Professor Ehsan Yarshater
He was born on April 3, 1920 in Hamadan of a family which originated in
Kashan. His father, a businessman, had a bent for learning, read widely
and taught himself Arabic and Esperanto. His mother, a lady of great
refinement, had a deep love of nature and the fine arts. She herself
possessed a beautiful singing voice, and played the ney; and she inspired
in her son a love of music and literature, and impressed on him also the
need to study hard and become a useful member of society. But she died
young, when he was only eleven, and his father a year later a a heavy
double sorrow. He went then to live in Tehran with his maternal uncle, a
well-known philanthropist whose benefactions included the building and
endowing of the Mithaqiyya Hospital. Ehsan Yarshater's schooling had been
interrupted; but in 1934 he won a scholarship to the newly opened Normal
School (Danesh-sara-ye Moqaddamati). There the teacher of Persian
literature, Mohammad 'Ali 'Ameri, made a deep impression on him, and by
encouraging him to memorize a great number of passages of excellent
Persian poetry and prose, helped him to form his own pure and elegant
style. From there a second scholarship took him to the Teachers' College,
Tehran University, where he studied Persian language and literature under
such outstanding scholars as Ebrahim Pour-Davud, Mohammad Taqi Bahar,
Ahmad Bahmanyar, Badi' al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Sayyid Kazem 'Assar and 'Abbas
Eqbal Ashtiyani. Following their courses gave him a deep knowledge of
Iran's literature and history, although looking back he came to regret the
lack of teaching in other languages and literatures. This gap he worked
hard to fill for himself in later years.
In 1941 he obtained the degree of B.A. (Licence-ès-Lettres), and began
teaching at the 'Elmiyya School in Tehran; and two years later he was
appointed associate director of the Normal School there. While holding
these posts he studied law, obtaining a second B.A. in that subject in
1944. He then proceeded with his literary studies under the supervision
of 'Ali Asghar Hekmat, and in 1947 was awarded at D. Litt. with
distinction for a dissertation on "Persian poetry in the second half of
the ninth century." (This was published, with some revisions, in 1955 .)
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