Prods Oktor Skjaervo


Prods Oktor Skjaervo is Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies at department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in Harvard University, where he succeeded Richard Frye as Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies. He is a hyperpolyglot, familiar with both living and extinct languages including Old Norse, Norwegian, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Latin, Larestani, Kumzari, Bashkardi, Pashto, Yidgha, Yaghnobi, Munji, Old Khotanese, Avestan, Old Persian, Pahlavi, Manichean Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Khotanese, New Persian, Pashto, Ossetic, Kurdish, Tokharian, Vedic, and Classical Sanskrit.

Education

In 1963 Skjaervo went to Oslo University where he studied French, Latin, and Sanskrit, with a semester in 1965 at the Sorbonne in Paris. He earned his B.A. in 1970. In 1974 he completed his M.A. with the thesis, “Undersøkelser til verbalsystemet i gammelpersisk og vestlig middeliransk”, on which he subsequently based his “Remarks on the Old Persian Verbal System”. He then earned his Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of Oslo, where his thesis was entitled, "The Paikuli Inscription, Restoration and Interpretation. Pt. 1 Restored Text and Translation. Pt 2. Introduction and Commentary".

Chairs and Committees

Skjaervo has been Chair of The Committee for Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from 1993 to 2000, Chair of the Department of Sanskrit during a troubled period in 1995/1996, and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2009. He has also been, in 1997, Guest Lecturer at Eötvös Loránd Tudomány University, Budapest; Université de la Sorbonne, Paris; and Università di Studi di Roma, La Sapienza; and in May–June 2000 he was visiting professor at the Collège de France, Paris. He additionally serves as a Consulting Editor for the Encyclopædia Iranica.

Selected Books

Skjaervo has published widely in a number of languages:

English