Franklin D. Lewis (1961 - 2022) was an Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
with affiliations to the
Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago is a National Resource Center for the study of a region extending from Morocco in the West to Kazakhstan in the East. As a result, this Area Center covers some of the most importa ...
. He taught classes on
Persian language
Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...
and
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
, medieval
Islamic thought
Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—''falsafa'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and p ...
,
Sufism
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
,
Baha'i Studies,
translation studies
Translation studies is an academic interdiscipline dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpreting, and localization. As an interdiscipline, translation studies borrows much from the vari ...
, and Iranian cinema.
Lewis died after a long illness on September 19, 2022.
Biography
Lewis studied at
U.C. Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...
and completed his graduate work in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. His dissertation on the life and works of the 12th-century mystical poet
Sana'i
Hakim Abul-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanā'ī Ghaznavi (), more commonly known as Sanai, was a poet from Ghazni. He lived his life in the Ghaznavid Empire which is now located in Afghanistan (At that time, Ghazni was considered part of the cultura ...
, and the establishment of the
ghazal
''Ghazal'' is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry that often deals with topics of spiritual and romantic love. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss, or separation from the beloved, and t ...
genre in
Persian literature
Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day ...
, won the Foundation of Iranian Studies best dissertation prize in 1995.
Lewis previously taught Persian at
Emory University
Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...
, in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies. He founded Adabiyat, an international discussion forum on the literatures of the Islamic World (including
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
* Something related to Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire
* The w ...
, and
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
) and was President of the
American Institute of Iranian Studies (2002-2012 and 2016 to 2020)
and directed the Persian Circle (/) at the University of Chicago.
Published works
* Guest edited special issue of
Iranian Studies
Iranian studies ( '), 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 is a part of the wider field ...
(v48, #3, 2015) on
Ferdowsi's Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...
as Worl
Literature* Translation of
Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, ''Maʽsumeh of Shiraz,'' (1954 Persian novella معصومه شیرازی/), Association for the Study of Persian Literature, 201
* ''Things We Left Unsaid,''
Zoya Pirzad (2002 Persian novel چراغ ها را من خاموش می کنم/''Cheraghha ra man khamush mikonam'', Tehran: Nashr-e Markaz), English translation by Franklin Lewis (London: Oneworld Classics, May 2012).
* ''Mystical Poems of Rumi,'' translated by
A.J. Arberry. Corrected one-volume edition with foreword by Franklin Lewis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 439pp.
* ''Rumi: Swallowing the Sun'' (Oxford:
Oneworld
Oneworld (Computer reservations system, CRS: *O, stylised as oneworld) is a global airline alliance consisting of 14 member airlines. It was founded on 1 February 1999. The alliance's stated objective is to be the first choice airline alliance f ...
, 2008), xxxiii+207pp. (Translation of selected poems of Jalâl al-Din Rumi, arranged by persona/voice/mode and with translation, notes and introduction).
* ''The Necklace of the Pleiades: Studies in Persian Literature and Culture,'' edited by Franklin Lewis and Sunil Sharma (Amsterdam: Rozenberg and Purdue University Press, 2007; new edition, Amsterdam University Press and Leiden University Press, 2010), 370pp.
* ''The Colossal Elephant and His Spiritual Feats: Shaykh Ahmad-e Jâm. The Life and Legendary Vita of a Popular Sufi Saint of the 12th Century.'' Edited and translated by
Heshmat Moayyad and Franklin Lewis (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2004), 460pp.
* ''Rumi: Past and Present, East and West. The Life Teachings and Poetry of Jalâl al-Din Rumi.'' Foreword by Julie Meisami (Oxford: One World Publications, 2000), xvii+686pp. Reprints 2001, 2003. Revised expanded edition, 2007. Awards: British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, British-Kuwaiti Friendship Society for the Best Book in Middle Eastern Studies published in the UK in 2000;
Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English-language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encyc ...
Foundation, 2001; Saidi-Sirjani Award (Hon. Mention), Society of Iranian Studies, 2004.
** ''Mowlavi: Diruz o emruz, sharq o gharb,'' Persian translation by Farhād Farahmandfar (Tehran: Nashr-e Sāles, 1383 Sh./ 2004).
** ''Mowlānā: diruz tā emruz, sharq tā gharb,'' collaborative Persian translation by Hassan Lahouti with Franklin Lewis, including author's preface to the translation (Tehran: Nashr-e Nāmak, 1384 Sh./2005; 2nd ed., 1385 Sh./2006.
** ''Mevlânâ: Geçmiş ve şimdi, Doğu ve Batı (Mevlânâ Celâleddin Rumi'nin Hayatı, öğretisi ve şiiri,'' Turkish Trans. by (Hamide Kokuyan &) Gül Çağali Güven, ed. Safi Argapus (Istanbul: Kabalcı Yayınevi, 2010).
** ''Rumi før og nu, Øst og Vest. Jalal al-Din Rumis liv, lære og digtning.'' Danish translation by Rasmus Chr. Elling. Carsten Niebuhr Biblioteket (Copenhagen: Forlaget Vandkunsten, 2010).
* ''In a Voice of Their Own: A Collection of Stories by Iranian Women written since the Revolution of 1979,'' edited and translated, with introduction and annotated bibliography by Franklin Lewis and Farzin Yazdanfar (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1996). liv+153pp.
See also
*
Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago is a National Resource Center for the study of a region extending from Morocco in the West to Kazakhstan in the East. As a result, this Area Center covers some of the most importa ...
External links
Center for Middle Eastern Studies website (University of Chicago)
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations page
Franklin Lewis on Academia.eduWelcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica- article on Golestan of Saʻdi
Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica- article on Hafez and Rendi
Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica- article on Hafez and Music
- Special Issue in Persian of Iran Nameh on Mowlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, edited by Franklin Lewis (1388/2009)
Rumi's Masnavi, part 1: World figure or new age fad? , Franklin Lewis- 8 part series on Rumi's Masnavi in ''The Guardian'' (2009-2010)
-
Baháʼu'lláh
Baháʼu'lláh (, born Ḥusayn-ʻAlí; 12 November 1817 – 29 May 1892) was an Iranian religious leader who founded the Baháʼí Faith. He was born to an aristocratic family in Iran and was exiled due to his adherence to the messianic Báb ...
's 'Mathnavíy-i Mubárak': introduction and provisional verse translation
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Franklin
1961 births
2022 deaths
Middle Eastern studies in the United States
American Bahá'ís
American Iranologists
University of Chicago alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Emory University faculty
University of Chicago faculty
21st-century Bahá'ís
Rumi scholars