ALESSANDRO BAUSANI, Religion in Iran (New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2000). Pp. 479. $38.00 cloth.

Extract

The period 1955–62 was a particularly productive one for the eminent Italian Orientalist Alessandro Bausani (1921–88), professor of Islamic studies at Rome University. His Italian translation of the Qurءan, which appeared in 1955, was soon followed by a trilogy of works, each of which testifies to the depth and scope of his encyclopedic knowledge of and love for all things Iranian: Persia Religiosa (Milan, 1959), Storia della Letteratura Persiana (Milan, 1960), and I Persiani (Florence, 1962). The last, a concise history of Iran that many consider complementary to Persia Religiosa, was translated into German as Die Perser (Stuttgart, 1965) and into English as The Persians (London, 1971) within a decade of its release. It seems strange, then, that Persia Religiosa, which forty years after it was first published is still the only work in a Western language that treats the history of religions in Iran in a comprehensive manner (p. vii), should not have been translated earlier. Perhaps some of Bausani's innovative, avant-garde insights meant that scholars of Iran downplayed the book's significance at the time.