Prods Oktor Skjaervo

Prods Oktor Skjærvø (sometimes written P.O. Skjaervo in English) is Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, where he succeeded Richard Frye as Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies.

Born in Steinkjer, Norway, Skjærvø is a hyperpolyglot, familiar with historical and living languages including Old Norse, Norwegian, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Latin, Larestani, Kumzari, Bashkardi, Pashto, Yidgha, Yaghnobi, Munji, Old Khotanese, Avestan, Old Persian, Pahlavi, Manichean Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Khotanese, New Persian, Ossetic, Kurdish, Tokharian, Vedic, and Classical Sanskrit.

Education In 1963 Skjærvø enrolled at the University of Oslo where he studied French, Latin, and Sanskrit, with a semester in 1965 at the Sorbonne in Paris. He earned his B.A. in 1970. In 1974 he completed his M.A. with the thesis, (Investigations into the verbal systems of Old Persian and Western Middle Iranian), on which he subsequently based his “Remarks on the Old Persian Verbal System.” He then completed his Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of Oslo with the dissertation, The Paikuli Inscription, Restoration and Interpretation. Pt.1: Restored Text and Translation (109 pp.). Pt2: Introduction and Commentary.

Chairs and Committees

Skjærvø served in several academic positions at Harvard including: Chair, Committee for Inner Asian and Altaic Studies, 1993–2000 Chair, Department of Sanskrit, 1995–1996 Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, 2002–2006 and 2009 He has also been invited as: Guest lecturer, Eötvös Loránd Tudomány University, Budapest, 1997 Guest lecturer, Université de la Sorbonne, Paris Guest lecturer, Università di Studi di Roma, La Sapienza Visiting professor, Collège de France, Paris, May–June 2000 Skjærvø is also a Consulting Editor for Encyclopædia Iranica.

Selected books Skjærvø has been published widely in several languages:

English

Norwegian