Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak was born in 1945 in Iran and emerged as one of the foremost scholars of Persian literature and cultural history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He received a rigorous education in Persian classical literature and language within Iran before pursuing graduate studies abroad, ultimately building a distinguished academic career that has spanned both Iranian and American institutions.

Karimi-Hakkak became particularly renowned for his scholarly work on modern Persian poetry and the history of literary movements in Iran. His landmark book Recasting Persian Poetry: Scenarios of Poetic Modernity in Iran, published by the University of Utah Press, is widely regarded as the definitive academic account of the transformation of Persian poetry in the modern era, tracing the movement from classical forms to new verse and examining the social and intellectual forces that drove this transformation.

Beyond literary analysis, Karimi-Hakkak has made enduring contributions as a translator, bringing Persian poetry and prose to English-speaking audiences with both scholarly accuracy and literary sensitivity. His anthology An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry was among the first comprehensive scholarly anthologies of its kind in English and introduced generations of Western readers to the richness of twentieth-century Iranian poetic expression.

Karimi-Hakkak served as a professor at the University of Maryland for many years, where he directed programs in Persian language and literature and mentored numerous graduate students who have gone on to academic careers in Iranian studies across the world. He has also been associated with the University of Maryland's Roshan Institute for Persian Studies. His contributions to the preservation, documentation, and international dissemination of Persian literary and cultural heritage are unmatched in his generation, making him an indispensable bridge between Persian civilization and the global academic community.