Testimonial by Kristof Szitar

Participants from all walks of life are invited to come together and to actively participate in friendly yet erudite Persian language discussions and to share their multidisciplinary insights.

This program offers a textual analysis of Firdausī’s immense creative output, and provides a historically and linguistically informed appreciation for Persianate literary cultures. Ruben’s etymological comments greatly facilitated the reading and interpreting of this literary masterpiece. Students can also benefit from the academic vocabulary of a carefully and meticulously selected set of additional readings in Persian. Ruben’s eloquence and impressing familiarity with various aspects of Iranian Studies is truly inspiring. One of the greatest feats of this course is that it maintains a subtle balance between thoroughgoing scrutiny and active engagement with Modern Persian. Yet another unique feature of this course is that some of the classes are followed by manuscript reading sessions dedicated to the examination of some of the earliest and most lavishly illuminated Shāhnāma manuscripts.