Soleiman haim
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Soleiman Haim (1897-1970) was an Iranian Jew and was the first and the last successful dictionary writer in Iran. He was born in Tehran, where he spent all his fruitful life and edited the most popular dictionaries — English to Persian and also Persian to English dictionary — which still after his death are continuously reprinted in Iran. He started his education in a Maktabkhaneh (traditional type of elementary school prevalent in Iran in the 19th century).
Later on he was able to continue his education at American high school (later renamed the American college), which was run by a group of U.S. missionaries under the supervision of legendary Dr. Jordan. At the college, young Soleiman excelled in English, Persian literature and music. He also wrote poetry.
There isn’t much information about his private life. The only information shows that he started his career with teaching at the Alliance School, and later switched to translation. He is known to have worked for the Iranian Ministry of Finance for a number of years as a translator to Dr. Millspaugh, an American adviser to Iranian government on fiscal matters. Then he moved on to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, where he headed the translation bureau until his retirement. He also devoted all his free time and energy to the compilation of his now famous series of bilingual dictionaries.
His first published work is a 1928 play, entitled Yusef-O Zoleikha, based on the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife from the Old Testament. Haim wrote this play to be performed by the students of Alliance school. His first reference work, the new English-Persian Dictionary, in two volumes, was published in the years 1929-1931. This was later substituted by the larger English-Persian dictionary, and never reprinted.
[edit] Haim’s English-Persian and Persian-English dictionaries
- The larger English-Persian dictionary, first published 1933, revised 1945, reissued in one volume and two volumes subsequently, rejuvenated and freshly typeset 1997.
- The One-volume Persian-English Dictionary, first published 1952. Reprinted many times subsequently, freshly typeset and rejuvenated 1995.
- The One-Volume English-Persian dictionary first published 1954. Reprinted many times subsequently.
- The shorter English-Persian Dictionary first published 1956, revised 1962, reprinted several times subsequently, revised once again 1994.
- The Shorter Persian-English Dictionary, first published 1957, reprinted several times subsequently, freshly typeset and reformatted 1996.
