Ehsan Yarshater, born April 12, 1299 in Hamedan , in a Baha’i and Kashani family. His mother, Rohaniya Misaghiyah, was one of the activists of the organization, and his father, Hashem, became a Baha’I after marriage. The family met with Abbas Effendi on a trip to Palestine, he bestowed them by name Yarshater. He completed the first grade at the Allianz school (for French Jews) the following year went to the Baha’i school taeed. After obtaining a ninth grade certificate, he was introduced to the Daneshsara, he was a student at the high school “Tarbiat” and “Sharaf”. At the Teacher Training School, Ali Akbar Frootan, a very active Baha’i, the head of school, paid special attention to him.

     Finally, he went to Tehran university to study in the Persian language and literature, in 1326 he published his doctorate dissertation titled “Persian Poetry in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century:, with the guidance of Ali Asghar Hekmat, with a Jewish root, who was at the service of the Zionists since the beginning of the regime Pahlavi. In his treatise, he proposed a controversial issue that “beloved” in Persian literature is man. In general, Yarshter under the influence of one of his father’s friends was anti woman and was not married for years.

     During his PhD training, Yarshter used to go to English classes at the “British” Council of Culture” and was sent to London for further study. It is noteworthy that “The British”, since the beginning of the region of Pahlavi beside their political-economic influence in Iran have shown particular attention to cultural issues, because public opinion thorough cultural influence, is effective in the consolidation of their interests in Iran. The Iranian and British associations worked hard for Cultural break-through in a variety of ways, such as sending Iranian students to Britain, providing English visiting places for educated people and holding classes in English.” Returning to the country in 1333 with the help of “Asadallah Alam” Yarshater, established “Book Publishi9ng House”. Alam was entirely in the direction of British politics and was associated with British intelligence officers throughout the years of the ministry. In his memories Hussein Fardoust knows him as British and American spy.

Then he joined Freemasonry and Leger of the Mehr, later in the United States, he became a member of the Rancho Park Rotary Club in Los Angeles. One of the manifestations of the British intellectual-cultural encroachment in Iran, during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi era, was the revival of Freemasonry activities related to British English in the country. Freemasonry worked on political issues and the sphere of Rotary Club activities were economic-cultural issues.

Moreover following the Baha’i cult, he became active in the culture and publishing of Iranian society by joining the Freemasonry and connecting with the political figures he can be considered the author of the cultural policies of the colonial West in Iran.

Iranica

In 1347, Yarshater has started a project for editing encyclopedic script about Iran in English, sponsored by Hoveyda and after the Islamic Revolution, has continued its development in the United States. It is naturally a matter of concern when a Baha’i-Freemason writer is the author of the most important and comprehensive English encyclopedia about a significant country like Iran. Specially, when the Baha’is have a particular targeting in the field of culture. yarshater’s correspondence with Bernard Lewis led him to start Iranica. Louis obviously used history as a political weapon against Muslims and had a close connection with Zionism. One of Lewis’s most famous idea is the issue of the clash of civilizations and the breakup of Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. History is one of the most important areas of human life with a great influence on the fate of nations. It is important to seize this area by a specific flow. Yarshater is the author of the first article in a magazine related to Constitutional movement of “Abbas Amanat” (one of the most famous Baha’i in the West), which refer to Baha’is as the movement thinkers. In Iran, it has also somehow distorted the historical-cultural issues of Iran. His mission was so important that, despite the disobedience of Shoghi Effendi’s command, the American Baha’i congregation condoned for his death and even invited him to Baha’i gatherings, he, with no respect for fairness in that Encyclopedia, has allocated only three columns so explain Shi’a imams, but has 25 pages in the box for the Baha’i leaders, there are many telling about Iranica: the dark aspects like removing Iranian antiquities and selling them in the West having the majority of Jewish-Baha’i staff… All are reason to reject the claim that is activities were carried out purely with the scientific and Iran-loving motives. Nevertheless, he loved his work, it’s the colonial intelligence that knows how to encourage and attract the person’s talent and interest in the direction of his goals. Obviously, this Encyclopedia is injustice toward true opinion, the smallest example is in the sections related to Babyat and Baha’ism. These issues highlight the vacancy of developing a reference book based on historical facts by Islamic scholars and requiring those who have no reliance on large budgets and bureaucratic conflicts, those who seek spreading the truth.