London, Oct 24, IRNA - The funeral service of distinguished Iranologist Professor Peter Avery was taking place in King's College Chapel at Cambridge University Friday.

Tributes were being paid to the 80-year old Persian scholar, who died earlier this month and was considered as one of the world's foremost experts on the history and literature of Iran.

"Peter's death means the passing of a unique and utterly distinctive aspect of life at King's," said King's College Provost Ross Harrison.

"Peter Avery taught Persian language and literature to generations of students, but more than that he imbued them with a love of the subject and communicated his own enthusiasm for it"' said his colleague, Professor Charles Melville.

"For many Iranians too, Peter Avery 'was' Cambridge and his rooms in King's College were a corner of Iran," said Melville, who is Fellow and Director of Oriental Studies at Cambridge's Pembroke College.

Tributes were also paid by Iranian Ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian, who recently presented the scholar with a prestigious award from the First International Farabi Festival for devotion to studying humanities including the Persian literature and history.

"His endeavour in introducing Iranian civilization, culture and literature to British public and scholars in the last half century and his constructive role in creating a better understanding between our two nations has been unique and praiseworthy," Movahedian said.

He also said he would like to extend his heartfelt condolences on the occasion of his demise to all his colleagues, family and friends.

Avery graduated from London University's School of Oriental and African Studies reading Arabic and Persian in 1949 and initially worked as Educational Liaison Officer with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

Later he became a university lecturer in Persian language at Cambridge, where he authored several books on the history of Iran including the "The Age of Expansion and Medieval Persia" and "Modern Iran" published in 1965.

The professor also translated such lasting Iranian masterpieces as the Hafez Book of Poems, Attar Neishabouri's "Manteq Al-Teir" (Conference of the Birds) and Omar Khayyam's Quatrains, first published in 1979.

During his career, he served as one of the members of the editorial board of the multi-volume "Cambridge History of Iran" and edited its final volume entitled "From Nader Shah to the Islamic Republic" published in 1991.

... Payvand News - 10/24/08 ... --