Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Category: Books

  • Ancient Iran in the ISAC Museum

    Ancient Iran in the ISAC Museum

    Alizadeh, Abbas. 2026. Ancient Iran in the ISAC Museum: From Prehistory to the Achaemenid Period (ISACMP 3). Chigago: University of Chigago Press.

    Discover the splendor of ancient Iran through a stunning selection of artifacts from the Robert and Deborah Aliber Persian Gallery at the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) Museum. Featuring a wide array of objects—from finely worked metal and ceramics to monumental stone carvings—this volume reveals the artistic achievements and cultural depth of a region that flourished for millennia. Most of the objects were excavated between 1931 and 1972 during ISAC’s expeditions, which investigated sites ranging from the prehistoric settlements of Chogha Mish, Tall-e Bakun A and B, and Tall-e Geser to Surkh Dum-i-Luri in Luristan and the imperial center of Persepolis. Together, they form the largest and most comprehensive collection of ancient Iranian material in the United States. At once visually striking and academically rigorous, this volume highlights the richness of ancient Iran’s many traditions and the enduring impact of its artistic and cultural achievements.

  • Indo-Aryans in the Bronze Age

    Indo-Aryans in the Bronze Age

    Grigoriev, Stanislav. 2026. Indo-Aryans in the Bronze Age. Bicester: Archaeopress.

    This book challenges the steppe-origin theory of Indo-Aryans, arguing their homeland was in NW Iran. Using linguistic, genetic, and archaeological data, it traces migrations from Iran to Central Asia, India, and beyond during the 3rd millennium BC, shaping Indo-Aryan dialects.

    This volume is devoted to the origins and early history of the Indo-Aryans. According to the generally accepted theory, they originated in the Eurasian steppe, from where they subsequently migrated to the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau. However, evidence to support these developments is lacking. The author has collected linguistic, palaeogenetic and archaeological data to reconstruct the processes that occurred in the Eneolithic and Bronze Age over large areas of Eurasia, demonstrating that the ancestral homeland of the Indo-Iranians was in Northwestern Iran. From there some migrated to Southeastern Iran, which led to the emergence of Indo-Aryan dialects around the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, the migration of Indo-Aryan tribes to the north-east of Iran and Central Asia began, which later culminated with migration to India, as well as to the Near East, Eastern Europe, the Southern Urals and, occasionally, to Southern Siberia.

  • The Birth of Persian Art (c. 550–486 BC)

    The Birth of Persian Art (c. 550–486 BC)

    Álvarez-Mon, Javier. 2026. The birth of Persian art (c. 550–486 BC). London: Routledge.

    The Birth of Persian Art (c. 550–486 BC) offers a bold reappraisal of one of the most formative periods in ancient art history, revealing how artistic innovation helped forge one of antiquity’s most influential empires.

    This volume shows how Persian art evolved from local traditions into a sophisticated imperial visual language, highlighting the revolutionary developments at Pasargadae, the influence of broader cultural landscapes, and the impact of Elamite heritage. Richly illustrated, it foregrounds the often-overlooked value of the artistic record as a historical source, providing insights into the role of visual culture not merely as a reflection of imperial ideology but as an active medium through which cultural integration, negotiation, and innovation took place. From Persian mountain valleys to remote Egyptian desert oases, and to Greek-culture infused western Anatolian cities, The Birth of Persian Art (c. 550–486 BC) revolutionizes perceptions and understandings of Persian art and the Persian people like never before, offering a fresh lens through which to view the formative period of the Persian empire.

    Written for scholars and students of ancient art history, archaeology, and Near Eastern studies, it will also appeal to museum curators and art historians focusing on ancient Iran, Mesopotamia, and the broader Mediterranean.

  • Gold, Silver and Glass

    Gold, Silver and Glass

    Simpson, St John (ed.). 2026.Gold, silver and glass: Power networks, cultural identities, technology transfers and agency across the old world (7th century BC – 1st century AD). Bicester: Archaeopress.

    This volume explores how precious materials shaped power, identity and cultural exchange in the ancient world from the 7th century BC to early Roman times. Growing out of the British Museum special exhibition Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece, it brings together new perspectives on technology, value and artistic interaction from Greece to China.

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  • In memory of Philippe Gignoux

    In memory of Philippe Gignoux

    Gyselen, Rika (ed.). 2024. Administrations et préposés d’époque sassanide: Nouvelles données à la mémoire de Philippe Gignoux (Cahiers de Studia Iranica 66). Paris: Association pour l’avancement des études iraniennes.

    This volume brings together studies based on primary sources, often unpublished, which highlight important aspects of the administration of the Sasanian Empire. Some complete our knowledge on the territorial establishment of the various administrations and of the mints, others deal with the actors of these institutions such as the magi and the scribes. The sources used are mainly seals and seal impressions on clay bullae.

    Summary
  • Text, script and language in Bactria and Serindia

    Text, script and language in Bactria and Serindia

    Ching, Chao-jung & Michaël Peyrot (eds.). 2026. Text, script and language in Bactria and Serindia. Papers on cultural and linguistic interactions in pre-Islamic Central Asia (Beiträge zur Iranistik 55). Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.

    This collective volume unites ten papers by international specialists in history, philology, linguistics, palaeography and archaeology, dealing with texts written in Bactrian, Khotanese, Tumshuqese, Tocharian, and Gāndhārī (Niya-Prakrit) from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Northwest China, as well as with classical Chinese Buddhist scriptures and the newly discovered Almosi inscriptions of Tajikistan. With studies of the Kharoṣṭhī, Brāhmī, Graeco-Bactrian scripts and the “unknown Kushan script”, the book presents important advances in longstanding problems of Central Asian philology. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students working on cultural and linguistic interactions in Kushan and post-Kushan times.

    Table of Contents

    • Ching Chao-jung: Bactria and Tukharistan in Chinese Buddhist scriptures: A case study of three Vibhāṣā texts
    • Alessandro Del Tomba: A comparative study of the Mahāvaidehaghr̥ta in Sanskrit, Khotanese, and Tocharian B
    • Federico Dragoni: Was the Khotanese Brāhmī subscript hook borrowed from the Kharoṣṭhī anusvāra?
    • Pavel B. Lurje: The “Unknown script” of Bactria: Unpublished materials and fresh interpretations
    • Francesca Michetti: On the origin of Bactrian final –ο
    • Miyamoto Ryoichi: Notes on Wakhsh and Rām-sēt in the Bactrian documents
    • Ogihara Hirotoshi: A new look at ownership clauses in Tumshukese sale contracts
    • Michaël Peyrot: On the so-called “Fremdvokal” ä in Tocharian and Khotanese and its origins
    • Niels Schoubben: Gāndhārī light on Eastern Middle Iranian and vice versa: Three new examples
    • Nicholas Sims-Williams: The Bactrian inscription of Ayrtam: A minimal reading
  • The diversification of Indo-Iranian and the position of the Nuristani languages

    The diversification of Indo-Iranian and the position of the Nuristani languages

    Halfmann, Jakob. 2025. The diversification of Indo-Iranian and the position of the Nuristani languages (Beiträge Zur Iranistik 54). Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.

    This book offers a new approach to the long-standing problem of the genealogical affiliation of the Nuristani languages, a small group of closely related languages spoken in the Eastern Hindu Kush, within the Indo-Iranian subgroup of Indo-European. This topic is approached via a step-by-step examination of the crucial isoglosses, while taking into account more sample data than was available to previous researchers. The author concludes that the Nuristani languages were likely historically more closely affiliated with the Iranian than the Indo-Aryan subgroup, though they must have been isolated from the Iranian continuum early on and subsequently have come under intense contact influence from Indo-Aryan languages.

  • Gāthās of Zarathuštra

    Gāthās of Zarathuštra

    Kellens, Jean. 2026. Les Gâthâs attribuées à Zarathuštra. Aux origines de l’Avesta et de la religion zoroastrienne. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

    At the source of the Avesta, the collection of the oldest sacrificial recitations of the Zoroastrian religion, one finds a small corpus of poems, the Gāthās—“songs” composed in a particularly archaic language. These venerable chants are regarded by the faithful as the very work of the founding prophet, Zarathustra, and this act of faith is largely endorsed by many representatives of contemporary scholarship. These are difficult texts, with complex grammar and sophisticated rhetoric, which have inspired many learned interpretations but only rare attempts at popularization, often driven by the desire to turn them into distant mirrors in which our own image is reflected. The translation offered in this volume, and the clarifications that accompany it, aim to make this corpus readable while preserving the originality of a voice that comes from the depths of time and is not addressed to us.

    The translator, Jean Kellens, is a leading scholar in Avestan studies. Professor emeritus at the Collège de France, he held the Chair of Indo-Iranian Languages and Religions from 1993 to 2014. In his work, he seeks to shed light, through comparison, on the earliest literatures of India and Iran.

  • Debating Cyrus

    Debating Cyrus

    Johnson, David M., Gabriel Alexander Danzig and Rodrigo Illarraga (eds.). 2026. Debating Cyrus: Leadership in Xenophon’s ›Cyropaedia‹ (Xenophon Studies 2). Berlin: De Gruyter.

    Is Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great the model leader he seems to be, or does his apparent success actually demonstrate the dangers of imperialism and one-man rule?

    Debating Cyrus gathers contributions from many of the world’s leading scholars in Xenophontic Studies, and features scholars with a wide range of approaches to reading classical texts. Our essays discuss the surprisingly subtle techniques Xenophon employs, and study topics including ambition, the rule of law, hunting, tragedy, romance, and the use Cyrus makes of love and fear. A cluster of essays considers Cyrus’ one apparent failure — the failure to ensure his kingdom will prosper after him. Other essays show what we can learn about the Cyropaedia by comparing it to other works by Xenophon and his contemporaries.

    Our aim is not to resolve the debate about Cyrus, a debate that will live on as long as readers care about Xenophon’s magisterial account of the founder of the greatest empire of his day and disagree about what sort of leadership to expect from a leader like Cyrus. Our goal is to prepare readers to engage in the debate themselves.

  • Herodotus and Women

    Herodotus and Women

    Zaccarini, Matteo. 2024. Erodoto e le donne: La presenza femminile nelle Storie. Rome: Carocci.

    Elena partì da Sparta con i Troiani, ma, forse, fu una fuga volontaria più che un rapimento. La regina di Lidia, disonorata dal marito, congegnò una vendetta esemplare e teatrale. L’etera Rodopi, in origine una schiava, divenne una figura leggendaria grazie alla fama e a un monumento eccezionali. L’uomo più potente al mondo, il Gran Re persiano Serse, rischiò la rovina per via della rivalità tra donne di corte. In Grecia i Persiani furono sconfitti, ma la straordinaria Artemisia, unica donna tra le loro fila, uscì vincitrice su tutti. A guardar bene poi, la vittoria dei Greci fu dovuta anche a una bambina prodigio, Gorgo. E così via. Attraverso figure femminili ordinarie o eccezionali, le Storie di Erodoto indagano gli aspetti più profondi della natura umana, costruiscono un universo complesso e sfaccettato, insinuano il dubbio sul senso delle grandi guerre e sulle gesta dei grandi uomini. Di volta in volta con sottigliezza, ironia, tragica consapevolezza e incredibile modernità. Prima monografia sul tema, il volume analizza la narrazione del “padre della Storia” sul femminile e ripensa gli stereotipi sulla misoginia degli antichi Greci.