Mohammad-Ali Eslami Nodooshan

(1925, Nodooshan – 2022, Toronto)

Mohammad-Ali Eslami Nodooshan, eminent Iranian scholar, translator, poet, literary critic and professor of law and Persian literature at the University of Tehran, passed away on April 25, 2022 at age 97 and was buried in Toronto, Canada, where he resided with his children in the last five years. A passionate patriot and author of tens of books on culture, society and literature, he was born on August 25, 1925 in Nodooshan, a city located in the central province of Iran, Yazd Province. After his graduation in Law in Tehran, he set off for France to pursue his law studies and turned back to Iran with a PhD to teach Literature and Law at the University of Tehran.
 
Among his most memorable books one should refer to Diaries [روزها | 1984-2006], Siren of the Phoenix [صفیر سیمرغ | 1973], and Liberty of the Statue [آزادی مجسمه | 1994], his autobiographical travelogue to various cities and countries, which was an unorthodox phenomenon in Persian writing of the time and are known to have brought back this forgotten literary genre to life. 

Eslami Nodooshan was a hardworking and prolific scholar of classical literature, having written tens of volumes on the interpretation and explanation of grand Persian narratives like Shahnameh or the poetry of Hafez, Rumi, Persian quatrains, etc. Nodooshan’s peerless optimism in the future of Iran and Iranian culture, interwoven with his keen critical observation of the past and present of Iranian society, are reflected in a series of speculative volumes written on the culture of Iran, such as:

• Don’t We Forget Iran (ایران را از یاد نبریم | Tehran: Yaghma, 1961]
• Culture and Quasi-Culture [فرهنگ و شبه فرهنگ | Tehran: 1975]
• We Did Say and Didn’t Say [گفتیم و نگفتیم | Tehran: Bita, 1975]
• What Does Iran Have to Say? [ایران چه حرفی برای گفتن دارد؟ | Tehran: Sahami Enteshar, 1999]
• A Forty-Year Report: Selection of Writings on Culture and Society: 1958-1998 [ک‍ارن‍ام‍هٔ چ‍ه‍ل‌س‍ال‍ه: گ‍زی‍ده ن‍وش‍ت‍ه‌ه‍ا در زم‍ی‍ن‍ه اج‍ت‍م‍اع و ف‍ره‍ن‍گ از س‍ال ۱۳۳۷ ت‍ا ۱۳۷۷ | Tehran: Yazdan, 2001]
• Four Spokespersons of Iranian Conscience: Ferdowsi, Mawlavi, Saadi, and Hafiz [چ‍ه‍ار س‍خ‍ن‍گ‍وی وج‍دان ای‍ران | Tehran: Qatreh, 2002]
• Iran and the World According to Shahnameh [ای‍ران و ج‍ه‍ان از ن‍گ‍اه ش‍اه‍ن‍ام‍ه | Tehran: Amir-Kabir, 2002]
• Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow [دیروز، امروز، فردا | Tehran: Sahami Enteshar, 2009]
• Neither Can We Say, Nor Can We Help Saying [گفتن نتوانیم، نگفتن نتوانیم | Tehran: Sahami Enteshar: 2013]