Encyclopædia Iranica is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English-language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
The scope of the encyclopedia goes beyond modern Iran (also known as "Persia") and encompasses the entire Iranian cultural sphere, and far beyond. Relations of the Iranian world with other cultures (China, European countries, etc.) are also covered.[5][6] The project is planning on publishing a total of up to 45 volumes.
Organization
Staff
Ehsan Yarshater was the founding editor of Encyclopædia Iranica from 1973 through 2017. The current editor-in-chief is Elton Daniel. The editorial board includes Mohsen Ashtiany, Mahnaz Moazami, and over 40 consulting editors from major international institutions doing research in Iranian studies.[7] Former long tenured editors include Ahmad Ashraf, Christopher Brunner, Habib Borjian, Kioumars Ghereghlou, Manuchehr Kasheff, Dagmar Riedel and Houra Yavari. A growing number (over 1,300 in 2016) of scholars worldwide have contributed articles to Encyclopædia Iranica.[8]
Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation
In 1990, Ehsan Yarshater established the Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation (EIF), which serves to promote the cause of the Encyclopædia Iranica and to ensure its continuation.[9] Over the years, Columbia University's Center for Iranian Studies (also founded by Yarshater) continued to coordinate and edit the Encyclopædia, while the EIF substantially sponsored the work.[10]
The foundation provides the full text of many entries (up to fascicle XVI/3) for free on the iranicaonline.org website.
Legal dispute
Following Yarshater's retirement as director of the Center for Iranian Studies in 2016, a dispute began to emerge between Columbia University and the EIF as Columbia unilaterally decided to enter into a contract with Brill, an academic publisher, which subsequently published fascicles 4 and 5 of volume XVI in 2018 and 2019; the EIF protested the move.[11] In 2019, Columbia University sued the EIF, seeking, among other things, a finding that the EIF owns neither a copyright nor an exclusive trademark right in the encyclopedia.[12] EIF countersued alleging that Columbia, as well as Brill and Elton Daniel, breached EIF's copyright in the encyclopedia, infringed, diluted, and counterfeited its trademarks, converted EIF property, and committed various acts of unjust enrichment and unfair competition.[13] On July 31, 2020, the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York granted a temporary restraining order against Columbia, Brill and Daniel, enjoining them through October 8, 2020 from publishing additional fascicles.[14] EIF also sought a preliminary injunction against the defendants, but such relief was not entered by the court.[15] Columbia and Brill subsequently published fascicle XVI/6 on October 19, 2020.[16]
As part of the dispute, there are now conflicting accounts as to the current state of the Encyclopædia Iranica. While Columbia has published fascicle XVI/4 through XVI/6, covering topics between "Kešaʾi Dialect" and "Khorasan XIV", by EIF's count volume XVI only covers topics falling alphabetically between KA and KE.[17] EIF considers fascicles XVI/4 through XVI/6 "counterfeit fascicles".[17]
Reception
In a review of Volume III, Richard W. Bulliet calls Encyclopædia Iranica "not just a necessity for Iranists [but] of inestimable value for everyone concerned with the history and culture of the Middle East".[18] Ali Banuazizi, though, notes that its focus is on Iran "as perceived, analyzed, and described by its most distinguished, mainly Western, students".[19] In 1998, the journal Iranian Studies devoted a double issue (vol. 31, no. 3/4) to reviews of the encyclopædia, coming to 700 pages by 29 authors on as many subjects.[20] Professor A. Banuazizi, praised that the encyclopaedia "will be judged as the most significant contribution of our century to the advancement of Iranian studies as a scholarly enterprise".[21]
On March 25, 2007, the Associated Press released a news report about Encyclopædia Iranica, claiming that it is "U.S.-backed".[23]Encyclopædia Iranica published an official response, saying the report was "inaccurate and libelous", that while the National Endowment for the Humanities supports the encyclopedia, the Endowment is "an independent federal agency whose many projects are reviewed and decided upon by independent panels of scholars", not the U.S. Government, and that only a third of the encyclopedia's budget is supplied by the Endowment, not half, as the Associated Press had claimed.[24]
Volumes
As of July 2015, the online version of the Encyclopædia Iranica has almost 7,300 entries, of which about 1,100 entries are only available on the Internet.[25] The following is a list of printed volumes, current as of October 2020[update].[25]
Beginning and ending entries
Publication year
Volume number
ISBN
ĀB – ANĀHID
1985
I
ANĀMAKA – ĀṮĀR AL-WOZARĀʾ
1987
II
ĀTAŠ – BEYHAQI
1989
III
BĀYJU – CARPETS
1990
IV
CARPETS – COFFEE
1992
V
COFFEEHOUSE – DĀRĀ
1993
VI
DĀRĀ(B) – EBN AL-AṮIR
1996
VII
EBN ʿAYYĀŠ – EʿTEŻĀD-AL-SALṬANA
1998
VIII
ETHÉ – FISH
1999
IX
FISHERIES – GINDAROS
2001
X
GIŌNI – HAREM I
2003
XI
HAREM I – ILLUMINATIONISM
2004
XII
ILLUMINATIONISM – ISFAHAN VIII
2006
XIII
ISFAHAN IX – JOBBĀʾI
2008
XIV
JOČI – KAŠḠARI, SAʿD-AL-DIN
2011
XV
In addition, the following fascicles of volume XVI have been published:
Fascicle 1 (KASHAN – KAŠŠI, ABU ʿAMR MOḤAMMAD), 2012
Fascicle 2 (KAŠŠI, ABU ʿAMR MOḤAMMAD – KÉGL, SÁNDOR), 2013
^Trompf, Garry W. (2008). "Encyclopedia Iranica - 35: A New Agenda for Persian Studies?". Iran & the Caucasus. 12 (2): 385–395. doi:10.1163/157338408X406137. JSTOR25597382.
^Complaint, The Trustees Of Columbia University in the City of New York v. Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, No. 19 Civ. 7465 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 9, 2019).
^Complaint, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, Inc. v. Trustees Of Columbia University in the City of New York, No. 19 Civ. 8562 (S.D.N.Y. Sep. 14, 2019).
^The Trustees Of Columbia University in the City of New York v. Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, Nos. 19 Civ. 7465 (AT) (KNF), 19 Civ. 8562 (AT) (KNF) (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 31, 2020) (Order on Motion for TRO).
^The Trustees Of Columbia University in the City of New York v. Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, Nos. 19 Civ. 7465 (AT) (KNF), 19 Civ. 8562 (AT) (KNF) (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 8, 2020) (Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction).
^"Encyclopædia Iranica". Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
