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Armenian and Iranian Studies (Harvard Armenian Texts and Studies)

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The Dolores Zohrab Liebman Foundation, the Clark Fund of Harvard University and the Armenian General Benevolent Union are to be congratulated on their endeavour to honour a rare and erudite scholar, James Robert Russell (Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA)by funding a venture to publish a book titled "Armenian and Iranian Studies" which is a collection of 91 articles published by Professor James R. Russell in disparate journals and volumes since 1980. Few scholars in the prime of their career are honoured with a compilation of their past publications, and this voluminous tome (xxix, 1462 pages) brings together publications from rare and not easily accessible/available journals and festschrifts and conference proceedings. Also the field of Armenian and Iranian studies and especially Armeno-Iranica studies have attracted few scholars and so this collection of articles has an even greater academic value, making it almost one of a kind tome.
Professor Russells' areas of academic interests have, and continue to be Armenica, concentrating on the sources and religious materials of heroic epics and folk-lore-material ancillary to the "official" Christian clerical culture, and in the Iranian area his work encompasses studies in Irano-Judaica and the religious culture of the 'Parsi Zoroastrians' of India. The majority of articles in this compilation deal with Armeno-Iranica. They continue and serve to supplement studies, he had previously published in his magnum opus "Zoroastrians in Armenia" (Harvard Iranian Series, Cambridge, MA, 1987) where he emphasizes that the pre-Christian religion of the majority of the Armenians, was (despite special local features), the Zarathushtrian faith of the Parthian Arsacids.
Zarathushtrians and Parsis the world over, may find at a minimum of 52 articles of religious and cultural values of importance to them in this compilation. I urge them to read them with undivided attention. They are unique and thought provoking, even if one does not agree with Prof. Russell all the time.
I wish Prof. Russell a long and productive career in Armeno-Iraniaca at Harvard University as I read year after year his scholarly publications in various Armenian jounals, notably Revue des Etudes Armeniennes.
A book every Zarathushtrian oragnization, society, library and academics must have on their shelves.