M. Rahim Shayegan (, ; born 1966) is an Iranian-American historian of the ancient world. He is Professor of Iranian and the Ancient Near East and the Eleanor and Jahangir Amuzegar Chair in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA). At UCLA, he also serves as the founding director of the Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World, the founding director of the Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions, as well as the founder and chair of Global Antiquity, an academic unit of the Division of Humanities.

Biography

Shayegan received his B.A. from the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...

, Germany, and his M.A. from the

University of Sorbonne The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

(now University of Paris), France. He did graduate work at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, Germany, and received his Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He was a Junior Fellow at the

Harvard Society of Fellows The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intellect ...

, before joining the faculty at UCLA. He is a foreign corresponding member of the

Austrian Academy of Sciences The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...

(2022), a fellow of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

(2019), and a

Guggenheim fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

(

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

). Shayegan's research focuses on Iranian philology and epigraphy,

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

, and the

history of Iran The history of Iran (also known as Name of Iran, Persia) is intertwined with Greater Iran, which is a socio-cultural region encompassing all of the areas that have witnessed significant settlement or influence exerted by the Iranian peoples and ...

, primarily the history of the

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the large ...

Arsacid The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, a ...

, and

Sasanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...

periods.

Writing

Shayegan’s scholarly work spans a broad array of subjects, historical periods, and linguistic traditions. Central to his academic inquiry are the dynamics of cultural and intellectual exchange between the

Mediterranean world The history of the Mediterranean region and of the cultures and people of the Mediterranean Basin is important for understanding the origin and development of the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Canaanite, Phoenician, Hebrew, Carthaginian, Minoan, Gree ...

and the regions of

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

and

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 ...

. This comparative perspective underpins his investigations into the linguistically diverse empires of antiquity, whose political, ideological, and religious frameworks emerged through intricate processes of cultural transmission and acculturation. Shayegan's most quoted and authoritative book ''Arsacids and Sasanians: Political Ideology in Post-Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia'' (2011) is a study of written,

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...

, and archeological sources to reassess

political ideology and its foundation in

Persian imperial thought, Babylonian scholarship and prophetic traditions, as well as

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

Greek philosophy. It discusses the political intricacies of early

and Sasanian history—particularly in relation to Babylon and

Elymais Elymais or Elamais (Ἐλυμαΐς, Hellenic form of the more ancient name, Elam) was an autonomous state of the 2nd century BC to the early 3rd century AD, frequently a vassal under Parthian control. It was located at the head of the Persian ...

—and analyzes the impact of Roman propaganda that shaped

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

attitudes toward Sasanian Persia. The book has been widely reviewed by Classicists and Iranists alike. Other published books include ''Aspects of History and Epic in Ancient Iran'' (Harvard University Press, 2012) and ''Cyrus the Great: Life and Lore'' (Harvard University Press, 2019). His forthcoming book is called ''Achéménides et Sassanides : Continuités et ruptures'', the revised version of his five lectures at

INALCO Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (; ), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French Grand Etablissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of Central Europ ...

/Collège de France in 2022. Shayegan is the editor of the series ''Iran and the Ancient World'' with

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

Personal

Shayegan is the son of late Franco-Iranian academic Dariush Shayegan.

Selected Writing

* * * * * * *

References

External links

Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World
an academic institute in the UCLA College Division of Humanities.
Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions
an academic center in the UCLA College Division of Humanities.
Global Antiquity
an academic unit in the UCLA College Division of Humanities. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shayegan, M. Rahim 1966 births Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American non-fiction writers American Iranologists Historians of antiquity American writers of Iranian descent Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States Corresponding Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Harvard University alumni University of Cologne alumni University of Paris alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Academic staff of the University of Göttingen