Campus leaders, faculty, community members celebrate launch of UCLA Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions
Photo: M. Rahim Shayegan, director of the Pourdavoud Institute and Yarshater Center; Elton Daniel, secretary of the Persian Heritage Foundation; Alexandra Minna Stern, dean of the UCLA Division of the Humanities; and Darnell Hunt, UCLA interim chancellor. (Vince Bucci)
| December 3, 2024
The ongoing story of Iranian studies at UCLA — a vibrant intellectual pillar of the university for more than 60 years — began a new chapter on Oct. 17. Faculty and friends, community members and colleagues gathered in Royce Hall to honor the launch of the UCLA Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions, made possible by the vision and generosity of the Persian Heritage Foundation.
“This evening, we are celebrating a true milestone for the discipline of Iranian studies. The establishment of the UCLA Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions will create a major new hub for the study of one of humanity’s oldest literary traditions,” said Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt in his introduction. “It will allow for richer, deeper scholarly exploration of the Iranian world and cross-cultural understandings for the benefit of all society.”
Following Hunt’s introduction, Alexandra Minna Stern, dean of the UCLA Division of the Humanities, took the stage to emphasize further the significance of this milestone.
“This puts UCLA at the forefront and as the epicenter of ancient Iranian studies and Persian studies in the United States — if not in the world,” she said. “I’d also like to extend thanks to everyone who has been so instrumental in the vision of enabling this wonderful work, which I think of in metaphorical terms as a torch of wisdom, being passed down through the centuries all the way today to Royce Hall today. This knowledge and torch will burn in perpetuity.”
The new center falls under the administration of the UCLA Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World, fittingly, as Hunt pointed out, because the namesakes of both — the legendary professors Ebrahim Pourdavoud (1885–1968) and Ehsan Yarshater (1920–2018) — were initially teacher and pupil, respectively, before becoming colleagues and friends. This development will push their shared vision forward under the leadership of M. Rahim Shayegan, director of both the Pourdavoud Institute and Yarshater Center as well as the holder of the Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair of Iranian Studies.
“In broad brushstrokes the Yarshater Center aims at preserving and introducing to the broader public the literary traditions of ancient and medieval Iran, by dint of an ambitious publication agenda,” he said, sharing a slate of current and future projects, including the Iranian Library, a bilingual repository of ancient Iranian and pre-modern texts, a new “Encyclopedia of the Ancient Iranian World” and the acclaimed, ongoing “A History of Persian Literature” series. “All these endeavors are envisioned as collaborative works, authored by scholars throughout the world. We are committed that they be disseminated gratis in digital format, allowing scholars and global audiences to partake in their intellectual rewards.”
Later in the evening, Yarshater’s niece Mojdeh Yarshater shared an homage to her uncle, while Rudolph Matthee and Ali Gheissari, president and treasurer respectively of the Persian Heritage Foundation, offered closing remarks. Attendees were also treated to a musical performance by Salman Mohammadi, Farid Ghasemi and UCLA’s own Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi.
Elton Daniel, secretary of the Persian Heritage Foundation, delivered the celebration’s keynote address, describing how he considered it the honor of a lifetime when Yarshater asked him to collaborate at Columbia University.
“The tasks there were challenging, to be sure, but they were also rewarding and I could see that Yarshater did not ask more — or even as much — from others as he demanded of himself; he had a genius for not only envisaging but actually realizing ambitious projects,” Daniel said. “My strongest impression by far of him during that time was of his incredible work ethic, which kept him at his desk from early morning till late at night, day after day, despite what seemed to me then to be his fragility and advanced age.
“As I wrote that, as of course, it was rather sobering to realize that I’m now the same age that he was then,” Daniel went on to say. “But that only leaves me in even more awe of his ability and determination to put every minute of his time to productive use for the advancement of his vision of Iranian studies.”
Daniel concluded his keynote by drawing a parallel between a tradition he ran across in his research from a 15th-century Egyptian historian, who recorded an older revolutionary observing to his colleague how their efforts had paved the way for future generations — they had symbolically “dug the canal,” so that someone else could “let in the water.”
“I thought that was a very striking metaphor and mention this as a particularly apt reminder that we should acknowledge how much in terms of inspiration, resources and mission the center being launched today owes to the person for whom it is named,” Daniel concluded. “Some of us have simply been privileged to help let the water in and as we do so, we look forward with great anticipation to the many wonderful works that we are confident will be brought forth here.”