Philip G. Kreyenbroek

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Philip G. Kreyenbroek (born 1948) is a Dutch scholar who studies Iran and Kurdistan. He has written many books and articles about Zoroastrianism, Kurdish culture, and Yazidi traditions.

Education and early career: He studied Persian, Arabic and Turkish at the University of Amsterdam, earning a BSc in 1970. He then earned an MSc in Iranian studies at Utrecht University in 1972. With a British Council scholarship, he studied at SOAS in London from 1972 to 1973, focusing on Zoroastrianism, Gujarati and Iranian languages. He earned his PhD from Leiden University in 1982 with a thesis on Sraoša in Zoroastrian tradition.

From 1973 he taught Iranian studies at Utrecht University, becoming a senior lecturer in 1985. He also spent time at SOAS (1988–1993), teaching Iranian languages, Zoroastrianism and Sufism, and from 1993 to 1996 was a Reader in Iranian languages and religions there. He founded the Society for Iranian Oral Studies to support research in oral traditions. Yazidi traditions became a focus from 1990, and in 1992 he traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan to meet Yazidi leaders.

Later career and work: In 1996 he became Professor of Iranian studies at the University of Göttingen, a move linked to his interest in Yazidi culture and the large Yazidi community in Germany. He retired in 2016. He has studied about 34 languages and has published many books and articles, as well as contributing to the Encyclopaedia Iranica.