Richard Nelson Frye (January 10, 1920 – March 27, 2014) was an American intelligence agent and scholar of Iranian and Central Asian studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Harvard University. His professional areas of interest were Iranian philology along with the history of ancient Iran and Central Asia.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to a family of immigrants from Sweden, "Freij" had four children, his second marriage being to a scholar, who teaches at Columbia University. After serving in a non-combat role in Afghanistan during WW2, he joined Harvard as a researcher. He would gain eminence as a leading expert on Iranian history, culture and linguistics, becoming a proponent of Iranian culture.
He held proficiency in many Eurasian languages, both extinct and contemporary; including Russian, Arabic, Persian, Pashto, Sogdian, Uzbek, Avestan, and Turkish. Although Frye is mostly known for his works on historical Iranian culture, he also studied Byzantine history, Assyrian culture, Islamic art, East Asian archeology, Sufism and other ancient languages like Bactrian and Parthian.
Frye was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He first attended the University of Illinois, where he received a BA in history and philosophy in 1939. He received his MA from Harvard University in 1940 and his PhD from Harvard in 1946, in Asiatic history.
Frye served with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He was stationed in Afghanistan and traveled extensively in the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. In 1948, he visited Sar Masshad, and was the first European to find and report the existence of the Gur-e Dokhtar tomb (meaning "Tomb of the Maiden" in Persian).
He returned to Harvard to teach. He was a member of the Harvard faculty from 1948 to 1990. He then became a professor emeritus at Harvard. He also served as faculty, guest lecturer, or visiting scholar at the following:
Habibiya College in Kabul (1942–1944)
Frankfurt University (1959–1960)
Hamburg University (1968–1969)
Pahlavi University of Shiraz (1970–1976)
Tajik National University (1990–1992).
Frye helped found the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, the first Iranian studies program in America. He also served as Director of the Asia Institute in Shiraz (1970–1975), was on the Board of Trustees of the Pahlavi University at Shiraz (1974–1978), and chairman, Committee on Inner Asian Studies, at Harvard (1983–1989), and as Editor of the Bulletin of the Asia Institute (1970–1975 and 1987–1999).
Among Frye's students were Annemarie Schimmel, Oleg Grabar, Frank Huddle (former US Ambassador to Tajikistan), John Limbert, and Michael Crichton, whose Hollywood film The 13th Warrior is loosely based on Frye's translation of Ibn Fadlan's account of his travels up the Volga River.
Frye was also directly responsible for inviting Iranian scholars as distinguished visiting fellows to Harvard University, under a fellowship program initiated by Henry Kissinger. Examples of such guests include Mehdi Haeri Yazdi (1923–1999), Sadegh Choubak, Jalal al Ahmad, and others.
Frye felt that Persian civilization was under-appreciated by other Muslims, particularly Arabs. Frye wrote:
Arabs no longer understand the role of Iran and the Persian language in the formation of Islamic culture. Perhaps they wish to forget the past, but in so doing they remove the bases of their own spiritual, moral and cultural being... without the heritage of the past and a healthy respect for it... there is little chance for stability and proper growth.
In August 1953, shortly before the fall of Mosaddegh, the prominent Iranian linguist Ali Akbar Dehkhoda gave Frye the title "Irandoost" (meaning 'iranophile').
In addition, Frye was a long-standing supporter of Assyrian continuity, and valued the historical and ancestral connection between modern Assyrians and the Ancient Mesopotamians.