Azarmi Dukht Safavi is an Indian scholar and founding director of the Institute of Persian Research at Aligarh Muslim University. She is also the president of the All India Persian Teachers’ Association, New Delhi, and the editor of the Ghand Parsi magazine. Safavi is an outstanding master of Persian literature and is the head of the Persian Language Research Center of the Aligarh University. Safavi is known for her works on the Gulistan.
Early Life
Dr. Azarmi Dukht Safavi was born in 1948 in an educated and cultured family in Shamsabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Her family belongs to the Safavid dynasty of Iran and her forefathers migrated to India from Iran during the period of Nadir Shah. She learnt Persian from her father, who was an erudite scholar and writer of Persian. She was a member of the Editorial Board for Danishnam-i-Shibh-i-Qarreh Qand-i-Parsi and Indo-Iranica.
Education
After completing her primary and secondary education, Safavi joined Aligarh Muslim University to pursue higher studies in Persian. She completed her B.A. in 1966, then M.A. in 1968, and got her PhD in Persian in 1974. The topic of her Ph.D. thesis was "Sadi as a Humanist and Lyricist." Her Ph.D. supervisor was Prof. Nazeer Ahmad. After finishing her Ph.D., she was appointed as a lecturer in the Dept. of Persian, where she later became a Professor and taught for 32 years. Safavi commands Persian, English, Urdu, and Hindi.
Persian origin
Prof. Safavi is from the family of the Nawabs of Lucknow, and her family belongs to the Safavid dynasty of Iran. Shah Rahmatullah Safavi, the great grandfather of Prof. Safavi, came to India during the reign of the Indian Mughal king Muhammad Shah in 1737. He was the governor of Azeemabad. Later on, the family migrated to Delhi, then to Lucknow, and finally settled in Shamsabad, Uttar Pradesh, where they now have their properties and havelis. Prof. Safavi's great grandfather Nawab Wali, alias Nawab Dulha, was a prolific writer and author of more than 20 books in Persian. Her father, Mohammad Sadiq Safavi, was her first teacher of Persian, and he inspired her to study the language. He was a Persian scholar having done his M.A. in Persian from Aligarh Muslim University. His articles were regularly published in leading literary journals of Iran, including Yaghma, Sukhan, etc.
Positions held
During her academic career, Prof. Safavi has held many responsible posts at the Aligarh Muslim University such as:
Felicitation and Award by Anjuman Mafakhir-o-Asrar Farngi, Tehran on 18 May 2015 ; Citations by Farhangistan-i-Zaban-o-Adab Farsi, Danishgah-i-Payam-e-Noor, Danishgah-i-Shibhi Qarreh, etc.
Institute Of Persian Research
Prof. Safavi is the founder-director of the established in 2006 at Aligarh Muslim University. She wrote a proposal for the establishment of the Institute, which was approved by the Government of India. Now the Institute is working vigorously for the development of Persian language and literature. Its programmes include Publication, Seminars/Conferences, lectures by eminent Iranian and Indian scholars, training in modern/spoken Persian, et cetera. The Institute has published 45 books and monographs and organized seven seminars to date. In 2006, she established the Persian Language Research Center at Aligarh University.
Articles
Prof. Safavi has published more than 150 research papers in Persian, English, and Urdu in national and international journals.
