in January, 2006, Wickens attended
Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving his BA in 1939 and MA in 1946. During the
Second World War he served with the Royal Army Pay Corp from 1939 to 1941 and the Intelligence Corps from 1941 to 1946, rising to the rank of captain. Following his wartime service — most of which was spent in
Iran — Wickens resumed academic life, teaching at the
University of London for three years before accepting an invitation to return to Cambridge. He taught there until 1957 when he was offered an associate professorship at
University of Toronto. He became a full professor in 1960 and founding chair of the Department of Islamic Studies (predecessor to today’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations) in 1961.
He was instrumental not only in the founding of an
Iranian Studies and Islamic studies department in University of Toronto, but in establishing it within a decade as a major centre in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
.
A prolific and distinguished humanities scholar, Wickens was the author of ''Avicenna: Scientist and Philosopher (1952)''. Wickens was fluent in
Persian and
Arabic and was one of the pioneering figures of Persian literature in Canada. He translated several masterpieces of
Persian literature as ''
Boostan
Boostan ( fa, بوستان, , Garden), formerly exhibited as Carpet to the Throne ( fa, با فرش تا عرش, link=no), is a Persian carpet woven by Master Ali Khodadadi and is considered to be a masterpiece in the history of Persian art.
A ...
'' of
Sa'di into English.
See also
*
Persian culture
*
Iranian Studies
Notes and references
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wickens, George Michael
1918 births
2006 deaths
University of Toronto faculty
Academics of the University of Cambridge
Iranologists
British emigrants to Canada