‘Whatever harsh judgements others may have passed upon me, they do not know that I have judged myself far more severely.’

— Sadegh Hedayat

 

 

Shapour Suren-Pahlav is an archaeologist and Iranologist based in the United Kingdom. His work centres on the history, archaeology and religious traditions of ancient Iran, with particular attention to Zoroastrian religion and the intellectual and linguistic heritage of pre-Islamic Iranian civilisation.

 

Born in Iran, he left the country in the early 1970s while still in his adolescence in order to continue his education abroad. He subsequently pursued higher education in Britain. His last return to Iran occurred in early 1980, when he voluntarily returned to participate in the defence of the country during the Iran–Iraq War. Since that time, his cultural and political activities in opposition to the Islamic Republic have rendered his return to Iran impossible, and he has therefore lived in exile.

 

Suren-Pahlav completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. His academic training combined History, Archaeology and Zoroastrian Studies, including the study of ancient Iranian languages, with particular emphasis on Avestan, Parthian and Middle Persian.

 

 

Cultural and scholarly initiatives

In the decades following the 1979 revolution, the withdrawal of cultural support previously provided to foreign universities by institutions associated with the Imperial Iranian state, including the Pahlavi Foundation, contributed to the gradual disappearance of programmes devoted to Ancient Iranian Studies within British universities. The resulting intellectual vacuum was especially visible at SOAS, where Iranian historical studies had once occupied a prominent place.

 

In response to this decline, and with the intention of both reviving scholarly engagement with ancient Iranian civilisation and introducing broader audiences to its intellectual traditions, Suren-Pahlav co-founded the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS at SOAS) in 1998 together with the archaeologist Dr Oric Basirov at the Department of Art and Archaeology, SOAS, University of London.

 

One of the central aims of the initiative was to contribute to the relaunching of Ancient Iranian Studies at SOAS. Although the project succeeded in creating an active intellectual forum and scholarly network, the broader institutional revival of the field did not materialise. This outcome reflected, in part, the wider political climate surrounding Iranian studies during that period and the influence exerted by networks sympathetic to the Islamic Republic.

 

The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS at SOAS) nevertheless became an important forum for scholarly exchange. It brought together a number of leading British Iranologists and researchers working in related fields. Weekly lectures and seminars organised at SOAS introduced wider audiences to the history, culture and intellectual traditions of Iran.

 

Alongside these academic activities, the project established what became one of the earliest specialised digital platforms devoted to Ancient Iranian civilisation. The CAIS website has since developed into a substantial scholarly resource, hosting more than three thousand articles written by leading Iranologists and researchers. The platform has contributed both to strengthening historical awareness among Iranian readers regarding their cultural heritage and to introducing Iranian civilisation to a wider international audience.

 

The initiative also developed an early bilingual information platform dedicated to Iranian cultural heritage. Published in Persian and English in cooperation with Iranian archaeologists, the platform documented cases of neglect, damage and destruction affecting archaeological sites and historical monuments in Iran.

 

In 2000, following the publication of extensive material concerning the deterioration of archaeological remains and national heritage, CAIS encountered sustained pressure from networks associated with the Islamic Republic operating in Britain. As a consequence, the organisation separated from SOAS and has since continued its activities independently while collaborating with Iranian and international archaeologists, historians and scholars.

 

 

Political engagement

Before returning to Iran during the Iran–Iraq War, Suren-Pahlav had already become a member of the National Movement of the Iranian Resistance (NAMIR), an Iranian nationalist constitutionalist political organisation committed to liberal democracy and parliamentary monarchy, led by Dr Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister of the Imperial Iranian government and later a leading figure of the Iranian opposition in exile. His political outlook has been shaped by a commitment to Iranian nationalism, liberal democracy, the principle of laïcité and the institutions of parliamentary constitutional monarchy.

 

Following his return from the war, he became active within the London branch of NAMIR, where he was responsible for refugee affairs and later served as head of political education in the organisation’s London office. After the assassination of Dr Shapour Bakhtiar by agents of the Islamic Republic and the subsequent dissolution of the movement, he continued his activities independently as a political activist and analyst.

 

His political engagement has since focused both on opposition to the Islamic Republic and on responding to separatist lobbying networks operating in Britain that advocate the territorial fragmentation of Iran.

 

His approach to historical writing is guided by a simple conviction:

 

A historian who addresses only his peers is like a bird confined to a gilded cage. He who manipulates the past assumes the office of a politician; he who recounts only its pleasing aspects, that of a merchant. The historian who writes truthfully, in language accessible to the public, indifferent to criticism and free of orthodoxy, illuminates the future.

 

 

Personal interests

Alongside his scholarly and political work, Suren-Pahlav maintains a long-standing interest in the visual arts, including painting, graphic design, photography and pottery. His personal interests also extend to chess and backgammon, as well as sports such as polo, boxing, judo and Krav Maga.

 

May the light of Ahura Mazda guard the ancient land of Iran and its long historical continuity, one of the three surviving civilisations of great antiquity alongside Egypt and China.