Iranian scholar Parviz Rajabi dies at 72

TEHRAN,Feb.13(MNA) -- Renowned Iranologist and scholar Parviz Rajabi died as a result of cancer on Saturday. He was 72. Born in 1940 in a village near Quchan city in Khorasan, he passed his childhood in Aqkand village near Zanjan city. In 1964, he travelled Germany to continue his education and he got his Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen. He returned Iran and in 1975 he established the center for Iranology studies. Fourteen years later he went back to Germany for six years and he began to teach at the Marburg University and University of Göttingen. He returned Iran in 1995 and became the head of the Iranology department of the Great Islamic Encylopedia. He became paralyzed as a result of stroke in 2001 however he continued his studies and translation in his home. “If I don’t have hands to write, I would hold the pen with my mouth and write for my people,” Rajabi mentioned in a commemoration ceremony held by the Bokhara magazine in 2008. “Karim Khan Zand and His Time”, “Iranian Sands”, “Persepolis: The Court of History”, and “Missing Millenium” are among in his credits. He has also translated several books and travelogues written by the foreign Iranologists into Persian including Walther Hinz’s “Dariush and Persians”, Sven Hedin’s “Iranian Deserts”, “From Damavand to Desert” by Alfons Gabriel.