March 27 2025
Professor Touraj Daryaee, professor of history and chair of Iranian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Iranica.
Along with Daryaee, Dr. Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, professor and chair of the Department of History at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, has been appointed the executive director of Encyclopedia Iranica. He is a leading scholar of contemporary Iranian studies and has written two acclaimed books on the Constitutional Revolution and the role of women in the Iran-Iraq War.
The encyclopedia has been an international project in the field of Iranian studies since the 1970s. It was based at Columbia University, where the late Professor Ehsan Yarshater initiated it. Yarshater passed away September 1, 2018.
After a long legal dispute between Columbia and the foundation that published the encyclopedia, they have now parted ways.
Daryaee, who has been a professor of history at the University of Irvine since 2007, also currently directs the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Iranian Studies.
He is the author and editor of important works on ancient and medieval Iranian history, including “Sassanian Iran: The Rise and Fall of an Empire,” which won the 2020 British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) Award, and “The Oxford Guide to the History of Iran,” which was selected as one of the 25 best academic books of the year.
The Encyclopedia Iranica, managed by Yarshater until his retirement in 2016, is a research reference for all aspects of Iranian history, language, and culture. With the collaboration of more than 1,300 researchers from around the world, this encyclopedia has published thousands of articles in different languages. Thus far, 15 bound volumes have been published in English. Professor Touraj Daryaee, professor of history and chair of Iranian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Iranica.
Along with Daryaee, Dr. Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, professor and chair of the Department of History at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, has been appointed the executive director of Encyclopedia Iranica. He is a leading scholar of contemporary Iranian studies and has written two acclaimed books on the Constitutional Revolution and the role of women in the Iran-Iraq War.
The encyclopedia has been an international project in the field of Iranian studies since the 1970s. It was based at Columbia University, where the late Professor Ehsan Yarshater initiated it. Yarshater passed away September 1, 2018.
After a long legal dispute between Columbia and the foundation that published the encyclopedia, they have now parted ways.
Daryaee, who has been a professor of history at the University of Irvine since 2007, also currently directs the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Iranian Studies.
He is the author and editor of important works on ancient and medieval Iranian history, including “Sassanian Iran: The Rise and Fall of an Empire,” which won the 2020 British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) Award, and “The Oxford Guide to the History of Iran,” which was selected as one of the 25 best academic books of the year.
The Encyclopedia Iranica, managed by Yarshater until his retirement in 2016, is a research reference for all aspects of Iranian history, language, and culture. With the collaboration of more than 1,300 researchers from around the world, this encyclopedia has published thousands of articles in different languages. Thus far, 15 bound volumes have been published in English.
