ABSTRACT
The contribution of travellers and Western researchers, specifically philologists, played a significant role in the inception and generation of interest in folklore in Iran. While the detailed and vivid information recorded by travellers sparked the attention and interest of Western scholars, it was the extensive research of philologists that laid the foundation for folklore studies in Iran. The development of folkloristics in Iran as a scientific field of study, however, was the direct result of a genuine interest and the scholarly efforts of the Iranian researchers themselves.
