Edward Browne was an Englishman who made known to the world the richness and depth of Persian literature.
He was the first man to write a proper history of Persian literature, something that the Persians themselves had not done. In 1926 the late Allameh Ghazvini (1877-1949), an outstanding Iranian scholar, wrote about Browne: “I can dare swear that his literary contribution was unique among the people of the West, Europe and America put together.

Among all the orientalists, past or present, none has taken so much trouble in this field, none has devoted an entire lifetime to this work as he did from the age of 18 to the end of his days at 64, relentlessly, indefatigably,
with all his might and to the best of his ability, to revive Persian literature, and none has incurred such high expenses from his own pocket to correct old Persian manuscripts and have them printed.”¹


In fact, Persia was lucky to have someone like Browne, lucky that Browne, this genius of a man, should fall in love with its literature. He was such an admirer of the Persian language and literature that once, when another non-Iranian who could speak Persian as well as English, spoke to him in Browne’s own language, he retorted, “We had better speak in Persian. In my opinion anybody who does not speak Persian is not a complete person.” And he loved the country and its people so much that on leaving it, when he found himself on board a Russian
vessel in the Caspian Sea, he wrote in his diary that he felt homesick among strangers.

Edward Granville rowne (1862-1926) was a qualified physician who devoted his life, not to medicine, but to Persian literature. At the age of 15 he began to learn the Turkish language. But soon he realized that to learn Turkish well he had to learn Arabic and Persian as well. He had not been learning Persian for long when he found
himself deeply in love with this language and its literature.

Browne began his medical studies at Cambridge in 1879 and completed his studies in 1887, at the age of 25. But during the whole period of his studies he spent all of his hours of leisure studying Persian literature or visiting his Persian friends. In 1887, after completing his medical studies, he visited Persia and stayed
here for over a year. When he returned to England he was appointed as the Professor of Persian Literature at Cambridge University; and Professor of Persian Literature he remained for the rest of his life. In 1893 he published the first volume of “A Year Among the Persians” and in 1902 the first volume of “A Literary History of Persia”.

While staying in Iran, Browne made the best possible use of his time. He mingled with Iranians of all social classes and creeds; with mystics and dervishes, with the rich and the poor, the scholar as well as the layman, and he managed to gain the trust, confidence, and friendship of them all.

Few orientalists have managed to grasp so much of Iran’s culture and literature. Browne had an excellent knowledge of Persian poetry, philosophy especially mysticism, and way of life. He also studied all the religions that were then practiced in Iran and met the people of these religions, and even lived with them to know them well. He was also an excellent literary scholar in his own tongue and has rendered some outstanding translations of Persian poetry in English.

During the Constitutional Uprising, when Iranians were struggling for a constitutional system of monarchy and
government, Browne took the side of the people and became politically minded for a few years. In cooperation with a number of Iranian refugees then living in England he formed the Iranian Society of Britain. He later wrote a book on the history of the Iranian constitutional movement.


Browne was against the colonial interventions in Iran’s affairs which were practiced at the time by both Britain and Czarist Russia. In particular, he resented the pompous approach of Sir Edward Gray who was ambassador to Tehran and later became the foreign minister of Britain. In a letter he wrote to a friend, Ms Ross, he explicitly
expressed his unfriendly views on British policies in Iran and on Sir Edward Gray in particular. In 1906 he published the second volume of “A Literary History of Persia” and from 1913 he resumed work on the rest of
this book which he ultimately completed, in four volumes, in 1924. In the “A Literary History of Persia”, Browne does not only deal with Persian literature but with Iran’s religions, with Persian culture, philosophy, sciences and with Iranian genius. As pointed out earlier the book is in four volumes: The first gives an account of
ancient Iranian literature down to Ferdowsi. The second gives the history of Persian literature from Ferdowsi to Sadi. The third gives a historical account of Persian literature during the Mongol and Tatar eras. Finally,
the fourth is the history of contemporary Persian literature.

This work was a true turning point in Iranian studies and is still a masterpiece today. In 1927, after Browne’s death, a selection of the Persian poems that Browne had translated into English was published. Much later, in 1962, Cambridge University held the 100th anniversary of Edward Browne and for this occasion all of Browne’s manuscripts were brought to the University.

Among the manuscripts there was a still unpublished book on Iran’s Constitutional Uprising, titled “Letters from Tabriz”. A number of Iranian publishers who were participating in the event found the book fascinating
as it gave a detailed and accurate account of the times. Browne’s last book on Iran was thus published.

1- “Iranshahr” magazine, Issue No 2, May 1926 NB: The writer has taken the liberty of using the two words Persia and Iran equally as fitting to the text. After all, both words refer to the same country.