Heshmat Moayyed

Heshmat Moayyad (Persian: حشمت موید) (November 28, 1927 – June 25, 2018) was a Persian writer, translator and the founder of the University of Chicago's Persian program.

Moayyad was a University of Chicago professor for more than 40 years. He translated modern Persian literature into English and German. Moayyad organized major conferences at the university on the Indo-Persian poet Amir Khosrow (died 1325) and on the poet Parvin Etesâmi (died 1941), as well as the first academic conference about “The Baha'i Faith and Islam” in 1984 at McGill University in Montreal.

Early life Heshmat Moayyad was born in 1927 in Hamadan, Iran to a Baháʼí family who had Iranian Jewish origins.

Education After completing his undergraduate studies in Persian and Arabic Literature at the University of Tehran, He completed his PhD with distinction in 1958. to Moayyad who introduced Persian literature to generations of students from 1966 to 2010.

Books (As Editor) Maqāmāt-i Žanda Pīl (Aḥmad-i Ǧām) by Sadīd ad-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Mūsā Ġaznawī. Bungāh-i Tarjumah va Nashr-i Kitāb, Tehran, 1961. Rawz̤at al-rayāḥīn by Darvish Ali Buzjani. Bungāh-i Tarjumah va Nashr-i Kitāb, Tehran, 1966.

(As Author) Once a dewdrop : essays on the poetry of Parvin Eʻtesami. Costa Mesa, Calif. : Mazda Publishers, 1994. Stories from Iran : a Chicago anthology, 1921-1991. Washington, D.C. : Mage Publishers, 2002. The Colossal Elephant and his spiritual feats : Shaykh Ahmad-e Jâm : the life and legend of a popular Sufi saint of 12th century Iran. Costa Mesa, Calif : Mazda Publishers, 2004 Necklace of the Pleiades: 24 Essays on Persian Literature, Culture and Religion. Leiden University Press, 2010.