PROJECTS OF THE IUA
58. Encyclopaedia Iranica
The Encyclopaedia Iranica has been designed as a major research tool to provide a detailed and accurate picture of an important world civilization from prehistory to the present. Covering a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic cultural continent, the Encyclopaedia Iranica's scope encompasses all aspects of the life, history, and civilization of the peoples who spoke or speak an Iranian language, including the populations of Persia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kurdistan, Baluchistan, Pathan areas ok Pakistan, some regions of Uzbekistan, and parts of the Caucasus. It also treats reciprocal influences and interactions between these peoples and the neighboring regions in particular the Arab world, the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, the Caucasus, Turkic Central Asia, Anatolia, Chinese Turkestan, and China, as well as Western and Central Europe, Russia, and United States.
The Encyclopaedia Iranica has an unmistakable utility for those disciplines and branches of knowledge in which Iranian-speaking peoples have made active contribution, especially art, literature, philosophy, religion and the sciences. The Encyclopaedia's coverage of disciplines central to modern concerns such as economics social studies political history, history of science, and flora and fauna, to cite only a few, have distinguished it from several other encyclopedic project.
The project was conceived in 1972 and publication of the Encyclopaedia Iranica began in 1982. Now eleven volumes have been published. The Volume XII is expected to be finished by 2005. The first edition of the project will be completed in some 25 volumes.
This project, proposed by the American Council of Learned Societies, has been adopted by the IUA in 1997 as a Category C project.
Director: Mr. Ehsan Yarshater 1997-
Web site: www.iranica.com