9.6 /10 1 Votes
Language English ISBN 1-56859-050-4 Originally published 1982 Publisher Columbia University Editor Ehsan Yarshater | 4.8/5 Facebook Publication date 1985-present OCLC 59605200 Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Subject Iranistics and Greater Iran studies Media type 45 hardback volumes
15 volumes and 2 fascicles have been published by 2016. Genres Reference work, Encyclopedia Similar Encyclopedia books, Iran books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
Contents
Scope
The Encyclopædia Iranica is dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the wider Middle East, the Caucasus, Europe, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. The academic reference work will eventually cover all aspects of Iranian history and culture as well as all Iranian languages and literatures, facilitating the whole range of Iranian studies research from archeology to political sciences. It is a project founded by Ehsan Yarshater at Columbia University, started in 1973 at its Center for Iranian Studies. It is considered the standard encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Iranistics.
The scope of the encyclopedia goes beyond modern Iran (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.
Staff and Progress
Yarshater is the editor-in-chief, and managing editor is Ahmad Ashraf. The editorial board includes Nicholas Sims-Williams, Christopher J. Brunner, Mohsen Ashtiany, Manuchehr Kasheff, and over 40 Consulting Editors from major international institutions doing research in Iranian Studies. A growing number (over 1,300 in 2016) of scholars worldwide have contributed articles to Encyclopædia Iranica.
The project has published 15 volumes, and is planning on publishing a total of up to 45 volumes. The full text of most entries is available free for on-line viewing. In a 2013 interview with BBC Persian, Yarshater stated that the completion of the project is scheduled for 2020.
Controversy
On March 25, 2007, the Associated Press 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 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.
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, Iran Heritage Foundation, and many other charitable foundations, philanthropic families and individuals.
Reception
In a review of Volume III, Richard W. Bulliet calls Encyclopædia Iranica "not just a necessity for Iranists [but] of 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 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.