In these summer days everyone engaged in Russian and world Oriental studies sustained a tragic loss. On 1 August 2018 Jahangir Habibulovich Dorri left our hectic world at the age of 87. He was an outstanding expert in Iranian studies and classical Persian poetry, a teacher of the Persian language with 50 years of experience and an extremely talented translator, who retold the stories of contemporary Iranian prose writers in a neat Russian language. The son of a Russian mother and Iranian father, J. Dorri combined the best traits of both great nations. His calm wisdom, soft sense of humour and shining kindness fascinated people from the very first moments, and his deep comprehensive knowledge secured the respect of his colleagues and students.
Academic and creative activity of J. Dorri was quite diverse. He started his career as a literary critic and expert in classical Iranian poetry. Then he got engaged in translations of the modern Iranian prose and had no peers in that area, since both Russian and Persian were his mother tongues, and he was gifted with a literary talent and refined language. In 2015 the Sadra publishing house with the support of the Islamic Culture Research Foundation issued a collection of satirical stories by Khosrov Shahani entitled “About everything and nothing”, brilliantly translated by J. Dorri. Jahangir Dorri also edited two great novels published in Russian: “Her I” by Reza Amirkhani and “The victims of the Sacred Garden” by Mohammad-Reza Bayrami.
J.Dorri had an immense teaching experience, starting from the position of a Persian teacher in the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, where he as invited in 1967, to the professor of the Moscow Linguistic University. Many of his students achieved success in the academic field, received doctorates, became well-known translators and teachers.
And now he has passed away…
The Islamic Culture Research Foundation expresses deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Jahangir Dorri due to this grievous loss.
At these moments, when the soul of the Great Dorri is talking to Hafez and Saadi in the better world, we can only repeat with sadness and gratitude:
WE WILL CHERISH YOUR MEMORY, MASTER! THANK YOU FOR BEING WITH US…
