Mette Hedemand Søltoft - Centralasiatisk Selskab

English summary
The debate on Orientalism has mostly been focused on the relationship between the Arabs and the
West. The conflicts and problems in these discussions are, however, difficult to apply to another
oriental field, namely Iranian Studies, which are the subject of this dissertation. Compared to Semitic
Studies Iranian Studies have their own scientific tradition, particularly due to the discovery of the Indo-
European family of languages in the beginning of the 19 th century, when the Iranian and Indian
languages “suddenly” became closely related to the European languages.
I have examined the early development of Iranian Studies in Denmark through the example of
Professor Arthur Christensen’s (1875-1945) three journeys to Iran in 1914, 1929 and 1934. Professor
Christensen was the first professor of Iranian Studies at The University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and
his scientific research has until this day made him an internationally recognized authority in this field.
When Arthur Christensen visited Iran in 1929 he found himself to be a famous man among the national
romantic intellectuals. The national romantics regarded his work on the pre-Islamic period as the
“proof” of their golden past. The Iranian national romantics with Reza Shah Pahlavi as their leader
wanted to establish an Iranian nation without Islam. They viewed Islam as an uncivilized and Semitic
religion, which was foreign to their Indo-Iranian culture.
Arthur Christensen on his side was happy to make himself useful in this nation-building movement. In
fact he became so enthusiastic about what he experienced that he adopted several political and
ideological thoughts from the Iranian national romantics. Arthur Christensen was no exception;
generally Iranian Studies in the west were politically and ideologically very close to the Pahlavi
regime. This close relationship between academia and Iranian national romantics continued during the
reign of Muhammad Reza Shah, lasting until the late 1970s. Consequently the Islamic revolution in
1979 was a schock to Iranian Studies, and Iranian Studies are still trying to deal with the repercussions
from this occurrence.
For that reason among others the history of Iranian Studies differs from other Oriental Studies.
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DSCA Monografi/Monograph 1 ▪ 2007