Richard N. Frye

Richard N. Frye
Born
Richard Nelson Frye

(1920-01-10)January 10, 1920
DiedMarch 27, 2014(2014-03-27) (aged 94)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Illinois
Harvard University
AwardsFarabi International Award
Khwarizmi International Award
Scientific career
FieldsIranian studies
InstitutionsGoethe University Frankfurt
University of Hamburg
Shiraz University
Tajik State National University
Harvard University
Academic advisorsArthur Pope
Walter Bruno Henning
Notable studentsFrank Huddle
John Limbert
Michael Crichton
Richard Cottam
Richard Bulliet
Roy Mottahedeh
Jamsheed Choksy

Richard Nelson Frye (January 10, 1920 – March 27, 2014) was an American scholar of Iranian and Central Asian studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Harvard University.[1][2] His professional areas of interest were Iranian philology and the history of Iran and Central Asia before 1000 CE.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to a family of immigrants from Sweden, "Freij" had four children, his second marriage being to a scholar, who teaches at Columbia University. He spoke fluent Russian, German, Arabic, Persian, Pashto, French, Uzbek, and Turkish,[3] and had extensive knowledge of Avestan, Pahlavi, Sogdian, and other Iranian languages and dialects, both extinct and current.[citation needed]

Although Frye is mostly known for his works about Iran, the Iranian peoples and Iranian Central Asia, the scope of his studies was much wider and includes Byzantine, Caucasian, and Ottoman history, Eastern Turkistan, Assyria and the Assyrian people, ancient and medieval Iranian art, Islamic art, Sufism, Chinese and Japanese archeology, and a variety of Iranian and non-Iranian languages including Avestan, Old Persian, Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Khotanese, and Bactrian, New Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and even Chinese, beside research languages which include French, German, Italian, and Russian.[4]

  1. ^ http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~turkish/relfaculty.html Richard Nelson Frye, Aga Khan Professor of Iranian-Emeritus Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
  2. ^ "Harvard IOHP | Richard N. Frye Transcripts".
  3. ^ Greater Iran, Mazda Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-56859-177-2
  4. ^ Yarshater, Ehsan (March 31, 2014). "Richard Nelson Frye (January 10,1920 – March 27, 2014)". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 20 April 2014.