April 3. On this date in 1920, Ehsan Yarshater was born in Hamadan, Iran to a prominent Jewish Bahá'í family. The founder and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopædia Iranica, he dissociated from the Bahá'í Faith as an adult due to reasons related to restrictions imposed by Shoghi Effendi on academic freedom and travel of Iranian Bahá'ís to the West.

 

April 3. On this date in 1920, Ehsan Yarshater was born in Hamadan, Iran to a prominent Jewish Bahá'í family. The founder and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopædia Iranica, he dissociated from the Bahá'í Faith as an adult due to reasons related to restrictions imposed by Shoghi Effendi on academic freedom and travel of Iranian Bahá'ís to the West.

On April 3, 1920, Ehsan Yarshater was born in Hamadan, Iran to a prominent Jewish Bahá'í family. His family was part of a group of Jewish converts from that city who during the late 19th century became the largest group of non-Muslim converts to the Bahá'í Fatih. Ehsan’s father received a tablet from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, referring to him as "Yarshater" (meaning "agile friend" which they choose to be their family name. Ehsan Yarshater had a long and distinguished academic career in the field of Iranian studies. He died on September 1, 2018, in California.

The following biography of PROFESSOR EHSAN YARSHATER has been taken from his personal home page, originally an account of his life and career by Professors M. Boyce of London University and G. Windfuhr of Michigan University in Acta Iranica 30, Papers in Honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater, Leiden, Holland, 1990, pp. ix-xxiii.