Professor Ann Lambton: Persian scholar Posted on July 22nd
Ann Lambton, known as Nancy to her friends, devoted the greater part of her
life to Iran and the study of Iran. Iranians who knew her thought she was
either a saint, a scholar, a spy or all three. She was tough, physically and
mentally, and almost an ascetic. She was a walker, a climber, a horsewoman
and a squash player. She was a scholar who wrote some of the standard works
on Iranian language, agriculture, land tenure and history. She was involved
in some of the most dramatic of 20th-century Iranian political events. She
was a devout Christian.