Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh

Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh was born in Tehran on 11 September 1937. He attended university in Cologne, Germany, earning a doctoral degree in Near Eastern studies, ethnology, and ancient history in 1971. Now an emeritus professor of Persian language and literature at the University of Hamburg, where he has taught since 1971, Khaleghi is a leading authority on the “Shahnameh,” having prepared an eight-volume critical edition based on the Florence manuscript. His research articles on the “Shahnameh” have appeared in scholarly publications such as “Simorgh”, the Ferdowsi University School of Letters and Humanities’ quarterly magazine, “Irannameh”, “Iranshenasi”, “Kelk”, “Nameh-ye Iran-e Bastan” (Journal of Ancient Iran), and “Nameh-ye Baharestan”. Professor Khaleghi is also a contributor to “Encyclopaedia Iranica” and the “Encyclopedia of Persian Language and Literature.” Major collections of his articles include “Gol-e Ranjha-ye Kohan” (The Flower of Ancient Labors) (1983) and “Sokhanha-ye Dirineh” (Old Words) (1992), both published in Tehran, and “Notes on the Shahnameh” (4 vols., 2001-2009, 2nd ed. 2011, New York - Indiana). “Women of the Shahnameh” is an annotated English translation of Khaleghi’s 1971 doctoral dissertation.