Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

  • Moses and Garšāsp

    Ehsani Chombeli, Azadeh. 2020. Moses and Garšāsp, Ardašīr and Herod: Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud in their Iranian context (Zoroastrian Studies Series 5). Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers.

    This book offers a comparative study between a number of Talmudic and Middle Persian narratives. The present work seeks first and foremost to examine Talmudic narratives in their Iranian context, and secondly to examine the Talmudic background of Iranian narratives where applicable.
    The first and second chapters will offer an analysis of the alteration of historical and Biblical figures in the Bavli (the Babylonian Talmud) based on the influence of Iranian mythical and historical figures, while the third chapter will provide an account of how Iranists can learn from Talmudic studies. Here we suggest that a Talmudic narrative may have encouraged Zoroastrian priests to compose an extensive work of religious literature, namely the Ardā Wīrāz-nāmag, an idea which will be further explored in the appendix.

    Azadeh Ehsani has a PhD in religion from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada (2018) and an MA in ancient languages and culture of Iran with a focus on Middle Persian (Pahlavi) from Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies University in Tehran, Iran (2005).

  • Rome and Persia at War

    Edwell, Peter. 2020. Rome and Persia at War: Imperial Competition and Contact, 193-363 CE. New York and London: Routledge.

    This book focuses on conflict, diplomacy and religion as factors in the relationship between Rome and Sasanian Persia in the third and fourth centuries AD. During this period, military conflict between Rome and Sasanian Persia was at a level and depth not seen mostly during the Parthian period. At the same time, contact between the two empires increased markedly and contributed in part to an increased level of conflict. Edwell examines both war and peace – diplomacy, trade and religious contact – as the means through which these two powers competed, and by which they sought to gain, maintain and develop control of territories and peoples who were the source of dispute between the two empires. The volume also analyses internal factors in both empires that influenced conflict and competition between them, while the roles of regional powers such as the Armenians, Palmyrenes and Arabs in conflict and contact between the two “super powers” receive special attention. Using a broad array of sources, this book gives special attention to the numismatic evidence as it has tended to be overshadowed in modern studies by the literary and epigraphic sources.

    This is the first monograph in English to undertake an in-depth and critical analysis of competition and contact between Rome and the early Sasanians in the Near East in the third and fourth centuries AD using literary, archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic evidence, and one which includes the complete range of mechanisms by which the two powers competed. It is an invaluable study for anyone working on Rome, Persia and the wider Near East in Late Antiquity.

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  • Parthica (VOL. 21)

    Volume 21 of the journal “Parthica” (2019) contains several contributions of relevance to Iranian Studies.

    Table of contents:

    • K. ABDULLAEV: Symbols associated with temples and altars in the Middle East and Iran
    • L. OVERTOOM: A Reconsideration of Mithridates II’s Early Reign: A “Savior” Restores the Eastern Frontier of the Parthian Empire
    • R. MENEGAZZI: Beyond terracotta: observations on the bone and stone figurines from Seleucia on the Tigris
    • E. PAPPALARDO, V. MESSINA: The Maenad and the muse connectivity and appropriation of models in Hellenizing Mesopotamia and Parthia. Two case-studies from Seleucia on the Tigris and Old Nisa
    • W. AL-SALIHI: Remarks on the plan of the Temple of the Triad at Hatra
    • C. LIPPOLIS: Le acque di Nisa – Mitridatocerta (Turkmenistan)
    • C. LIPPOLIS, M. MAMEDOV, J. BRUNO, G. PATRUCCO: Preliminary note on the 2019 archaeological campaign of the Italian-Turkmen archaeological expedition to Old Nisa (Turkmenistan)
    • E. PAPPALARDO Il viaggio del Centauro. Arcesilao e la circolazione di modelli fra oriente e occidente
    • Y. MORADI Epigraphical and iconographical analysis of a Parthian bas-relief from Javanroud, Western Iran (with a note on the inscription by Seiro Haruta)
    • S. STARK, D. MIRZAAKHMEDOV, F. KIDD, S. MIRZAAKHMEDOV: New finds of terracotta figurines from Western (Bukharan) Sogdiana
    • Y. MORADI, M. COMPARETI: A Sasanian figured relief plaque from Taq-e Bostan

  • The New Testament Gospels in Manichaean Tradition

    Pedersen, N. A. R. Falkenberg, J. M. Larsen & C. Leurini (eds.). 2020. The New Testament Gospels in Manichaean tradition: The sources in Syriac, Greek, Coptic, Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Bactrian, New Persian, and Arabic (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum: Series Biblia Manichaica, 2). Turnhout: Brepols.

    Biblia Manichaica is a reference work citing all biblical quotations and allusions in the Manichaean sources as far as they are available in editions. The second volume covers Manichaean texts in Greek, Coptic, Semitic, and Iranian languages. The reference work includes an introductory chapter and appendices on the Manichaean use of the Gospel of Thomas and Diatessaron.

  • Publications on Sogdian

    Publications on Sogdian

    We are delighted to host another article by Adam Benkato, our long-standing collaborator and friend.

    In Some Data on Publications on Sogdian, Adam uses his extensive bibliography of Sogdian philology, containing 624 entries for publications from 1904 to 2020, to show ‘how a field has grown or developed over time’.

    He had previously published this article on his own website but has now moved it to Bibliographia Iranica, where we are planning to host a series of publications on bibliographies. Stay tuned for more from Adam and others.

  • Dinars and Dirhams

    Daryaee, Touraj, Judith A. Lerner & Virginie C. Rey (eds.). 2020. Dinars and Dirhams: Festschrift in honor of Michael L. Bates. Irvine: Jordan Center for Persian Studies.

    The present volume is dedicated to Michael L. Bates, Curator Emeritus of Islamic Coins at the American Numismatic Society. For more than forty years, Michael has been a major figure in the field of Islamic numismatics through his writing, teaching, and being a resource for scholars, students and collectors. The list of contributors to this volume and the range of their contributions are testament to Michael’s continued and vital influence on numismatic and historical studies.

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  • Zagros Studies

    Eidem, Jesper. 2020. Zagros studies: Proceedings of the NINO jubilee conference and other research on the Zagros region (PIHANS 130). Leuven: Peeters.

    Zagros Studies contains nine articles on the archaeology and history of the Zagros Region in Iraq. Five of these are expanded versions of papers that were delivered at a conference celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) in December 2014. The other articles present results of the NINO archaeological project on the Rania Plain, and new investigations on the Shemshara Hills and other sites on the plain, which are threatened by Lake Dokan; a spectacular terracotta “tower” is published here for the first time.

  • Studia Iranica 48(2)

    The second issue of Studia Iranica 48 (2019) has been published. For a table of contents and access to individual articles, see below or visit this page.

    • Ryoichi MIYAMOTO: Étude préliminaire sur la géographie administrative du Tukhāristān
    • Gilles COURTIEU: La pratique du mazdéisme en Crimée selon l’Histoire Naturelle de Pline
    • Vera B. MOREEN: Echoes of the Battle of Čālderān: The Account of the Jewish Chronicler Elijah Capsali (c. 1490 – c. 1555)
    • Jean CALMARD: Le voyage de Louise de la Marnierre en Iran (1836-1837): Introduction, récit, notes
    • Philippe GIGNOUX & Dieter WEBER: Un papyrus en pehlevi égaré à La Sorbonne (Paris)
    • Comptes rendus

  • Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

    Reden, Sitta von (ed.). 2020. Handbook of ancient Afro-Eurasian economies. Volume 1: Contexts. Berlin: De Gruyter.

    The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires.The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections.Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history.

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  • Methods and models in ancient history

    Mæhle, Ingvar, Per Bjarne Ravnå & Eivind Heldaas Seland (eds.). 2020. Methods and models in ancient history: Essays in honor of Jørgen Christian Meyer (Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens 9). Athens: Norwegian Institute at Athens.

    According to the institute, the publications of the Norwegian Institute at Athens are available on-line at the digital collection of the Bergen University Library. However, we have been unable to find a download link for the above volume. Please check the above website for updates.

    Two papers of closer interest to scholars of Iranian Studies are available from the authors’ academia.edu pages: