Professor Charles Melville

Professor Melville read Oriental Studies (Arabic and Persian) at Pembroke, matriculating in 1969 before completing an MA in Islamic History at SOAS and then a PhD on historical seismicity in Iran.  He became a Fellow of Pembroke in 1985 and was Professor of Persian History from 2008 to 2018, and is now Emeritus Professor of Persian History.  Professor Melville has been a long-serving member of the Governing Council of the British Institute of Persian Studies and is currently President.  Since 1999, he has been Director of the Shahnama Project.  In 2010, he was behind an exhibition of Persian manuscripts and paintings of the Shahnama at the Fitzwilliam Museum.  He is a Permanent Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at Hamburg University.  Professor Melville has travelled widely in Central Asia and Iran.