Ilya Gershevitch (1914 in Zurich ? 2001 in Cambridge ) was a noted Iranologist .

Gershevitch was born to Russian parents fleeing from Germany to Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I . He enrolled in the University of Rome in 1933, and moved to England in 1938. In 1948, he became the first holder of a new Lectureship in Iranian Studies at Cambridge University . He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1967 and later a corresponding member of both the Accademia dei Lincei and the Russian Academy. In 1971 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Berne .

His work includes pioneering studies of the Bashkardi dialect, the decipherment of Bactrian , besides contributions to Sogdian and Avestan philology, Ossetic , Elamite and Zoroastrian studies and Achaemenid history.

External links [ edit ]

• TITUS-Galeria: Gershevitch
• Gerhevitch : Ilya Gershevitch, 1914-2001 - address given by Nicholas Sims-Williams at the memorial service in the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge, on 6 October 2001