The lecture on which this paper is based was given to mark the 90th birthday, which had occurred on 8 February 2002, of Professor Ann K.S. Lambton, one of the British Institute of Persian Studies' Honorary VicePresidents. This was an event singularly worthy of celebration. When one considers Persian Studies of the Islamic period in Britain in the 20th century, it is Professor Lambton's career which is clearly without parallel in terms both of its length her first book, Three Persian Dialects, was published in 1938 and of its distinction. She is indisputably the major figure in the field since the death of E.G. Browne in 1926.