Dehkhoda

Allameh Ali Akbar Dehkhoda (1879–March 9, 1959) was a prominent Iranian linguist, and author of the most extensive dictionary of the Persian language ever published. Dehkhoda was born in Tehran to parents from Qazvin. His father died when he was only 10 years old. Dehkhoda quickly excelled in Persian literature, Arabic and French and graduated from College studying political science. He was also active in politics, and served in the Parliament as a Member of Parliament from Kerman and Tehran. He also served as Dean of Tehran School of ####Political Science and later the School of Law of the University of Tehran. In 1903, he went to the Balkan Peninsula as an Iranian embassy employee, but came back to Iran two years later and became involved in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran. In Iran Dehkhoda, Mirza Jahangir Khan and Ghasem Khan had been publishing the Sur-e Esrafil” newspaper for about two years, but the authoritarian king Mohammad Ali Shah disbanded the parliament and banished Dehkhoda and some other liberalists into exile in Europe. There he continued publishing articles and editorials, but when Mohammad Ali Shah was deposed in 1911, he returned to the country and became a member of the new Parliament.

Works
- Translation of Montesquieu's De l'esprit des lois (The Spirit of the Laws) into Persian.
- Proverbs and Mottos (in four volumes)
- French-Persian Dictionary
- Fiddle-Faddle (Charand wa Parand)
- Dehkhoda Dictionary (his lexicographic masterpiece, the largest Persian dictionary ever published, in 15 volumes. Dr. Mohammad Moin accomplished Dehkhoda's unfinished volumes according to Dehkhoda's request after him).