{"id":154561,"date":"2014-04-04T17:36:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T21:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"\/gazette\/?p=154561"},"modified":"2019-05-29T17:41:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T21:41:18","slug":"professor-richard-n-frye-dies-at-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/professor-richard-n-frye-dies-at-94\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Richard N. Frye dies at 94"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"\"

Richard N. Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d passed away on March 27. Frye joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he set to work creating the University\u2019s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and was named its first chair of Iranian studies in 1957 \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. <\/p>

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tCampus & Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tProfessor Richard N. Frye dies at 94\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\tBeth Giudicessi\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tAga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus helped found Center for Middle Eastern Studies\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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In the summer of 1948, Richard N. Frye was nearing the end of a postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows of Harvard University when he traveled to southern Iran, making his way by mule to the village of Sar Mashhad. Frye battled drought and sandstorms but, with the help of native Qashqai people, was able to climb a small cliff to collect an impression of an 800-word stone inscription written in ancient Pahlavi \u2014 one of the largest found in the Near East.<\/p>\n

The discovery was one of many significant events during the trip. Though Frye fell severely ill from the intense heat of Buzpar, near the Persian Gulf, he also came across the only known replica of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. Soon after, he traveled to Tehran, where he encountered scholars, politicians, and literati tasked with developing a modern Iran. One such scholar, linguist Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda, gave Frye the title \u201cIrandust,\u201d<\/em> meaning \u201cFriend of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

The professor took pride in the designation and sometimes used it as an added surname. Yet as a polyglot who was born in 1920 in Birmingham, Ala., and raised by Swedish parents in Danville, Ill., and whose scholarly career spanned six decades and half as many continents, Frye was in many ways a friend of the world.<\/p>\n

Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus<\/i>, died March 27. He left behind three sons, one daughter, and his wife, the Iranian-Assyrian scholar and Columbia University Professor Eden Naby.<\/p>\n

Frye, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he helped create the University\u2019s Center for Middle Eastern Studies<\/a> and in 1957 was named its first chair of Iranian Studies \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. Prior, he had earned a bachelor\u2019s degree at the University of Illinois in 1939 and master and doctoral degrees at Harvard in 1940 and 1946. He spent a short time studying at Princeton University and the University of London, received an honorary degree from the University of Tajikistan, and held posts at Columbia, Frankfurt, Hamburg, the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and Pahlavi University in Iran, where he directed the Asia Institute from 1970 to 1976. He also spent four years serving in the Secret Intelligence branch of the Coordinator of Information, the wartime agency that preceded the CIA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his generation Richard Frye was a giant among scholars of Iranian studies. He spanned the entire range of Iranian studies from prehistoric times to the present day,\u201d said Gurney Professor of Islamic History Roy Mottahedeh, who noted Frye\u2019s participation in a variety of scholarly activities, excavations, and surveys, some of which remain standard in the field. \u201cHe was a colorful figure wearing plaid Russian shirts and carrying to seminars a sandwich in his pocket. We are unlikely to see again scholars of his breadth in the field of Iranian studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frye published more than 20 books and 150 articles, including the classic and illustrated \u201cThe Heritage of Persia\u201d <\/i>and the introductory \u201cThe Charisma of Kingship in Ancient Iran\u201d (1964). Though his research focused on the cultural history and languages of Iran and Central Asia, it, like his travels, often crossed boundaries. In recent years, Frye wrote reflections on the distractions of modernity, on peace amid ethnic conflict and on preserving humanity and its varied cultures in what he called \u201cthe age of machines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard Frye was one of the last, and one of the most colorful, of a number of Harvard teachers who came here just before or just after World War II and never left for long, if at all,\u201d said Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies William Graham<\/a>. \u201cTo sit in a class of his was always an adventure: He was a colorful man with many brilliant and sometimes quite quirky, but always stimulating, observations on history, religion, peoples, and places.\u00a0He delighted in almost everything, from colleagues to languages \u2014 and he had a great many of both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it would be fair to consider Frye home both at Harvard and in Iran, where he spoke of willing to be interred. Upon his return from that country in 1948, Frye settled into his study at Kirkland House<\/a> to translate a squeeze-paper impression of his new-found Pahlavi inscription. His relationship with the Kirkland community, where he was an honorary associate, continued until his death.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Sprightly], witty, formidably informed, Richard Frye brought to Kirklanders \u2014 students and peers alike, tutors and members of the Senior Common Room \u2014 lucid assessments of the interactions of Islamic and Western culture,\u201d said Master of Kirkland House Tom Conley, the Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Visual and Environmental Studies.\u00a0\u201cHe had the gracious gift of drawing cultural lines of divide in pastel, never indelible ink. Richard was one of the very few persons we have known who brought intellectual delight in playing at being crusty and curmudgeonly, and all of us are the better for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dearly miss his radiant presence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvard scholar, friend, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus Richard Frye taught Iranian history and culture at the University for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105622744,"featured_media":154565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gz_ga_pageviews":13,"gz_ga_lastupdated":"2021-12-16 12:22","document_color_palette":"crimson","author":"Beth Giudicessi","affiliation":"Harvard Correspondent","_category_override":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1364],"tags":[7559,10612,10653,10655,13050,18260,20865,25572,29357,30045,34082,35919],"gazette-formats":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-154561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-center-for-middle-eastern-studies","tag-department-of-anthropology","tag-department-of-history","tag-department-of-history-of-art-and-architecture","tag-fas","tag-iranian-studies","tag-kirkland-house","tag-news-hubs","tag-richard-frye","tag-roy-mottahedeh","tag-tom-conley","tag-william-graham"],"yoast_head":"\nProfessor Richard N. 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Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d passed away on March 27. Frye joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he set to work creating the University\u2019s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and was named its first chair of Iranian studies in 1957 \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. ","mediaId":154565,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_frye_605.jpg","poster":"","title":"Professor Richard N. Frye dies at 94","subheading":"Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus helped found Center for Middle Eastern Studies","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":403,"mediaWidth":605,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_frye_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Richard N. Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d passed away on March 27. Frye joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he set to work creating the University\u2019s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and was named its first chair of Iranian studies in 1957 \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">File photo<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_frye_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Richard N. Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d passed away on March 27. Frye joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he set to work creating the University\u2019s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and was named its first chair of Iranian studies in 1957 \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">File photo<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/040414_frye_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Richard N. Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d passed away on March 27. Frye joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he set to work creating the University\u2019s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and was named its first chair of Iranian studies in 1957 \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">File photo<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tCampus & Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tProfessor Richard N. Frye dies at 94\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tBeth Giudicessi\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2014-04-04\">\n\t\t\tApril 4, 2014\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t5 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tAga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies Emeritus helped found Center for Middle Eastern Studies\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>In the summer of 1948, Richard N. Frye was nearing the end of a postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows of Harvard University when he traveled to southern Iran, making his way by mule to the village of Sar Mashhad. Frye battled drought and sandstorms but, with the help of native Qashqai people, was able to climb a small cliff to collect an impression of an 800-word stone inscription written in ancient Pahlavi \u2014 one of the largest found in the Near East.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery was one of many significant events during the trip. Though Frye fell severely ill from the intense heat of Buzpar, near the Persian Gulf, he also came across the only known replica of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. Soon after, he traveled to Tehran, where he encountered scholars, politicians, and literati tasked with developing a modern Iran. One such scholar, linguist Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda, gave Frye the title <em>\u201cIrandust,\u201d<\/em> meaning \u201cFriend of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The professor took pride in the designation and sometimes used it as an added surname. Yet as a polyglot who was born in 1920 in Birmingham, Ala., and raised by Swedish parents in Danville, Ill., and whose scholarly career spanned six decades and half as many continents, Frye was in many ways a friend of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies <i>Emeritus<\/i>, died March 27. He left behind three sons, one daughter, and his wife, the Iranian-Assyrian scholar and Columbia University Professor Eden Naby.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he helped create the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/cmes.fas.harvard.edu\/home\">Center for Middle Eastern Studies<\/a> and in 1957 was named its first chair of Iranian Studies \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. Prior, he had earned a bachelor\u2019s degree at the University of Illinois in 1939 and master and doctoral degrees at Harvard in 1940 and 1946. He spent a short time studying at Princeton University and the University of London, received an honorary degree from the University of Tajikistan, and held posts at Columbia, Frankfurt, Hamburg, the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and Pahlavi University in Iran, where he directed the Asia Institute from 1970 to 1976. He also spent four years serving in the Secret Intelligence branch of the Coordinator of Information, the wartime agency that preceded the CIA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn his generation Richard Frye was a giant among scholars of Iranian studies. He spanned the entire range of Iranian studies from prehistoric times to the present day,\u201d said Gurney Professor of Islamic History Roy Mottahedeh, who noted Frye\u2019s participation in a variety of scholarly activities, excavations, and surveys, some of which remain standard in the field. \u201cHe was a colorful figure wearing plaid Russian shirts and carrying to seminars a sandwich in his pocket. We are unlikely to see again scholars of his breadth in the field of Iranian studies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frye published more than 20 books and 150 articles, including the classic and illustrated \u201cThe Heritage of Persia\u201d<i> <\/i>and the introductory \u201cThe Charisma of Kingship in Ancient Iran\u201d (1964). Though his research focused on the cultural history and languages of Iran and Central Asia, it, like his travels, often crossed boundaries. In recent years, Frye wrote reflections on the distractions of modernity, on peace amid ethnic conflict and on preserving humanity and its varied cultures in what he called \u201cthe age of machines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRichard Frye was one of the last, and one of the most colorful, of a number of Harvard teachers who came here just before or just after World War II and never left for long, if at all,\u201d said Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/09\/graham-to-step-down-as-divinity-dean\/\">William Graham<\/a>. \u201cTo sit in a class of his was always an adventure: He was a colorful man with many brilliant and sometimes quite quirky, but always stimulating, observations on history, religion, peoples, and places.\u00a0He delighted in almost everything, from colleagues to languages \u2014 and he had a great many of both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it would be fair to consider Frye home both at Harvard and in Iran, where he spoke of willing to be interred. Upon his return from that country in 1948, Frye settled into his study at <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/06\/a-look-inside-kirkland-house-3\/\">Kirkland House<\/a> to translate a squeeze-paper impression of his new-found Pahlavi inscription. His relationship with the Kirkland community, where he was an honorary associate, continued until his death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Sprightly], witty, formidably informed, Richard Frye brought to Kirklanders \u2014 students and peers alike, tutors and members of the Senior Common Room \u2014 lucid assessments of the interactions of Islamic and Western culture,\u201d said Master of Kirkland House Tom Conley, the Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Visual and Environmental Studies.\u00a0\u201cHe had the gracious gift of drawing cultural lines of divide in pastel, never indelible ink. Richard was one of the very few persons we have known who brought intellectual delight in playing at being crusty and curmudgeonly, and all of us are the better for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe dearly miss his radiant presence.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>In the summer of 1948, Richard N. Frye was nearing the end of a postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows of Harvard University when he traveled to southern Iran, making his way by mule to the village of Sar Mashhad. Frye battled drought and sandstorms but, with the help of native Qashqai people, was able to climb a small cliff to collect an impression of an 800-word stone inscription written in ancient Pahlavi \u2014 one of the largest found in the Near East.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery was one of many significant events during the trip. Though Frye fell severely ill from the intense heat of Buzpar, near the Persian Gulf, he also came across the only known replica of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. Soon after, he traveled to Tehran, where he encountered scholars, politicians, and literati tasked with developing a modern Iran. One such scholar, linguist Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda, gave Frye the title <em>\u201cIrandust,\u201d<\/em> meaning \u201cFriend of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The professor took pride in the designation and sometimes used it as an added surname. Yet as a polyglot who was born in 1920 in Birmingham, Ala., and raised by Swedish parents in Danville, Ill., and whose scholarly career spanned six decades and half as many continents, Frye was in many ways a friend of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies <i>Emeritus<\/i>, died March 27. He left behind three sons, one daughter, and his wife, the Iranian-Assyrian scholar and Columbia University Professor Eden Naby.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he helped create the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/cmes.fas.harvard.edu\/home\">Center for Middle Eastern Studies<\/a> and in 1957 was named its first chair of Iranian Studies \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. Prior, he had earned a bachelor\u2019s degree at the University of Illinois in 1939 and master and doctoral degrees at Harvard in 1940 and 1946. He spent a short time studying at Princeton University and the University of London, received an honorary degree from the University of Tajikistan, and held posts at Columbia, Frankfurt, Hamburg, the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and Pahlavi University in Iran, where he directed the Asia Institute from 1970 to 1976. He also spent four years serving in the Secret Intelligence branch of the Coordinator of Information, the wartime agency that preceded the CIA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn his generation Richard Frye was a giant among scholars of Iranian studies. He spanned the entire range of Iranian studies from prehistoric times to the present day,\u201d said Gurney Professor of Islamic History Roy Mottahedeh, who noted Frye\u2019s participation in a variety of scholarly activities, excavations, and surveys, some of which remain standard in the field. \u201cHe was a colorful figure wearing plaid Russian shirts and carrying to seminars a sandwich in his pocket. We are unlikely to see again scholars of his breadth in the field of Iranian studies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frye published more than 20 books and 150 articles, including the classic and illustrated \u201cThe Heritage of Persia\u201d<i> <\/i>and the introductory \u201cThe Charisma of Kingship in Ancient Iran\u201d (1964). Though his research focused on the cultural history and languages of Iran and Central Asia, it, like his travels, often crossed boundaries. In recent years, Frye wrote reflections on the distractions of modernity, on peace amid ethnic conflict and on preserving humanity and its varied cultures in what he called \u201cthe age of machines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRichard Frye was one of the last, and one of the most colorful, of a number of Harvard teachers who came here just before or just after World War II and never left for long, if at all,\u201d said Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/09\/graham-to-step-down-as-divinity-dean\/\">William Graham<\/a>. \u201cTo sit in a class of his was always an adventure: He was a colorful man with many brilliant and sometimes quite quirky, but always stimulating, observations on history, religion, peoples, and places.\u00a0He delighted in almost everything, from colleagues to languages \u2014 and he had a great many of both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it would be fair to consider Frye home both at Harvard and in Iran, where he spoke of willing to be interred. Upon his return from that country in 1948, Frye settled into his study at <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/06\/a-look-inside-kirkland-house-3\/\">Kirkland House<\/a> to translate a squeeze-paper impression of his new-found Pahlavi inscription. His relationship with the Kirkland community, where he was an honorary associate, continued until his death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Sprightly], witty, formidably informed, Richard Frye brought to Kirklanders \u2014 students and peers alike, tutors and members of the Senior Common Room \u2014 lucid assessments of the interactions of Islamic and Western culture,\u201d said Master of Kirkland House Tom Conley, the Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Visual and Environmental Studies.\u00a0\u201cHe had the gracious gift of drawing cultural lines of divide in pastel, never indelible ink. Richard was one of the very few persons we have known who brought intellectual delight in playing at being crusty and curmudgeonly, and all of us are the better for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe dearly miss his radiant presence.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>In the summer of 1948, Richard N. Frye was nearing the end of a postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows of Harvard University when he traveled to southern Iran, making his way by mule to the village of Sar Mashhad. Frye battled drought and sandstorms but, with the help of native Qashqai people, was able to climb a small cliff to collect an impression of an 800-word stone inscription written in ancient Pahlavi \u2014 one of the largest found in the Near East.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery was one of many significant events during the trip. Though Frye fell severely ill from the intense heat of Buzpar, near the Persian Gulf, he also came across the only known replica of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. Soon after, he traveled to Tehran, where he encountered scholars, politicians, and literati tasked with developing a modern Iran. One such scholar, linguist Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda, gave Frye the title <em>\u201cIrandust,\u201d<\/em> meaning \u201cFriend of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The professor took pride in the designation and sometimes used it as an added surname. Yet as a polyglot who was born in 1920 in Birmingham, Ala., and raised by Swedish parents in Danville, Ill., and whose scholarly career spanned six decades and half as many continents, Frye was in many ways a friend of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies <i>Emeritus<\/i>, died March 27. He left behind three sons, one daughter, and his wife, the Iranian-Assyrian scholar and Columbia University Professor Eden Naby.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he helped create the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/cmes.fas.harvard.edu\/home\">Center for Middle Eastern Studies<\/a> and in 1957 was named its first chair of Iranian Studies \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. Prior, he had earned a bachelor\u2019s degree at the University of Illinois in 1939 and master and doctoral degrees at Harvard in 1940 and 1946. He spent a short time studying at Princeton University and the University of London, received an honorary degree from the University of Tajikistan, and held posts at Columbia, Frankfurt, Hamburg, the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and Pahlavi University in Iran, where he directed the Asia Institute from 1970 to 1976. He also spent four years serving in the Secret Intelligence branch of the Coordinator of Information, the wartime agency that preceded the CIA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn his generation Richard Frye was a giant among scholars of Iranian studies. He spanned the entire range of Iranian studies from prehistoric times to the present day,\u201d said Gurney Professor of Islamic History Roy Mottahedeh, who noted Frye\u2019s participation in a variety of scholarly activities, excavations, and surveys, some of which remain standard in the field. \u201cHe was a colorful figure wearing plaid Russian shirts and carrying to seminars a sandwich in his pocket. We are unlikely to see again scholars of his breadth in the field of Iranian studies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frye published more than 20 books and 150 articles, including the classic and illustrated \u201cThe Heritage of Persia\u201d<i> <\/i>and the introductory \u201cThe Charisma of Kingship in Ancient Iran\u201d (1964). Though his research focused on the cultural history and languages of Iran and Central Asia, it, like his travels, often crossed boundaries. In recent years, Frye wrote reflections on the distractions of modernity, on peace amid ethnic conflict and on preserving humanity and its varied cultures in what he called \u201cthe age of machines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRichard Frye was one of the last, and one of the most colorful, of a number of Harvard teachers who came here just before or just after World War II and never left for long, if at all,\u201d said Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/09\/graham-to-step-down-as-divinity-dean\/\">William Graham<\/a>. \u201cTo sit in a class of his was always an adventure: He was a colorful man with many brilliant and sometimes quite quirky, but always stimulating, observations on history, religion, peoples, and places.\u00a0He delighted in almost everything, from colleagues to languages \u2014 and he had a great many of both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it would be fair to consider Frye home both at Harvard and in Iran, where he spoke of willing to be interred. Upon his return from that country in 1948, Frye settled into his study at <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/06\/a-look-inside-kirkland-house-3\/\">Kirkland House<\/a> to translate a squeeze-paper impression of his new-found Pahlavi inscription. His relationship with the Kirkland community, where he was an honorary associate, continued until his death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Sprightly], witty, formidably informed, Richard Frye brought to Kirklanders \u2014 students and peers alike, tutors and members of the Senior Common Room \u2014 lucid assessments of the interactions of Islamic and Western culture,\u201d said Master of Kirkland House Tom Conley, the Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Visual and Environmental Studies.\u00a0\u201cHe had the gracious gift of drawing cultural lines of divide in pastel, never indelible ink. Richard was one of the very few persons we have known who brought intellectual delight in playing at being crusty and curmudgeonly, and all of us are the better for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe dearly miss his radiant presence.\u201d<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>In the summer of 1948, Richard N. Frye was nearing the end of a postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows of Harvard University when he traveled to southern Iran, making his way by mule to the village of Sar Mashhad. Frye battled drought and sandstorms but, with the help of native Qashqai people, was able to climb a small cliff to collect an impression of an 800-word stone inscription written in ancient Pahlavi \u2014 one of the largest found in the Near East.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery was one of many significant events during the trip. Though Frye fell severely ill from the intense heat of Buzpar, near the Persian Gulf, he also came across the only known replica of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. Soon after, he traveled to Tehran, where he encountered scholars, politicians, and literati tasked with developing a modern Iran. One such scholar, linguist Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda, gave Frye the title <em>\u201cIrandust,\u201d<\/em> meaning \u201cFriend of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The professor took pride in the designation and sometimes used it as an added surname. Yet as a polyglot who was born in 1920 in Birmingham, Ala., and raised by Swedish parents in Danville, Ill., and whose scholarly career spanned six decades and half as many continents, Frye was in many ways a friend of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, the Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies <i>Emeritus<\/i>, died March 27. He left behind three sons, one daughter, and his wife, the Iranian-Assyrian scholar and Columbia University Professor Eden Naby.<\/p>\n<p>Frye, who was sometimes called \u201cdean of the world\u2019s Iranists,\u201d joined Harvard\u2019s faculty in 1948, where he helped create the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/cmes.fas.harvard.edu\/home\">Center for Middle Eastern Studies<\/a> and in 1957 was named its first chair of Iranian Studies \u2014 a post he held until his retirement in 1990. Prior, he had earned a bachelor\u2019s degree at the University of Illinois in 1939 and master and doctoral degrees at Harvard in 1940 and 1946. He spent a short time studying at Princeton University and the University of London, received an honorary degree from the University of Tajikistan, and held posts at Columbia, Frankfurt, Hamburg, the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and Pahlavi University in Iran, where he directed the Asia Institute from 1970 to 1976. He also spent four years serving in the Secret Intelligence branch of the Coordinator of Information, the wartime agency that preceded the CIA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn his generation Richard Frye was a giant among scholars of Iranian studies. He spanned the entire range of Iranian studies from prehistoric times to the present day,\u201d said Gurney Professor of Islamic History Roy Mottahedeh, who noted Frye\u2019s participation in a variety of scholarly activities, excavations, and surveys, some of which remain standard in the field. \u201cHe was a colorful figure wearing plaid Russian shirts and carrying to seminars a sandwich in his pocket. We are unlikely to see again scholars of his breadth in the field of Iranian studies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frye published more than 20 books and 150 articles, including the classic and illustrated \u201cThe Heritage of Persia\u201d<i> <\/i>and the introductory \u201cThe Charisma of Kingship in Ancient Iran\u201d (1964). Though his research focused on the cultural history and languages of Iran and Central Asia, it, like his travels, often crossed boundaries. In recent years, Frye wrote reflections on the distractions of modernity, on peace amid ethnic conflict and on preserving humanity and its varied cultures in what he called \u201cthe age of machines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRichard Frye was one of the last, and one of the most colorful, of a number of Harvard teachers who came here just before or just after World War II and never left for long, if at all,\u201d said Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/09\/graham-to-step-down-as-divinity-dean\/\">William Graham<\/a>. \u201cTo sit in a class of his was always an adventure: He was a colorful man with many brilliant and sometimes quite quirky, but always stimulating, observations on history, religion, peoples, and places.\u00a0He delighted in almost everything, from colleagues to languages \u2014 and he had a great many of both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it would be fair to consider Frye home both at Harvard and in Iran, where he spoke of willing to be interred. Upon his return from that country in 1948, Frye settled into his study at <a href=\"\/gazette\/story\/2011\/06\/a-look-inside-kirkland-house-3\/\">Kirkland House<\/a> to translate a squeeze-paper impression of his new-found Pahlavi inscription. His relationship with the Kirkland community, where he was an honorary associate, continued until his death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Sprightly], witty, formidably informed, Richard Frye brought to Kirklanders \u2014 students and peers alike, tutors and members of the Senior Common Room \u2014 lucid assessments of the interactions of Islamic and Western culture,\u201d said Master of Kirkland House Tom Conley, the Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Visual and Environmental Studies.\u00a0\u201cHe had the gracious gift of drawing cultural lines of divide in pastel, never indelible ink. Richard was one of the very few persons we have known who brought intellectual delight in playing at being crusty and curmudgeonly, and all of us are the better for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe dearly miss his radiant presence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":112689,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/06\/eight-professors-named-2012-cabot-fellows\/","url_meta":{"origin":154561,"position":0},"title":"Nine professors named 2012 Cabot Fellows","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Eight professors were named 2012 Cabot Fellows to honor their excellent publications.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":421717,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2026\/01\/when-cambridge-was-a-tiny-cuba\/","url_meta":{"origin":154561,"position":1},"title":"When Cambridge was a \u2018tiny Cuba\u2019","author":"Terry Murphy","date":"January 5, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"125 years ago, a Harvard expedition drew 1,200 Cuban educators to class","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Teachers, men and women ages 16 to 60, traveled to Massachusetts via U.S. Army warship and mugged for a group photo before Memorial Hall.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Group-photo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Group-photo.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Group-photo.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Group-photo.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":183696,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/06\/curating-a-visual-record\/","url_meta":{"origin":154561,"position":2},"title":"Curating a visual record","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, assistant professor of the history of art and architecture and African and African-American studies, guest edited the magazine Aperture, producing an issue called \u201cVision & Justice,\u201d the first on African-Americans, race, and photography for the magazine.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/051216_lewis_sarah_231_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/051216_lewis_sarah_231_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/051216_lewis_sarah_231_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":157872,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/06\/nine-cabot-fellows-named\/","url_meta":{"origin":154561,"position":3},"title":"Nine Cabot Fellows named","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Nine professors in Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been named Walter Channing Cabot Fellows.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31107,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2010\/02\/daniel-henry-holmes-ingalls\/","url_meta":{"origin":154561,"position":4},"title":"Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls","author":"harvardgazette","date":"February 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"At a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on Feb. 10, 2009, the minute honoring the life and service of the late Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls, Wales Professor of Sanskrit Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Ingalls had an enormous influence on the development of Sanskrit studies in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2811,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/04\/national-endowment-for-the-humanities-supports-preservation-of-qajar-dynasty\/","url_meta":{"origin":154561,"position":5},"title":"National Endowment for the Humanities supports preservation of Qajar dynasty","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Endowment for the Humanities has made a $346,733 grant to a team of Qajar historians. The purpose of this grant, which lasts from May 2009 to June 2011, is to develop a comprehensive digital archive and Web site at Harvard University that will preserve, link, and render accessible\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276883,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154561\/revisions\/276883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154561"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=154561"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=154561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}