Peter Avery

Peter William Avery OBE (15 May 1923 – 6 October 2008) was an eminent British scholar of Persian and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

Avery contributed to English language work on Persian history and literature, such as The Age of Expansion and Medieval Persia and published Modern Iran.

One of Avery's best known works is a translation (with poet John Heath-Stubbs) of the Persian text of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, first published in 1979.

He learned Arabic and Persian and knowledge of these led to his appointment as chief language training officer with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan, South-West Iran.

In 1958 he was appointed Lecturer in Persian Language Literature and History at Cambridge University, becoming a Fellow of King's College in 1964.