Bibliographia Iranica – A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

The Frontier Pushes Back
Garosi, Eugenio. 2025. The frontier pushes back: From local languages to imperial substrate(s) in scribal practices in 8th-century Central Asia. Iranian Studies FirstView. 1–15.
This article draws on documentary texts from multilingual archives of early Islamic Central Asia to illustrate connections between the Arabic and Middle Iranian scribal world. Here, I contend that some lesser-known evidence from Sogdia contributes new elements to current debates on the contact between Arabic and Middle Iranian scribal traditions and provides a measure of “intensity” of Arab rule in the region more generally. In particular, ostraca from various Transoxanian administrative centers provide documentary confirmation that a class of biliterate Arabic-Sogdian scribes was active in the local bureaucracy as early as the mid-8th century. When viewed in dialogue with archives from coeval Iran and Iraq, the Transoxanian evidence helps lead to a more nuanced understanding of the so-called “Pahlavi diplomatic substrate” model.
Abstract
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13/05/2025
Studia Iranica (52/1)
The new issue of Studia Iranica is out (volume 52, issue 1). Here is the table of contents:
- Maryam NOURZAEI, Thomas JÜGEL: On the Function of -ag in Middle Persian. Evaluative Marker or Derivational Suffix?
- Parviz MOHEBBI: Sweet Orange and Mandarin in Iran and India (14th-19th Centuries) with a Glimpse at Europe
- Piero DONNINI: Khayyām Literacy among Turkman Copyists
- Willem FLOOR: Trois Rapports inédits de fonctionnaires belges concernant l’occupation ottomane (1907) et russe (1911) du territoire iranien
- Comptes rendus
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12/05/2025
An Early Judeo-Persian Rabbanite Text
Bernard, Chams Benoît. 2025. An Early Judeo-Persian Rabbanite Text: Vat. Pers. 61, Its Linguistic Variety, Its Arabic Vocabulary, and the Targum Onqelos. Journal of Jewish Languages 1–55.
Vat. Pers. 61, found in the Vatican library, is a Judeo-Persian translation of the Torah. It has been variously described as a 13th, 14th, or 15th century text. This study aims to more accurately pinpoint its age and establish whether it is a direct translation of the Masoretic Text or whether it is based on Targum Onqelos. Based on a limited corpus of this manuscript (the Decalogue and a few other verses), this study also provides a more detailed description of the language variety of the manuscript and discusses the Aramaic and Arabic loanwords found in it. The study concludes that Vat. Pers. 61 is largely based on Targum Onqelos, and the language of the text is found to be generally pre-Mongolian Early Judeo-Persian, which is rare for a religious Rabbanite text.
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08/05/2025
Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92)
Barnea, Gad. 2025. Imitatio Dei, Imitatio Darii: Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92). Religions 16(5), 597.
The Bīsotūn inscription of Darius I (DB) is a masterpiece of ancient literature containing descriptions of historical events, imperial propaganda, cultic statements, ethical instructions, wisdom insights, blessings and curses, and engagements with posterity. It was disseminated far and wide within the empire and left a lasting impression on the cultures with which it came into contact. However, a specific section of this royal inscription (DB 4:36–92), carefully crafted to address future audiences in the second person, stands out sharply from the rest of the text. This passage has made a striking, profound, and durable impression on future generations—which extended over the longue durée in both time and space. This article focuses on the decisive cultic theme undergirding DB in general and its fourth column in particular namely, the king’s profound sense of imitatio dei in the cosmic battle against “the Lie,” complemented by his appeal to an imitatio Darii by all future audiences of his words. The impact of this call can be traced in later literature: in a DB variant found at Elephantine and, most notably, a hitherto unknown exegetical legend found in Qumran, which seeks to explain this portion of DB through an Achaemenid court tale.
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06/05/2025
New Readings in Seven Middle Persian Documents
Asefi, Nima. 2025. New readings in seven Middle Persian documents from the archive of Hastijan with an edition of Berk. 19. Berkeley Working Papers in Middle Iranian Philology 3(5). 1-19.
This article proposes new readings and interpretations for parts of seven Middle Persian documents first published by Dieter Weber, namely: Berk. 80, Berk. 95, Berk. 43B, Tehran B, LA1, Berk. 149, and Berlin 28. It also provides the editio princeps of Berk. 19.
Abstract
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25/04/2025
Zoroastrian Conversations S02 E01
Prof. Yuhan S.–D. Vevaina will open the first episode of the second season of ‘Zoroastrian Conversations’ with Prof. Almut Hintze, Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism at SOAS, University of London, Co-Chair of the SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute, and Fellow of the British Academy.
Date:
Saturday, 26 April 2025
Time:
9 AM Pacific | 12 Noon Eastern | 5 PM London | 9:30 PM Mumbai
Zoom meeting ID: 863 7776 2243 Passcode: FEZANA.
Zoom and other information: https://fezana.org/conversations/
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24/04/2025
The Achaemenid Persian Empire and its Non-Western Borderlands: A Change of Paradigm
The conference will once again centre on the Achaemenid Empire and those borderlands that research has only sporadically looked at so far: the Central Asian east, India and the Indian Ocean in the south-east, as well as the steppe regions in the north and north-east. The focus here is on interactions not only in spatial but also in temporal dimensions and thus on the systematic recording of innovations, breaks and continuities.
Organized by Robert Rollinger
Fri 21 November – Sat 22 November, 2025
Innsbruck, Austria
Ágnes-Heller-Haus (Innrain 52a)
Program:
Opening
10:00-10:30 Welcome Address
Brigitte Truschnegg (Innsbruck) | Dean of Studies, Faculty of Philosophy
and History
Robert Rollinger (Innsbruck) | Organizer
Section 1
Chair: Melanie Malzahn (Vienna)
10:30-11:15 Formation of Frontier: New archaeological perspectives on nomadic-sedentary interaction between Lake Aral and Sogdiana (800-500 BCE)
Sören Stark (New York)
11:15-12:00 The Imperial State/Political Formation of the Achaemenids. Nomads, Frontiers and Empires, between Central Asia and the Steppes
Bruno Genito (Naples)

12:00-13:00 Lunch Break

Section 2
Chair: M. Rahim Shayegan (Los Angeles)
13:00-13:45 Local Evolutions of Central Asian Polities during the Achaemenid Period
Johanna Lhuillier (Lyon)

13:45-14:30 The Northern Frontiers in History and Myth
Anca Dan (Paris)
14:30-15:00 Coffee Break
Section 3
Chair: Bernhard Palme (Vienna) & Suchandra Ghosh (Hyderabad)
15:45-16:30 Persians in Northern Gandhara: An Achaemenid Mirage?
Elisa Iori (Venice), co-authors Omar Coloru (Bari) & Luca Maria Olivieri (Venice)

15:00-15:45 The Vine of the King: Monarchic Ideology between the Iranian and Indian Worlds
Claudia Antonetti (Venice)

16:30-17:00 Coffee Break
Section 4
Chair: Florian Schwarz (Vienna) & Josef Wiesehöfer (Kiel)
17:00-17:45 Cultural Heritage as Political Negotiation on the Boundaries of the Achaemenid Empire
Jenn Finn (Chicago)

17:45-18:30 Alexander, India and Western Asia Minor: Imperial Borderlands in Comparison
Julian Degen (Innsbruck)
18:30 Buffet
Saturday, Nov 22
Section 5
Chair: Nina Mirnig (Vienna) & Robin Coningham (Durham)
09:30-10:15 The Mauryas and Achaemenids: Looking afresh at old Theories
Upinder Singh (Sonipat)
10:15-11:00 The Impact of Achaemenid Writing in India and the Linguistic Background to the Aramaic Ashoka Inscriptions
Holger Gzella (Munich)

11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
Section 6
Chair: Wu Xin (Bryn Mawr)
11:30-12:15 A Kingdom of Clay (and Parchment): Tracing the Indus Province through Parsa Administration
Gian Pietro Basello (Naples)

12:15-13:00 How Persian was Chorasmia? Reassessing the Achaemenid Imprint in Northeastern Central Asia through Fieldwork
Michele Minardi (Naples)

13:00-14:00 Lunch Break

Section 7
Chair: Touraj Daryaee (Irvine)
14:00-14:45 Connecting Centres and Borderlands: The Upper Satrapies as Hubs of Routes
Hilmar Klinkott (Kiel)
14:45-15:30 Revolt and Sedition in the Eastern Satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire: An Unsolvable Mystery?
Orestis Belogiannis (Strasbourg)
15:30-16:00 Coffee Break
Section 8
Chair: Kai Ruffing (Kassel)
16:00-16:45 Persian Elites and the Achaemenid Northeast: Negotiating Power in the Borderlands
Yazdan Safaee (Innsbruck)
16:45-17:30 Interaction between Central Asia and the Achaemenid Empire
Jan Tavernier (Louvain)
17:30-18:00 Concluding Remarks | Robert Rollinger (Innsbruck)
19:00 Conference Dinner
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24/04/2025
Between the Tigris and Zagros
Peyronel, Luca. 2025. Entre le Tigre et le Zagros. Les recherches archéologiques de la mission italienne de l’Université de Milan dans la plaine d’Erbil (Kurdistan irakien). ArchéOrient – Le Blog.
About ArchéOrient – Le Blog
ArchéOrient-Le Blog is run by members of the « Archéorient » research centre of the University of Lyon 2 (CNRS/University Lyon 2), based at the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée (Lyon, France). The blog aims to promote exchanges and to give greater visibility to new scientific information in the field of archaeology and history of societies and environments during the Holocene in the Mediterranean, the Near and Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and more recently, the Horn of Africa and West Africa. This Blog is open to all representatives of the international scientific community and welcomes contributions in French and English.
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18/04/2025
Summer School of Oriental Languages
The Summer School in Oriental Languages is a unique opportunity to study languages and scripts that are often described as rare, even though they are spoken or have been spoken by millions of speakers, in the form of major and minor courses. This summer school offers top-level teaching and the most recent research findings in Oriental languages and literature, with ECTS credits awarded upon validation.
From the website
The Summer School of Oriental Languages is organised by the University of Lausanne and will be held at the Venice International University (Italy), from 10–19 July 2025.
For more information about the programme, registration, and ECTS requirements visit the website. The deadline for registration is 30 May 2025.
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17/04/2025
Greek Citizenship under Arsacid Rule
Nabel, Jake. 2025. The verb empoliteuō and Greek citizenship under Arsacid rule. Classical Journal 120(3). 249–276.
The primary translation for the ancient Greek verb ἐμπολιτεύω in several dictionaries is “to be a citizen, have civil rights.” That definition is untenable. The connotations of ἐμπολιτεύω for citizen status are usually indeterminate, but where they are clear, the verb has the opposite meaning and refers to non-citizens rather than citizens. This sense is crucial to the study of Greek citizenship in the Arsacid empire, because ἐμπολιτεύω appears twice in a key passage from Josephus on Greco-Babylonian relations in the poleis of Arsacid Mesopotamia. The verb’s dictionary definition has led some historians to the conclusion that non-Greeks were citizens of these poleis. Along with local evidence in Akkadian, a review of ἐμπολιτεύω‘s appearances in literature and epigraphy suggests the opposite.
Abstract
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16/04/2025