Seyed Ali Aledavood Information

Seyed Ali Aledavood (born March 24, 1952, in Khor and Biabanak, Isfahan Province) is an Iranian jurist, author, textual critic, historian, and one of the most prolific contemporary scholars of Persian literature, history, and culture. With over 32 authored or edited volumes and approximately 750 scholarly articles, he has made substantial contributions to the study of Iranian history, classical Persian texts, local histories, and cultural documentation.

 Life and Education

Seyed Ali Aledavood was born in 1952 in the town of Khor, the center of Khor and Biabanak County in central Iran. His father, Seyyed Abdolhossein Adib Aledavood (1314–1386 AH solar / 1935–2007), was an employee of the Ministry of Education. His uncle, Habib Yaghmaei, was a well-known poet, writer, and editor of the literary magazine Yaghma. Aledavood is a descendant of Asadollah Montakhab al-Sadat Yaghmaei (1279–1350 AH lunar / 1862–1931), a poet and scribe of the Khor region, who himself traced his lineage to the famous Qajar-era poet Yaghma-ye Jandaqi.

He completed his primary and secondary education in his hometown and graduated from Adab High School in Isfahan. In 1970, he moved to Tehran for higher education and earned a bachelor’s degree in Law and Political Science from the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Law. He briefly pursued a master’s degree in Sociology at the same university but left it unfinished.

 Professional Career

In 1972, while still a law student, he was introduced by Hossein Khadiv Jam to the Iran Culture Foundation and soon became the internal manager of the literary magazine Yaghma. In 1976, he resumed collaboration with the Foundation and studied under eminent scholars such as Parviz Natel Khanlari, Mohammad Parvin Gonabadi, Hossein Khadiv Jam, Mehrdad Bahar, and Mohsen Abolghasemi.

From December 1978, he was employed by the Ministry of Culture and Art (later Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance) and remained there until 1985. He then practiced as an attorney at law. Since 1986, he has been a contributor to the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia, authoring more than 150 entries. From 1995 onward, he served as deputy head of the Literature Section at the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, contributing to the Encyclopedia of Persian Language and Literature in the Indian Subcontinent. He also supervised the scientific editing of the Encyclopedia of Iranian-Islamic Cultural Works.

 Selected Works

 Authored

– Descriptive Bibliography of Khor and Biabanak

– Seven Climates of the Book

– Selected Masterpieces and Beloved Ones

– Festschrift for Habib Yaghmaei

– Documents and Letters of Amir Kabir

– Collected Works of Yaghma-ye Jandaqi

– Festschrift for Zabihollah Safa

– Amir Kabir and Naser al-Din Shah

– The Earliest Attempts at Legislation in Iran

 Critical Editions and Research (selected)

– Nozhat al-Akhbar

– Safineh of Elegies and Lamentations

– Tarikh-e Alfi

– Jame’ al-Olum Setini

– Divan of Safa’i Jandaqi

– Shahnameh of Hatefi Kharjerdi

– Mathnavi Shams va Qamar