TEHRAN-The veteran linguist and Iranologist Zohreh Zarshenas was commemorated at a ceremony held at the House of Humanities Thinkers in Tehran on Sunday.

At the ceremony organized by Bukhara Magazine, the Society of Iranian studies and Farvahar Publication, Zarshenas was honored for her valuable research in the fields of culture and linguistics, and especially the Sogdian language, IRNA reported.

The Sogdian language was an Eastern Iranian language spoken mainly in the Central Asian region of Sogdia, located in modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan; it was also spoken by some Sogdian immigrant communities in ancient China. Sogdian is one of the most important Middle Iranian languages, along with Bactrian, Khotanese Saka, Middle Persian, and Parthian. It possesses a large literary corpus.

Zarshenas, 72, holds a PhD degree in ancient languages and culture from the University of Tehran. She has served as a professor at several universities and institutes, teaching Avestan, Sogdian, Manichean Middle Persian, Manichean Parthian and Iranology.

She has written more than 80 articles in Persian and English, which have been published both inside Iran and abroad. She has also authored over 10 books.

The renowned scholar is a member of Societas Iranologica Europaea, an international academic society in the field of Iranian Studies.

SS/SAB