Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda

Ali Akber Dekhoda, (1879 – March 9 1959) the Iranian linguist, was born in Tehran. His father passed when he was 10 years old. Dehkhoda learned Persian literature, Arabic and French and graduated from College of political science.

In 1903, he went to Balkan Peninsula as an Iranian embassy employee, but came back to Iran two years later and cooperated in the Constitutional Revolution.

In Iran Dehkhoda, Jahangir Khan and Ghasem Khan had been publishing “Soor-e Esrafil” newspaper for about two years, but the authoritarian king Mohammad Ali Shah disbanded the parliament and banished Dehkhoda and some other liberalists to Europe. When Shah was deposed by people in 1911, he came back to the country and became a member of new parliament.

Books:

Dehkhoda translated Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws into Persian. He wrote also “Amsal va Hekam” (Proverbs and Mottos) in 4 volumes, The French – Persian Dictionary and etc.

But undoubtedly his literary masterpiece is “Loghat Nameh”, the most complete Persian dictionary in 15 volumes. He could publish this book after 45 years of efforts.