Lexicographer, scholar of Persian literature and Iranian studies Mohammad Moin (1918-1971) will be commemorated on his 47th death anniversary.
The culture committee from the City Council of Astaneh-Asharafieh, a city in Gilan Province where Moin is buried, has organized a series of programs to honor the late scholar.
Located near Ostad Moin Square, the resting place of the prominent scholar is where the commemoration ceremony will be held on July 5, IBNA reported on its Persian website.
Keynote speaker is librarian and educator Noushafarin Ansari, 79. Mohammad-Reza Amin-Nasseri, former MP representing Astaneh-Ashrafieh, is another speaker.
Also speaking will be Moin’s daughter, Mahdokht, who is an expert in Persian literature and a faculty member of Allameh Tabatabai University in Tehran. She will deliver a lecture on behalf of the family.
A group of poets will attend and recite their poems. A music performance is also included, which will be presented by the traditional ensemble of Arghanoun.
Moin’s Work
Born in Rasht, Gilan Province, Moin’s work on lexicography began in 1946 with his collaboration with linguist Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda (1879-1956) on the monumental Persian encyclopedic dictionary “Loghat-Nama”.
Later, he wrote a critical edition of the 17th century Persian dictionary Borhan-e Qate. Before his death in 1956, Dehkhoda appointed Moin to manage Dehkhoda Institute and its publication of Loghat-Nama, according to Encyclopedia Iranica.
While managing the institute and before he suffered a stroke in 1966 which left him in a coma for the five remaining years of his life, Moin had undertaken a vast lexicographic project involving the production of several Persian dictionaries of varying sizes and scope, including some thematic ones dealing with technical terms of different disciplines such as art, medicine and biology.
Life of a Librarian
Ansari was born in Simla, India, in 1939 to diplomat parents. She was exposed to many languages and cultures in Asia and Europe. From 1958-1960 she studied librarianship in Geneva, a discipline she continued at McGill University and at University of Toronto.
She worked as a librarian at the Delhi Public Library, and University of Tehran central library, and was library director at the Faculty of Literature and Humanities at University of Tehran. She started teaching at the Faculty of Library and Information Science at University of Tehran in 1968 and retired in 2000.
Early in her career she joined the Children’s Book Council of Iran, and was elected secretary general in 1978 to date. She was a keynote speaker at the 28th International Board on Books for Young People Congress in Basel in 2002, and was nationally honored by the Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Luminaries in Tehran in 2004.
Ansari’s book “Introduction to the History of Muslim East” was the winner of Iran’s Book of the Year Award in 1988.
