TEHRAN -- Several cultural heritage institutions are to pay tribute to ancient inscriptions expert Abdolmajid Arfaei at the Apadana Hotel on December 21.

The Pars Architects’ Society, The Parseh and Pasargadae Research Foundation and The Farpad Association are scheduled to cosponsor the ceremony which will be held near the ancient complex of Persepolis, the Persian service of CHN reported on Saturday.
Arfaei is an expert on the Avestan, Pahlavi and Elamite languages.
Born in 1939 in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, Arfaei studied Persian literature in Dar-ul-Fonun, an advanced school established by the Qajar king Nasser ad-Din Shah’s Chancellor Mirza Taqi Farahani (Amir Kabir).
Afterwards, he left Iran for the United States to resume his studies and obtained a Ph.D. from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago in 1974.
His doctorate thesis on the topic of Fars geography was based on clay inscriptions discovered at Persepolis.
Founder of the Inscriptions Hall at the National Museum of Iran, Arfaei is author of “The Decree of Cyrus the Great”, a book giving a unique elucidation of the Cyrus the Great Cylinder which is inscribed with what is considered to be the world’s first charter of human rights.
He has also participated in deciphering Mesopotamian legal inscriptions