Iraj Bashiri

Iraj Bashiri is one of the leading scholars in the fields of Central Asian Studies and Iranian Studies. Fluent in English, Persian, Tajik, and Turkic languages, Bashiri has been able to study and translate works otherwise inaccessible to the mostly Russian-speaking Central Asian studies community. Bashiri career focus started on Persia then shifted to the Tajik identity and the relations between Tajiks and the Turkic people of Central Asia, namely the Uzbeks.

Biography

Iraj Bashiri was born on July 31, 1940, in Behbahan, Iran. He graduated from Haj Qavam High School in Shiraz and went on to study English literature at Pahlavi University. In 1963 Bashiri was sent to the United Kingdom to continue his studies and in 1966 he arrived in the United States as a graduate student in linguistics. While studying, he also taught Persian at the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Bashiri has an MA in Linguistics (1968) and a PhD in Iranian Linguistics (1972), both from the University of Michigan. Bashiri is currently a professor at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught courses on Central Asian culture, the conflict between Islam and Communism in Central Asia, ancient and modern Iran, and Persian fiction and Persian poetry. Bashiri has traveled extensive in the Iran and Central Asia, including stints as a visiting scholar in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Bashiri has also worked closely with the Tajik division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Bashiri is married to Carol L. Sayers and together they have three children.

Partial List of Published Works

Persian for Beginners, 1991, 1981,1975,1972
Persian Syntax, 1975
The Fiction of Sadeq Hedayat, 1984
The Black Tulip (novella in English and Persian), 1984
The Pearl Cannon (ed.), 1986
Firdowsi's Shahname: 1000 Years After, 1994
From the Hymns of Zarathustra to the Songs of Borbad, 1995, 2003
Kamal Khujandi: Epoch and its Importance in the History of Central Asian Civilization, 1996
History of a National Catastrophe (trans.), 1996
The Samanids and the Revival of the Civilization of the Iranian Peoples, 1997
Tajikistan in the 20th Century, RFE/RL, 1999, 2002.
Prominent Tajik Figures of the Twentieth Century, 2001
The Nowruz Scrolls, 2001, 2004 (novella in English, Persian, Tajiki, and Russian) Bilingual Series, Mazda Publications (ed.), 1985-90

Resources

• Iraj Bashiri Biography

External Links

• Bashiri Working Papers on Central Asia and Iran
• Iraj Bashiri Biography
• Works Available by Iraj Bashiri at Amazon.com