Richard Nelson Frye (January 10, 1920 – March 27, 2014) was an American intelligence agent and scholar of Iranian and Central Asian studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Harvard University. His professional areas of interest were Iranian philology along with the history of ancient Iran and Central Asia.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to a family of immigrants from Sweden, "Freij" had four children, his second marriage being to a scholar, who teaches at Columbia University. After serving in a non-combat role in Afghanistan during WW2, he joined Harvard as a researcher. He would gain eminence as a leading expert on Iranian history, culture and linguistics, becoming a proponent of Iranian culture.
He held proficiency in many Eurasian languages, both extinct and contemporary; including Russian, Arabic, Persian, Pashto, Sogdian, Uzbek, Avestan, and Turkish. Although Frye is mostly known for his works on historical Iranian culture, he also studied Byzantine history, Assyrian culture, Islamic art, East Asian archeology, Sufism and other ancient languages like Bactrian and Parthian.
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