# Mehdi Bayani

Mehdi Bayani (Persian: مهدی بیانی‎; 1906 – February 6, 1968) was the founder and the first head of the National Library of Iran, specialist in Persian manuscripts and calligraphy, writer, researcher, and professor at the University of Tehran.

## Life and careers

Mehdi Bayani was born in 1906 in Hamedan, Iran. His father, "Mirza Mohammad Khan Mostofi Farahani", was from the succession of teachers and accountant of Farahan and his maternal ancestor was "Mirza Soleimaan Bayan ol-Saltaneh Farahani", the head of the royal exchequer and the author of "the treatise on the rules of clerking and accounting". At the age of two, his father died and his mother came to Tehran with him and other children. He studied elementary and calligraphy in the primary schools of "Aqdasiyeh" and "Ashraf". He spent his high school years at the Dar ul-Funun then entered the "Teachers High College" (now Kharazmi University) for a bachelor's degree in literary and philosophical sciences. After receiving his bachelor's degree, he entered University of Tehran. In 1945, received a doctorate in the field of "Persian language and literature" from the University of Tehran.
After passing the training course of the officer's college and military service, Bayani started teaching Persian language and Persian literature in 1933, while working in the library of the "Teachers High College", and in 1934 he was appointed the director of the public library of Islamic sciences. In this position, he collected books from the "Royal Library" and the "Library of Islamic Sciences" to establish the "National Library of Iran" and after the establishment of this library in 1937, he became its director.
In 1940, he was sent to the Department of Culture of Isfahan by the Ministry of Education (formerly the "Ministry of Culture") for a year, and after returning and completing a one-year educational mission, he was again appointed director of the National Library. In 1956, he became the director of the "Royal Library", a post which held until the end of his life. He was also a professor at the University of Tehran, where he taught "History of the Evolution of Islamic scripts" and "Bibliography of Manuscripts" courses.
He also founded an association to support and introduce calligraphers and the art of calligraphy called the "Association for the Support of Script and Calligraphers". He collaborated as an expert in manuscripts and prints with the National Library, the National Consultative Assembly's library and the Central Library of the University of Tehran due to his expertise in recognizing scripts and manuscripts. He himself had an elegant handwriting and was especially strong and skilled in Nastaliq. He is mentioned as one of the students of Mirza Hossein Khan Mostofi, a prominent calligrapher of Qajar era. The book "Biography and Works of Calligraphers (Persian: احوال و آثار خوشنویسان)" which he published in 4 volumes is one of the valuable research works in the field of biography and introduction of Iranian calligraphers that has preserved its value so far.
Bayani was one of the founders of the Iranian-Soviet cultural association and a member of it, and worked for nearly 25 years to expand and strengthen the friendly and cultural ties between these two neighboring countries. He had many cultural missions to Asian, European and American countries.

## Death

Mehdi Bayani died of cancer on the February 6, 1968. He was buried in Ibn Babawayh Cemetery.

## Legacy

The book "Fifty Years with Dr. Mehdi Bayani (Persian: پنجاه سال با دکتر مهدی بیانی)" deals with his life story, photographs and documents, and reviews Bayani's book the "Biography and Works of Calligraphers (Persian: احوال و آثار خوشنویسان)", has been published by the National Library of Iran on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 2018.
Lately, a virtual (due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions) commemoration ceremony of Mehdi Bayani was held by the Society for the National Heritage of Iran on October 21, 2020.