This department was established at the same time as the foundation of the University of Isfahan in 1958 with a B.A program. The purpose of launching this program was to do research on Persian language, scientific criticism and research on the history of Persian language and literature, description and interpretation of poetic literary masterpieces, research on Persian Literature from Antiquity to Modern Times as well as dealing with the works of great men in science, literature, wisdom, etc. The first M.A program and the first PhD program of the department were launched in 1991and 1995 respectively. Thanks to the scientific potential of the faculty members, M.A and PhD programs in Linguistics were launched in the department in 1992 and 1996 respectively. These two programs were transferred to the Faculty of Foreign Languages in 2006. The department also managed to get the required permissions from the Council for Higher Education Development to launch M.A and PhD programs in Teaching Persian Language and Literature to Non-Iranian Students in 2007 and 2008. The department submitted a request to launch programs in sub-disciplines of Lyric Literature, Epic Literature and Mystic Literature in 2010 and managed to obtain the required permissions in 2012.