We regret to inform you that the German-Iranian scientist Mr Ali-Reza Rahbar passed away in Bonn on 21 December 2023 at the age of 85. Mr Rahbar was head of the ‘Society for the Intellectual Life of Persia’. As editor of the journal ‘Iranzamin’,he left behind a significant academic legacy.
In 2018, the researcher handed over his private book collection of more than 4,500 volumes and 25 metres of journals to the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt. This collection, which he had built up over decades with scientific accurateness, represents an important contribution to Iranian studies and to research into the cultural and religious history of modern Iran. From 2021 to 2023, the collection was supervised and completed as a DFG project at the ULB.
It includes numerous journals. Some of them have been digitised by the ULB (e.g. Suḫan, Yaġmā, Rāhnama-i kitāb, Bar-rasīhā-i tārīḫī, Farhang-i Irān-zamīn). There are several (auto-)biographies of Iranian personalities, especially from the Pahlavi and Kajar periods, as well as extensive monographs on topics such as New Persian language and literature, Iranian literary studies, Iranian history from antiquity to the present, politics of modern Iran, Islamic philosophy, Islamic history, Islamic faiths and Sufism. The scientific value of this collection is enhanced by the fact that some of the sources included were not republished or were subject to restrictions after the Islamic Revolution in Iran 1979. Mr Rahbar’s legacy will live on through this significant gift to the academic community of Iranian studies.
