Peter Avery

Peter Avery in his office in the King's College,Cambridgeposing in front of the Persian history and literature. New Year table ofHaft-SeenBy:Ali Akbar Abdolrashidi

Peter William AveryOBE(15 May 1923 – 6 October 2008) was an eminentBritishscholar ofPersianand a Fellow ofKing's College, Cambridge.

Career

Peter Avery in a TV interview with the Iranian journalist,Ali Akbar Abdolrashidi

Avery contributed to English language work on Persian history and literature, such asThe Age of ExpansionandMedieval Persiaand publishedModern Iran.One of Avery's best known works is a translation (with poetJohn Heath-Stubbs) of the Persian text ofRubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,first published in 1979. Also with John Heath-Stubbs, Avery published "Thirty Poems of Hafiz of Shiraz", reprinted in 2006.His final work, and the culmination of his career, was a translation of the complete lyrics of Hafiz,The Collected Lyrics ofHafiz of Shiraz,published in 2007,which was awarded the Farabi prize and is currently the only contemporary complete translation in English. His translations are published with copious notes explaining allusions in the text and filling in what the poets would have expected their readers to know.

Life

Avery was born inDerbyand educated at Rock Ferry High School,BirkenheadandLiverpool University.War Servicein theRoyal Navyinterrupted his studies, which he resumed after the war at theLondon School of Oriental and African Studies,graduating in 1949. He learnedArabicand Persian and knowledge of these led to his appointment as chief language training officer with theAnglo-Iranian Oil CompanyinAbadan,South-West Iran. In 1951 the government of Iran nationalised the oil industry and Avery moved toBaghdad,where he taught English. In 1952, he published, with John Heath-Stubbs his first translations of Hafiz. In 1958 he was appointed Lecturer in Persian Language Literature and History at Cambridge University, becoming a Fellow of King's College in 1964. He retired from the Lectureship in 1990, but continued researching and writing as a Fellow of King's,and continued to lead an informal reading group in Persian poetry, despite ill health, until his last months.

Selected works

• Modern Iran,Praeger, 1965.
• The Cambridge History of Iran,edited by P. Avery, G. R. G. Hambly and C. Melville, Cambridge University Press (1991)ISBN0-521-20095-4.
• Peter Avery,The Collected Lyrics ofHafiz of Shiraz,603 p. (Archetype, Cambridge, UK, 2007).ISBN1-901383-26-1hb;ISBN1-901383-09-1pb
  Note: This translation is based onDivān-e Hāfez,Volume 1,The Lyrics (Ghazals),edited byParviz Natel-Khanlari(Tehran,Iran,1362AH/1983-4).
• Peter Avery,The Speech of the Birds, Mantiqu't-Tair, of Faridu'd-Din 'Attar /Farid ad-Din Attar,560 p. (The Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge, UK, 1998).ISBN0-946621-69-1(cloth), 0-946621-70-5 (paper).

Awards

• OBE,received in 2001.
• Iran's Farabi Prize, received in 2008.

See also

• Iranian Studies