الكتــاب هـــو الجزء الثـــاني مــن الموسوعة الكبيرة التي ألفها الأستاذ "براون"، وتقع في أربعة أجــزاء تستوعب الحياة التاريخية والفكريـــة والأدبية للإيرانيين منذ أقـــدم العصور حتى سنــة 1924 م سنة تـــأليف الكتـــاب.
ويعد هذا الجزء أهم أجزاء تلك الموسوعة التي ظلت منذ صدورها حتى اليوم مرجعًا أساسيًا لا يمكن أن يستغنى عن دارسو اللغة الفارسية وآدابها لأنه يعرض لأزهى فترات الأدب العربي وازدهاره وانتشاره وتأثيره في آداب الشعوب الإسلامية عامة والأدب الفارسي خاصة.
ادوارد براون (1862 - 1926)، مستشرق إنجليزي. نال شهرة واسعة قي الدراسات الشرقية وكان يجيد التحدث بالفارسية والعربية ،حيث عين استاذ لهما قي جامعة كيمبردج,من هم مؤلفاته كتاب : تاريخ الأدب فى إيران(4اجزاء)ـ
Edward Granville Browne (1862 – 1926), born in Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, England, was a British orientalist who published numerous articles and books of academic value, mainly in the areas of history and literature. His works are respected for their scholarship, uniqueness, and style.
The scholarly value of his works was acknowledged both during his lifetime and even more, after his passing. He gained a professorship at Cambridge University. Much of his publications are related to Persia (now called Iran), either in the fields of history or Persian literature. He is perhaps best known for his documentation and historical narratives of the Bábí movement as relayed by Count Gobineau. He published two translations of Bábí histories, and wrote several of the few Western accounts of early Bábí and Bahá'í history. His professorship at Cambridge was, however, of the Arabic language, with the full title 'Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic'.
He published in areas which few other Western scholars had explored to any sufficient degree. He used a language and style that showed high respect for everybody, even toward those he personally did not view in positive light. In A Year Among the Persians (1893) he wrote a sympathetic portrayal of a Persian society which few Westerners had ever seen, including a frank account of the effects of opium. It did not attract the attention it deserved at the time of its initial publication, but after his death in 1926 it was reprinted and became a classic in English travel literature. He also published the first volume of A Literary History of Persia in 1902 with subsequent volumes in 1906, 1920, and 1924. At the close of the twentieth century it remains the standard authority on the subject.