Mohammad-Amin Riahi (; 1 June 1923,

Khoy Khoy (, ) is a city in the Central District (Khoy County), Central District of Khoy County, West Azerbaijan province, West Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Occupied since Medes, Median times, ...

– 15 May 2009,

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

) was a prominent Iranian literary scholar of Persian literature, a historian, writer and statesman. Apart from being one of the authors of

Dehkhoda Dictionary The ''Dehkhoda Dictionary'' or ''Dehkhoda Lexicon'' ( or ) is the largest comprehensive Persian encyclopedic dictionary ever published, comprising 200 volumes. It is published by the Tehran University Press (UTP) under the supervision of the ...

and

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 ...

, he was the author and editor of several well-known scholarly books. Mohammad-Amin Riahi received his PHD on Persian literature from Tehran University under the supervision of

Badiozzaman Forouzanfar Badiozzaman Forouzanfar or Badi'ozzamān Forūzānfar (, also as "Badiʿ al-Zamān Furūzānfar"; born 12 July 1904 in Boshrooyeh, Ferdows County – died 6 May 1970 in Tehran, born ''Ziyaa' Boshrooye-i'' ) was a scholar of Persian literat ...

. Riahi is best known for his scholarly works on

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 ...

and

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

, Hafiz, and the ancient iranian languages (especially Azari Language). He has produced critical editions of some of the major classical Persian texts such as ''Mersad-al-ebad'' and ''Nozhat-al-majalis''. During a course of 60 years he published numerous scholarly articles, a selection of which are gathered in a volume titled ''Forty essays on language, literature and history of Iran''. Among numerous cultural positions he held during his career, Riahi was a professor of

Tehran University The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

, the founding member and later president of the Shahnameh Foundation (1971–1979), vice-chairman of the Iranian Academy of Literature and Arts, and Iranian Minister of Education (1979).

Selected bibliography

''Critical Editions of old Persian books:'' * ''Jahan-Nameh'', Mohammad ibn Najib Bakran (1963) * ''Meftah-al-Moamelat'', Mohammad ibn Ayub Tabari (1970) * ''Mersad-al-ebad'', Najmeddin Razi (1973) * ''Alamaraye Naderi'', Mohammad-Kazem Marvi (1983) * ''Nozhat-al-majalis'', Jamal Khalil Sharvani (1996) ''Literary and Historical research books:'' * Kisai Marvazi, his life and poetry (1988) * Poetry and thoughts of Hafiz (1988) * Persian language and literature in Ottoman territory (1990) * A History of Khoy (1993) * Early sources on Ferdowsi and Shahnameh (1993) * Ferdowsi, his life, thoughts and poetry (1996) * Forty essays on language, literature and history of Iran (2000)

References

External links

''Some of Encyclopedic Articles:'' * NOZHAT-AL-MAJĀLES in Encyclopædia Iranic

* DĀYA, NAJM-AL-DĪN in Encyclopædia Iranic

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riahi, Mohammad-Amin Iranian Iranologists 21st-century Iranian historians Members of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature Education ministers of Iran Iranian literary scholars Iranian literary critics People from Khoy University of Tehran alumni Academic staff of the University of Tehran 1923 births 2009 deaths Iranian expatriate academics Shahnameh Researchers Faculty of Letters and Humanities of the University of Tehran alumni 20th-century Iranian politicians