Richard N. Frye

Richard N. Frye
Born	Richard Nelson Frye (1920-01-10)January 10, 1920 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Died	March 27, 2014(2014-03-27) (aged 94) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Illinois Harvard University
Awards	Farabi International Award Khwarizmi International Award
Scientific career
Fields	Iranian studies
Institutions	Goethe University Frankfurt University of Hamburg Shiraz University Tajik State National University Harvard University
Academic advisors	Arthur Pope Walter Bruno Henning
Notable students	Frank 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]