One of the professors of Iranology, whose works are known among Iranian researchers, is the Norwegian Skjaervo. The scope of his scientific research was, on one hand, about studies in Zoroastrianism and on the other hand academic studies about Mani and his teachings.
Prods Oktor Skjaervo was born in December 1944 in Steinkjer, Norway. After completing his schooling, he went to Harvard University in US, where he studied the ancient and civilizational languages of the Near East and attained the degree of professor in the academic field of ancient Iranian languages (Avesta and Pahlavi). The scope of his scientific research is Zoroastrian religion and then Manichaean studies. But before that, Skjaervo came to Iran in 1972 and studied the Pahlavi language for eleven months at the University of Tehran under the late Ahmad Tafazoli. After his return, Skjaervo taught at the University of Oslo in 1973. A year later, he presented his thesis titled “Studies on the Verb System in Ancient Persian and Middle Western Iranian.”
Skjaervo wrote several articles in his academic field in the Iranica Encyclopedia and in this way demonstrated his outstanding scientific position. Iranica is a scientific project at Columbia University, which Dr. Ehsan Yarshater founded, and many of the world’s leading scientists collaborate with it in various fields. Skjaervo was Iranica’s senior editorial assistant from 1985 to 1991.
Skjaervo began his academic teaching as a professor emeritus at Harvard University. Before that, he was a research assistant at the Johannes University in Germany and wrote his PhD thesis entitled “The Paikoli Inscription: editing and report”. The Paikoli inscription, located in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq (near Qasr Shirin border) has remained from Narsi, the Sassanid king. Skjaervo now replaces Richard Fry, a famous American Iranologist at Harvard University. He has organized training courses for students at the request of Rome, Sorbonne and Collège de France in Paris and Laurent in Hungary. Skjaervo’s valuable works are in the field of ancient Iranian languages, from Avestan to Parthian and Middle Persian. His other scientific essays in a collection called “Iranian-Manic Studies” are of great scientific value.
From the books of Prods Skjaervo, which have been translated into Persian and are placed in the Zoroastrian and Manichaean research section, these examples are worth mentioning: “The Essence of Zoroastrianism”; Translated by Khashayar Bahari (2019 – Farzanruz Publishing). In this work, Skjaervo aims at showing the key concept of the Gathas and parts of the Avesta and examine the religious texts of the Pahlavi language. His other book, “Zoroatsrian Thoughts in Ancient Persian Texts,” was translated by Javad Lotfi Nowzari and Fariba Haghigpour (Avaye Khorshid Publishing House – 2018). “An Introduction to the Pahlavi Language” was translated by Amir Zamani (Kherd Nik Publishing house-2013), and “Iranian Elements in Manichaeism” was translated by Mohammad Shokri Foumashi (Tahuri, 2003). We should also mention his article “The antiquity of the ancient Avesta”. (published in Nameh Iran Bastan magazine, fall and winter 2003).
