Peter Avery facts for kids
Peter William Avery OBE (born May 15, 1923 – died October 6, 2008) was a very important British expert on the Persian language. He was also a Fellow at King's College, Cambridge, which is a well-known university.
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Peter Avery's Work
Peter Avery helped create many English books about Persian history and literature. Some of his famous works include The Age of Expansion and Medieval Persia. He also wrote a book called Modern Iran.
One of his most well-known projects was translating the famous Persian poem Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. He worked on this with a poet named John Heath-Stubbs, and it was first published in 1979. They also worked together on "Thirty Poems of Hafiz of Shiraz," which was reprinted in 2006.
His last and biggest project was translating all the poems by Hafiz of Shiraz. This book, called The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz, came out in 2007. It won the Farabi prize and is currently the only complete English translation of Hafiz's poems. His translations always included many notes to help readers understand the old poems and what the poets expected people to know.
About Peter Avery's Life
Peter Avery was born in Derby and went to school in Birkenhead and Liverpool University. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Navy, which paused his studies. After the war, he continued his education at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, finishing in 1949.
He learned Arabic and Persian. Because he knew these languages, he became the main language trainer for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in Abadan, Iran. In 1951, the Iranian government took control of the oil industry. Peter Avery then moved to Baghdad, where he taught English.
In 1952, he published his first translations of Hafiz's poems with John Heath-Stubbs. In 1958, he became a Lecturer in Persian Language, Literature, and History at Cambridge University. He became a Fellow of King's College in 1964. He retired from teaching in 1990 but kept researching and writing as a Fellow. Even when he wasn't feeling well, he continued to lead a group that read Persian poetry until his last few months.
Books by Peter Avery
Here are some of the books Peter Avery wrote or helped create:
- Modern Iran, published by Praeger in 1965.
- The Cambridge History of Iran, which he edited with G. R. G. Hambly and C. Melville, published by Cambridge University Press in 1991. ISBN: 0-521-20095-4
- The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz, published by Archetype in 2007. ISBN: 1-901383-26-1 (hardcover); ISBN: 1-901383-09-1 (paperback). This translation was based on a specific edition of Hafiz's poems from Iran.
- The Speech of the Birds, Mantiqu't-Tair, of Faridu'd-Din 'Attar / Farid ad-Din Attar, published by The Islamic Texts Society in 1998. ISBN: 0-946621-69-1 (cloth), 0-946621-70-5 (paper).
Awards and Recognition
Peter Avery received two important awards for his work:
- The OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire), which he received in 2001.
- Iran's Farabi Prize, which he received in 2008.
See also
- Iranian Studies
