The study of Oriental languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic) at Lviv University began after 1817, first at the Faculty of Theology and later at the Faculty of Philosophy. The first teachers at the Faculty of Theology were A. Radkovych, J.E. Kukharsky, L. Soletsky, K. Sarnitsky, and M. Myshkovsky; at the Faculty of Philosophy – G. (Gerzon) Blatt (1858-1916), B. Davidovich (died 1933). Over time, Sanskrit and Old Armenian (Grabar) were taught. The systematic teaching of Semitic languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Assyrian) began on the initiative of the semitologist M. Shor (1874-1942).
After the First World War, orientalist and polyglot Andrii Havronskyi (1885-1927) started teaching a number of ancient and new Indian languages and literatures at the university. The twenties of the twentieth century can generally be considered the heyday of Lviv orientalism: semitologists O. Kliavek and Y. Popliha, Altai and Mongolian scholar V. Kotvych (1872-1944), Arabist Z. Smohozhevsky (1884-1931), who initiated the teaching of Old Ottoman and Persian, Mongolian and Altai scholars V. Schmutz and M. Levytskyi, Arabist T. Levytskyi, Indologist S. Stasiak, Iranianist F. Mahalskyi, Old Persian, Middle Persian and Hrabar were taught by a famous linguist, student of A. Maillot, E. Kurylovych, and Turkish, Persian and Arabic by Mohammed Sadiq Bey Agabek-zade (Agabekov). Mohammed Sadiq Bey Agabek-zade, a prominent Azerbaijani orientalist, Arabist, and Turkologist who devoted many years of his life to Lviv University, along with professors Zygmunt Smogozhevsky and Vladyslav Kotvych, are considered the founders of the Lviv-Petersburg School of Oriental Studies. At this time, such well-known orientalists as E. Zawolynskyi, O. Pritsak, L. Skuzhak, A. Kunst, and J. Turchynskyi were educated at Lviv University. In 1938, the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Faculty of Humanities had 9 departments, where 35 oriental languages were taught.
In the 1939-1940s, the Department of Oriental Studies was headed first by S. Stasiak and later by E. Zavolynskyi. Later, the department was abolished.
The Second World War caused great damage to Lviv oriental studies: the German occupiers took away more than twenty thousand unique publications on oriental studies and more than five hundred unique manuscripts in oriental languages.
After World War II, many Lviv orientalists of Polish nationality left for Europe. The unwillingness of the Soviet authorities and university administration, who saw manifestations of Ukrainian nationalism everywhere, to develop oriental studies eventually led to the official cessation of teaching oriental languages at Lviv University and continued to exist in fragments and only thanks to the dedicated work of some enthusiasts: in the second half of the 1950s, the Indologist and Chinese scholar M. Knoroz (1111-1984) taught Sanskrit and Chinese at the Faculties of History and Philology, involving I. Saidakowska. Knoroz (1911-1984) taught Sanskrit and Chinese at the Faculties of History and Philology, involving I. Saidakovska, and Y. Polotniuk in teaching Arabic and Persian. After the reprinting of G. Bühler’s Guide to the Elementary Course of Sanskrit, which was enthusiastically received by the scientific community of the Soviet Union, M. Knoroz, the initiator of the reprint, was dismissed from his job. He was forced to work as a translator from European languages at a Lviv factory.
After 1967, a graduate of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Leningrad University, Y.Polotniuk began teaching optional courses in Arabic and Persian at the Faculty of Philology. Despite the obvious and notable successes of the students (O. Kalmykova taught Russian in Damascus, V. Rudkovsky translated several major novels by Tajik authors after a year-long internship in Tajikistan, A. Gorbachevsky became deputy dean of the Faculty of Philology at the Tajik State University), the university administration, headed by M. Maksimovich, stubbornly failed to understand the needs of oriental studies. Y. Polotniuk’s Arabic and Persian studies began to run out of money, and the orientalist mostly taught for free. The courses were discontinued and resumed only in 1980 for three years.
In 1992, at the initiative of Y. Polotniuk, the Department of General Linguistics began teaching Oriental languages again: Arabic (Y. Polotniuk), Persian (Y. Polotniuk, R. Hamada), and Japanese (O. Horoshkevych).
In 1997, a separate Department of Oriental Studies was opened at the Faculty of Philology, headed by Professor Yaroslav Dashkevych. Under his leadership, the first teachers worked – Yarema Polotniuk, Roman Hamada, Olena Horoshkevych, Oresta Zaburanna, Lidia Lutsan, and Yaryna Polotniuk. In 2003, they were joined by Yulia Zaza, Oleh Kshanovskyi, Olha Maksymiv, Iryna Yaremchuk, Marta Stelmakh, Oleksandr Losev, Tetiana Kovalenko, Olena Tsintsiruk, and Ruslana Nadolska.

With the official opening of the Department of Oriental Studies in 1997, only Persian was taught as a speciality, with Japanese, Arabic and Turkish as electives. In 2003, Arabic and Japanese grew into independent specialities, and later (in 2014) Turkish and Chinese specialities were opened.
The revival of Iranian and Arab studies in Lviv is associated with the name of a brilliant orientalist, original polyglot scholar, talented teacher, outstanding translator and writer Yarema Yevhenovych Polotniuk. As a member of the Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and head of the Islamic Department of the Institute of Religious Studies in Lviv, Yarema Yevhenovych devoted his life to serving Ukrainian Orientalism.
In the early 60s, he came up with the idea of compiling an Anthology of Persian poets for the Ukrainian reader (in collaboration with Mykola Ilnytsky). In the 60s and 70s, Polotniuk published translations of Rumi, Hafiz, Firdousi, and Saadi into Ukrainian. Since his student years, the scholar had been harbouring the idea of making a large-scale breakthrough into the Persian literature of India. And this breakthrough was made. In 1979, the Vsesvit journal published Tuti-Name, translated by Y. Polotniuk, and, a little later, Tuti-Name by the “Mughal” Mohammed Khodavend Kaderi with a thorough preface on the Persian literature of India. Among Polotniuk’s Arabic studies is a translation of the oldest suras of the Qur’an (which is the first attempt to give Ukrainian-speaking readers the opportunity to get acquainted with the Qur’anic verses translated from the Arabic original); materials on the history of Ukraine from the diary of Paul of Aleppo (“The Journey of Macarius III”), which he translated from original Arabic manuscripts stored in London and St. Petersburg; a thorough scientific commentary on the “Thousand and One Nights”.
At Lviv University, he taught modern and classical Persian, Persian calligraphy, Arabic, the history of The Persian literature, the culture of the Arab and Persian Muslim world, an introduction to the history of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asian countries, etc. He researched The Persian language and literature, Indian Farsi, Arab-Muslim and Persian-Muslim cultures. As an employee of the Museum of the History of Religion, with the assistance of museum workers and librarians, Y. Polotniuk organised practice for his students, where they read and described original oriental manuscripts. The young department formed by Polotniuk received rare editions of classics of The Persian literature from Iran, which he later donated to the library of Lviv University (more than 40 oriental manuscripts). In 2004, Y. Polotniuk became the first of ten specialists awarded by the decree of the Iranian government to receive a diploma from the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ahmed Masjed-Jamai.
Among the ascetics who contributed to the restoration and development of Orientalist studies at Lviv University through their tireless and sacrificial work was Roman Hamada. A constant and irreplaceable teacher of the history of The Persian literature, translation theory and practice, as well as specialised courses (Persian Humour, Practical Stylistics), he educated many generations of qualified orientalists, shaped their worldview and understanding of Iranian culture.
Undoubtedly, Roman Romanovych’s greatest passion and daily tireless work was translation. Guided by the same guideline as the founder of the Department of Oriental Studies, Yarema Polotniuk, he opened the veil of classical Persian literature for the Ukrainian reader. This is how Ukrainian translations of medieval Persian stories by Mohammed Aufi (12-13th centuries), Abdarrahman Jami’s The Spring Garden (15th century), Collected Stories and Luminaries of Tradition, Fascinating Stories and The Merry Book by Ali Safi (16th century), The Seven Cave-dwellers of Dakiyanus, and Iranian Folk Tales, addressed to readers of middle and high school age, appeared. The Bakhtiyar-nameh, a classic framed story from the 11th century, was also exceptional, translated from a manuscript copied in 1687 in India. Thanks to Roman Roman Hamada, Ukrainians were able to learn the peculiarity of oriental humour. Among the books available to Ukrainian readers are not only translations from Ali Safi (whose works are quite difficult to obtain even in Iran), but also “Elegant Jokes” by Ubeid Zakani (14th century), without exaggeration the most famous Persian satirist in history. This list is rightly crowned by the Anthology of Persian Humour, which includes not only the juiciest parts of the above works, but also jokes about Mullah Nasreddin, Kabus-nameh, Siyasat-nameh, and the already well-forgotten poetic translations by Yarema Polotniuk and Mykola Ilnytskyi. In 2016, in collaboration with Mykola Ilnytskyi, Roman Hamada published a complete translation of the world-famous poems of Saadi Shirazi (13th century).
Roman Hamada’s sophisticated, elegant, and most importantly, recognisable translation style has become the key to his success and recognition. For his outstanding achievements in the field of oriental studies and many years of work in the field of Ukrainian translation, Roman Hamada was awarded the Ars Translationis Literary Prize named after Mykola Lukash (1999), received the First Literary Prize of the Foundation of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1999). Mykola Lukash Literary Prize (1999), the First Volianyk-Szwabinski Foundation Literary Prize at the Ukrainian Free University Foundation in New York (2008), the Hryhoriy Skovoroda International Literary Prize “Garden of Divine Songs” (2014), and the Maksym Rylsky Literary Prize (2014). Roman Hamada’s achievements in the field of translation were marked by the Certificate of Honour of the Ministry of Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Special Gratitude of the Minister of Culture of Ukraine. A regular contributor to the journal of foreign literature Vsesvit, Roman Gamada was a member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine.
In 2018, to honour the memory of the outstanding translator and to celebrate highly artistic translations into Ukrainian, the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv together with the Union of Writers of Ukraine established the annual Roman Hamada Literary Prize. It ensures the continuity and passes the baton of the translation tradition of Lviv University from Yarema Polotniuk and Roman Hamada to the modern young translation pleiad.
The heads of the Department of Oriental Studies at different times were: Professor J. Dashkevych, Associate Professor J. Polotniuk, Professor F. Turanly, Professor V. Rybalkin, Associate Professor O. Zaburanna, and Associate Professor O. Maksymiv.
In the 2000s, the teaching staff was replenished with new pedagogical forces, graduates of the Department – Sviatoslav Horba, Nadiia Vyshnevska, Uliana Vytychak, Oksana Shchupakivska, Iryna Batiuk, Iryna Martyniak, Yuliia Dziabko, Andrii Matskevych, Solomiia Fatych and others.
In 2011, the department was named after its first head, Professor Yaroslav Dashkevych.
During the existence of the Department of Oriental Studies at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, which still remains the only centre of Oriental Studies in Western Ukraine, numerous works have been published, PhD theses have been defended (O. Zaburanna, O. Kshanovskyi, Y. Zaza, M. Stelmakh, I. Yaremchuk, O. Maksymiv, A. Matskevych, I. Martyniak, Y. Dziabko), and translation activities have been carried out.
Today, the department’s staff consists of more than 20 teachers (including native speakers) who provide training in the following oriental languages and literatures at the first (bachelor’s) and second (master’s) levels of higher education:
The Arabic language and literature;
The Chinese language and literature;
The Persian language and literature;
The Turkish language and literature;
The Japanese language and literature.