''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

about the history, culture, and civilization of

Iranian peoples The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities. The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separat ...

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 ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

Southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, and the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. The academic reference work will eventually cover all aspects of

Iranian history The history of Iran is intertwined with the history of a larger region known as Greater Iran, comprising the area from Anatolia in the west to the borders of Ancient India and the Syr Darya in the east, and from the Caucasus and the Eurasian Step ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

as well as all

Iranian languages The Iranian languages or 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 languages are grouped ...

and

literatures Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, facilitating the whole range of Iranian studies research from archeology to political sciences. It is a project founded by

Ehsan Yarshater Ehsan Yarshater ( fa, احسان يارشاطر, April 3, 1920 – September 1, 2018) was an Iranian historian and linguist who specialized in Iranology. He was the founder and director of The Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Profe ...

in 1973 and currently carried out at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Center for Iranian Studies. It is considered the standard encyclopedia of the

academic discipline An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

Iranistics Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

. The scope of the encyclopedia goes beyond modern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

(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 Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

, 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 Prof. 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 Prof. 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 “Khorsan 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”.

Reception

Reputation

In a review of Volume III,

Richard W. Bulliet Richard W. Bulliet (born 1940) is a professor of history at Columbia University who specializes in the history of Islamic society and institutions, the history of technology, and the history of the role of animals in human society. Early life ...

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 Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

'' 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, as well as the American Council of Learned Societies,

Union Académique Internationale The Union Académique Internationale (UAI)—in English, International Union of Academies—is a federation of many national academies and international academies from more than 60 countries all over the world which works in the field of Humaniti ...

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 Iran ...

, and many other

charitable foundation A foundation (also a charitable foundation) is a category of nonprofit organization or charitable trust that typically provides funding and support for other charitable organizations through grants, but may also engage directly in charitable act ...

s, philanthropic families and individuals.

Criticism

On March 25, 2007, the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

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 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 ...

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 – 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* (*) Not recognized by the Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, see .

References

External links

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

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