Iraj Afshar As I Knew Him

EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU (Member of Al-Furqān Foundation’s Board of Directors)

“Never dieth that one whose heart is alive with love.”

Hafez, the famous Iranian poet

Iraj Afshar (I925-2011) was one of the greatest scholars of Iranian studies, a historian, bibliographer, Persian manuscript expert, biographer and writer. His father, Dr. Mahmoud Afshar (1893-1983), was also an influential Iranian intellectual, writer and poet, who was fond of Iranian literature and culture and devoted his life and the major part of his personal wealth to the promotion of Persian culture and literature. The ‘Mahmoud Afshar Foundation’, which he founded, played a major role in realising the dreams of both father and son in serving cultural purposes.

During the years of his fruitful life, Iraj Afshar worked tirelessly to promote Iranian studies. He always called himself nothing but a servant of Iranian and Persian culture. His popularity, however, was not limited to the geographic borders of Iran. The sophistication of his works and the depth of his love for Persian culture and Iranian studies made him a world-class Iranologist who had broad worldwide connections with eminent scholars in the field of Iranian studies.

I had the wonderful opportunity of knowing Professor Iraj Afshar. I collaborated with him for more than two decades. In fact, our serious work-related interactions began at the time when ‘Al-Furqān Foundation’ was first established, back in 1988.

‘Al-Furqān Foundation’ was established to document and preserve Islamic written heritage and conduct various activities in this domain. During my years as Director General of the Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), a subsidiary of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), I served alongside Professor Afshar as a member of the Board of Experts of ‘Al-Furqān’. As such, we were in frequent touch, as a result of which a friendship arose between us.

Prof. Afshar had a rich track record in various fields of knowledge. Aside from his teaching activities and work as a librarian in several Iranian academic centres, he wrote and edited hundreds of books and thousands of articles. No doubt others would agree with me that it would be difficult to find anybody in Iran so prolific in researching Iranian history and culture. He left a vast and invaluable legacy of documents, notes, articles, memoires, books, photos and texts the likes of which few other contemporary Iranian researchers have produced.^[1]

However, Iraj Afshar impressed me most with his work and research on Iranian and Islamic manuscripts and the way he methodically catalogued them. Based on my own personal experience in the cultural field, I would even consider Iraj Afshar a seminal authority in the field of Persian manuscripts. He was so kind as to send me copies of his books relating to manuscripts as soon as they were published.

During the last two decades, I had several occasions to meet Professor Afshar in London, Istanbul and Tehran and discuss with him, at length, issues of mutual interest. Since assuming the post of OIC Secretary General in 2005, whenever I happened to visit Tehran I would take the opportunity to meet Professor Afshar, or at least exchange a phone call with him.

Iraj Afshar had a genuine passion for scholarly work, particularly for cataloguing manuscripts. In fact, nothing could confine his intellectual curiosity. As a person whose life was literally centred on books, he devoted himself and his life entirely to research, reading, writing and editing, so much so that never once did I hear him talk about politics. I know that he used to routinely exercise; in fact, he was a master in mountain climbing. No wonder, then, that he could sustain his good physical shape until the end. He was also an elegant man. Among all my old, Iranian friends, Iraj Afshar and Professor Mohammad-Taqi Danesh-Pajouh, were the only two who always wore ties. Iraj Afshar had an amazing memory which remained sharp until the last days of his life. My last conversation with him was over the phone just a few weeks before he passed away. He was mentally alert and, like other times, he talked about his latest research work.

Iraj Afshar was well connected with most centres of Iranian studies in Europe and the United States. You can hardly find any Iranologist who would undertake his research without referring to his publications, make use of his works or seek the personal help of Iraj Afshar. Equally, Iraj Afshar had a very deep respect for, and continuous contacts with all those who were interested in Iranian culture and history. His reputation and trustworthiness made many people who owned manuscripts and historical documents trust him with those documents for publishing. Iranian and Islamic manuscripts can be found extensively in Europe, the Americas, Asia and other parts of the world. To my knowledge, Professor Afshar succeeded in cataloguing Persian manuscripts in some western libraries, including Widener Library of Harvard University, the Austrian National Library and the Austrian State Archives.

Iraj Afshar was certainly a hard-to-replace asset for the advancement of studies on Persian and Islamic manuscripts. As these documents have always been in great danger of being damaged or lost, due to natural causes or human negligence, the work which was done by Professor Afshar in preserving this heritage is highly appreciated. Moreover, I know that Professor Afshar did it all with love, perseverance and dedication.

In the 1990s, the IRCICA, in co-operation with ‘Al-Furqān Foundation’, held training courses for cataloguers in Istanbul. The main objective of the courses was to provide young cataloguers and librarians with a broad culture and scholarly background in the handling of manuscripts. Cognisant that the skills for cataloguing manuscripts are gradually disappearing, Al-Furqān has always strived to recruit a core teaching staff of highly qualified and seasoned professionals to teach the courses. Professor Afshar was one of the staff who helped a great deal in this endeavor. In tact, he was always ready to attend any activity related to the cataloguing of manuscripts. Above all, Iraj Afshar was extremely keen to share his knowledge with others without setting conditions or making exceptions.

In the year 2000, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of IRCICA, the third group or the IRCICA Award for Excellence in Research was presented to the recipients. Professor Iraj Afshar was one of the awardees in recognition of his masterly accomplishments in the fields of Iranian studies and Islamic history.

Iraj Afshar’s life marked a unique episode in creative scholarship and humanism. Through his uncanny erudition and invaluable academic contributions, he not only bequeaths a treasure trove of knowledge for generations to come but will also certainly inspire Iranologists and other scholars to produce the level of enlightened scholarship that he so brilliantly promoted for an entire lifetime.

Iraj Afshar, although he is no longer physically amongst us, will always stay alive in our minds and hearts; in his heart indeed was a fire that would never die.

^[1]NOTES

 I had the unique opportunity of being presented a copy of his published corpus as compiled by his sons, covering the years 1944-2002 The encyclopedic breadth of his knowledge and academic interests would certainly surprise anyone who reads the book.