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''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English-language
encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...
about the history, culture, and civilization of
Iranian peoples Iranian peoples, or Iranic peoples, are the collective ethnolinguistic groups who are identified chiefly by their native usage of any of the Iranian languages, which are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European langu ...
from prehistory to modern times.


Scope

The ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the wider
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
,
Southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...
,
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
, and the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
. The academic reference work will eventually cover all aspects of Iranian history and
culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
as well as all
Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...
and literatures, facilitating the whole range of Iranian studies research from archeology to political sciences. It is a project founded by Ehsan Yarshater in 1973 and currently carried out at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
's Center for Iranian Studies. It is considered the standard encyclopedia of the
academic discipline An academic discipline or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part) and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, a ...
of Iranistics. The scope of the encyclopedia goes beyond modern
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
(also known as ''"Persia"'') and encompasses the entire Iranian cultural sphere, and far beyond. Relations of the Iranian world with other cultures (China, European countries, etc.) are also covered. The project is planning on publishing a total of up to 45 volumes.


Organization


Staff

Ehsan Yarshater was the founding editor of ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' from 1973 through 2017. The current editor-in-chief is Elton Daniel. The editorial board includes Mohsen Ashtiany, Mahnaz Moazami, and over 40 consulting editors from major international institutions doing research in Iranian studies. Former long tenured editors include Ahmad Ashraf, Christopher Brunner, Habib Borjian, Kioumars Ghereghlou, Manuchehr Kasheff, Dagmar Riedel and Houra Yavari. A growing number (over 1,300 in 2016) of scholars worldwide have contributed articles to ''Encyclopædia Iranica''.


Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation

In 1990, Ehsan Yarshater established the Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation (EIF), which serves to promote the cause of the ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' and to ensure its continuation. Over the years, Columbia University's Center for Iranian Studies (also founded by Yarshater) continued to coordinate and edit the ''Encyclopædia'', while the EIF substantially sponsored the work. The foundation provides the full text of many entries (up to fascicle XVI/3) for free on the iranicaonline.org website.


Legal dispute

Following Yarshater's retirement as director of the Center for Iranian Studies in 2016, a dispute began to emerge between Columbia University and the EIF as Columbia unilaterally decided to enter into a contract with Brill, an academic publisher, which subsequently published fascicles 4 and 5 of volume XVI in 2018 and 2019; the EIF protested the move. In 2019, Columbia University sued the EIF, seeking, among other things, a finding that the EIF owns neither a copyright nor an exclusive trademark right in the encyclopedia. EIF countersued alleging that Columbia, as well as Brill and Elton Daniel, breached EIF's copyright in the encyclopedia, infringed, diluted, and counterfeited its trademarks, converted EIF property, and committed various acts of unjust enrichment and unfair competition. On July 31, 2020, the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York granted a temporary restraining order against Columbia, Brill and Daniel, enjoining them through October 8, 2020 from publishing additional fascicles. EIF also sought a preliminary injunction against the defendants, but such relief was not entered by the court. Columbia and Brill subsequently published fascicle XVI/6 on October 19, 2020. As part of the dispute, there are now conflicting accounts as to the current state of the Encyclopædia Iranica. While Columbia has published fascicle XVI/4 through XVI/6, covering topics between "Kešaʾi Dialect" and "Khorasan XIV", by EIF's count volume XVI only covers topics falling alphabetically between KA and KE. EIF considers fascicles XVI/4 through XVI/6 "counterfeit fascicles". On June 1, 2023 the Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation and Columbia University settled their lawsuit with undisclosed terms.


Reception

In a review of Volume III, Richard W. Bulliet calls ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' "not just a necessity for Iranists utof inestimable value for everyone concerned with the history and culture of the Middle East". Ali Banuazizi, though, notes that its focus is on Iran "as perceived, analyzed, and described by its most distinguished, mainly Western, students". In 1998, the journal '' Iranian Studies'' devoted a double issue (vol. 31, no. 3/4) to reviews of the encyclopædia, coming to 700 pages by 29 authors on as many subjects. Professor A. Banuazizi, praised that the encyclopaedia "will be judged as the most significant contribution of our century to the advancement of Iranian studies as a scholarly enterprise". Many foundations, organizations, and individuals have supported ''Encyclopædia Iranica''. The encyclopaedia has been sponsored since 1979 by the
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
, as well as the American Council of Learned Societies, Union Académique Internationale,
Iran Heritage Foundation The Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) is a United Kingdom–registered charity was founded in 1995 in London. The mission is to promote and preserve the history, languages and cultures of Iran and the Persianate world, covering all periods of Irani ...
, and many other charitable foundations, philanthropic families and individuals. On March 25, 2007, the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
released a news report about ''Encyclopædia Iranica'', claiming that it is "U.S.-backed". ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' published an official response, saying the report was "inaccurate and libelous", that while the National Endowment for the Humanities supports the encyclopedia, the Endowment is "an independent federal agency whose many projects are reviewed and decided upon by independent panels of scholars", not the U.S. Government, and that only a third of the encyclopedia's budget is supplied by the Endowment, not half, as the Associated Press had claimed.


Volumes

As of July 2015, the online version of the ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' has almost 7,300 entries, of which about 1,100 entries are only available on the Internet. The following is a list of printed volumes, current . In addition, the following fascicles of volume XVI have been published: * Fascicle 1 (
KASHAN Kashan (; ) is a city in the Central District (Kashan County), Central District of Kashan County, in the northern part of Isfahan province, Isfahan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. History Earlies ...
– KAŠŠI, ABU ʿAMR MOḤAMMAD), 2012 * Fascicle 2 (KAŠŠI, ABU ʿAMR MOḤAMMAD – KÉGL, SÁNDOR), 2013 * Fascicle 3 (KÉGL, SÁNDOR – KEŠAʾI Dialect), 2013 * Fascicle 4 (Kešaʾi Dialect – Khavaran-Nama), 2018 * Fascicle 5 (Khavaran-Nama – Khomeini), 2019 * Fascicle 6 (Khomeini – Khorasan XIV), 2020


See also

* Academy of Persian Language and Literature * '' The Comprehensive History of Iran'' * '' Dastur al-Muluk'' * '' Foucault in Iran'' * '' Iran Between Two Revolutions'' * Iranian studies * List of online encyclopedias


References


External links


''Encyclopædia Iranica'' Website (by the Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation)
Full-text access to many articles from the ''Encyclopædia''.
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' Website (by Columbia University)

''Encyclopædia Iranica Events'' Website
Detailing future and past events sponsored or supported by ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Encyclopaedia Iranica Area studies encyclopedias Iranica Iranica Iranica Culture of Iran Iranian studies Persian encyclopedias 20th-century encyclopedias 21st-century encyclopedias