Major C.J. Edmonds (1889-1979) studied Arabic, Turkish and Persian in Cambridge and entered the British consular service. After important posts in Persia and Iraq, he became lecturer for Kurdish at SOAS (London) 1951-57.Yann Richard (Docteur dès-Lettres, 1992) studied Persian in 1970 in Tehran, then in Tübingen (Germany) and Paris. He was firstly interested in philosophy and literature. After the revolution, he published on modern Shi’ism and history of modern Iran. He is professor of Iranian studies at the Sorbonne nouvelle (Paris).