Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Author: Arash Zeini

  • Witches and demons

    Witches and demons

    XII conférence biennale d’études iraniennes Ehsan et Latifeh Yarshater

    Witches and demons, kings and prophets: The Shahnama and its afterlife in the Persian manuscript tradition

    2, 6, 10, 13 and 16 November 2026; 5–7 pm
    Auditorium Dumézil Inalco
    With Prof. Gabrielle van den Berg, Université de Leyde

    One of the major so-called secondary or later epics, composed as a sequel to the ‘unfinished’ life of Suhrāb, so tragically cut short by his own father Rustam, is the story of Barzū or Burzū. Particularly from the 15th century onwards, stories about this formidable grandson of Rustam frequently appear as interpolations in Shāhnāma manuscripts. Barzū also features prominently in the oral traditions associated with the Shāhnāma, and these oral traditions found their way ‘back’ into the manuscript tradition in the form of tumārs or ‘scrolls’, representing the stories that were orally delivered and performed, and also in a few manuscripts, such as, for example, the voluminous manuscripts BnF Supplément persan 499 and 499a of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In this lecture, we will look specifically at one particular part of the Barzū cycle: the story of the witch Sūsan as featured in BnF Supplément persan 497, in relation to the wider topic of witchcraft and sorcery in the Shāhnāma.

    Yarshater conferences 2026 Titles-abstractsDownload
  • Zoroastrianism and philosophy

    Zoroastrianism and philosophy

    In episode 500d of History of Philosophy without any Gaps, Peter Adamson interviews Ted Good about philosophy in Zoroastrianism.

    In the fourth of five episodes to celebrate reaching the episode 500 mark by looking at things he skipped in earlier series, Peter talks to Ted Good about philosophy and the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism.

  • Bulletin of the Asia Institute

    Bulletin of the Asia Institute

    The Bulletin of the Asia Institute is under new editorial management at the Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions, UCLA. Volume 32, the newest issue, is available in open access from its new home:

    The Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions at UCLA is privileged to continue the publication of the Bulletin of the Asia Institute beginning with Volume 32, newly available as of Summer 2026.

    About

    Previous issues of this reputable journal, going back to volume 21 (2012), are available here.

  • Governance in Bactrian Documents

    Governance in Bactrian Documents

    Huseini, Said Reza. 2026. Local government reflected in Bactrian documents. Afghanistan 9(1). 85–103.

    Drawing on an analysis of Bactrian documents produced between the early fourth and the late eighth century, the article shows that local government was the foundation of political structure in Bactria. By focusing on three areas of Guzgan, Rob and Kadagstan, the article demonstrates that these areas had their own rulers who managed them through local administration staffed by local people, who handled social, economic, political and military issues. The authority of these rulers was limited to their areas, and none of them could interfere in other areas. Local government was the most effective way to manage Bactria’s diverse geography and its multicultural populations. It persisted even after Bactria became part of the Persian, Huns, Turks, and Arab Muslim empires’ political systems. It was a model of governance well adapted region’s diverse population and proved far more stable and long-lived than the unitary governments of modern Afghanistan that provoked regional opposition and regularly collapsed.

    Abstract

  • Reassembling knowledge

    Benfey, Thomas. 2026. Reassembling knowledge: Science, medicine, and philosophy in Sasanian and early Islamic Iraq and Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    The scholars of the Sasanian empire—the last antique superpower whose extensive territories encompassed much of Mesopotamia, the Iranian plateau, and the Caucasus—played a pivotal role in world intellectual history. They developed a distinctive synthesis of Indian and Greco-Roman learning, which would have a formative impact on Islamic civilization in the wake of the empire’s fall to Arab armies in the 7th century CE. Drawing on a wide range of texts in languages including Arabic, Middle Persian, Syriac, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, Thomas Benfey closely examines these scholars, their contributions, and the shifting contexts in which they lived and worked. From the court of the sixth-century King of Kings Khusrō I to early Abbasid Baghdad, this book explores key developments in philosophy, medicine, and astral science and the institutional and historical contexts in which they took place. Benfey highlights the distinctive features of this decisive era, tracing intellectual continuity and change into the early Islamic period.

    Book description
  • Two articles by Mohamad Bayani

    Two articles by Mohamad Bayani

    Bayani, Mohamad. 2025. Creating is cutting: A conceptual metaphor in Avestan and Pahlavi texts. Bulletin of SOAS 88(2). 243–265.

    This paper investigates the development of the creation theme in Zoroastrian sources through the lens of the conceptual metaphor “creation is cutting”. It analyses three terms: Avestan taš– and ϑβǝrǝs-, and Middle Persian brēhēnīdan. Each term is examined in non-metaphorical, non-creational metaphorical, and creational metaphorical contexts. This analysis, coupled with a comparison of their semantic nuances and metaphorical mappings, suggests a creation myth with two phases: in the first phase, Ahura Mazda alone hews the undifferentiated forms of both the spiritual and material creation from an imaginary primary material, followed by the sculpting of the spiritual creation, resulting in adding details to the form. Subsequently, Ahura Mazda, in collaboration with the Beneficial Immortals/high-ranked divinities, imparts specific bodily and facial details to the material creation, enabling procreation. The Pahlavi sources elaborate on this theme, portraying Ahura Mazda as the sole agent in the initial hewing, while high-ranking divinities mitigate the harm inflicted by Ahriman on the created prototypes, facilitating their procreation throughout the world.

    Abstract

    Bayani, Mohamad. 2026. The concept of the creational body in Iranian mythology: transformation and theological reinterpretations in Zoroastrian texts. Bulletin of SOAS, FirstView.1–10.

    This article explores the evolution of the “creational body” motif in Iranian mythology, focusing on its transformation within Zoroastrian theological contexts. Drawing on Indo-European and Indo-Iranian cosmogonic narratives, the article examines two primary representations: Gayōmard, the human prototype, and āsrō-kirb, an enigmatic body described as the “form of fire”. While the original Indo-Iranian myths often portray the creation of the cosmos through the sacrificial dismemberment of a primordial being, Zoroastrian texts adapt this narrative to align with their dualistic theology. The dismemberment of Gayōmard is attributed to Ahriman and his demonic forces, dissociating Ohrmazd and the Beneficent Immortals from acts of violence. By contrast, āsrō-kirb’s narrative presents an abstract, faceless body dismembered by Ohrmazd, whose act is sanitized of its grotesque sacrificial elements. Through textual analysis of Pahlavi sources, this article investigates the theological motivations behind these alterations, highlighting how Zoroastrian priests sought to reconcile inherited cosmogonic myths with their ethical and doctrinal imperatives. The findings reveal a dual adjustment: the reinterpretation of Gayōmard’s narrative to condemn Ahriman, and the abstraction of āsrō-kirb to obscure its violent origins, while maintaining its creational function. These adaptations underscore the dynamic interplay between inherited mythology and evolving theological frameworks in the Zoroastrian tradition.

    Abstract
  • Pepper, Peach, Paradise

    Pepper, Peach, Paradise

    Paul, Ludwig. Pfeffer, Pfirsich, Paradies: Kleines Lexikon deutscher Wörter persischer Herkunft. München: C.H.Beck.

    Wie ist der Algorithmus aus dem Persischen ins Deutsche gelangt? Warum bezeichnet Diwan sowohl ein Sofa als auch eine Gedichtsammlung? Und was hat unser Schal mit einem indischen Sari zu tun oder die Tulpe mit dem Turban? Ludwig Paul erklärt in rund 140 kurzweiligen Artikeln, wie Wörter aus dem Persischen ins Deutsche gewandert sind. Sein glänzend geschriebenes Buch lädt zum Nachschlagen und Schmökern ein und lässt uns eine erstaunliche Dimension der deutschen Sprache neu entdecken.
    Die persische Sprache war einst von der Türkei bis Indien die Sprache der Gelehrten, Dichter und kultivierten Höfe. Sie hat Einflüsse aus indischen Sprachen und dem Arabischen aufgenommen und ihrerseits andere Sprachen bereichert. Das Lexikon beschreibt, auf welchen oft verschlungenen Wegen zahlreiche Wörter und Namen ins Deutsche gelangt sind. Doch es bietet viel mehr als reine Sprachgeschichte: Ludwig Paul versteht es meisterhaft, immer wieder aufschlussreiche Schlaglichter auf die Geschichte der Kulturen zwischen Indien und Europa zu werfen und zu zeigen, wie eng die Wanderung von Wörtern mit dem Transfer von Dingen – Gewürzen, Früchten, Artefakten – und Ideen zusammenhängt.

  • Text and translation of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti

    Text and translation of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti

    Heindio Uesugi has done it again. Under the supervisory editorship of Adam Alvah Catt, Uesugi has now published an addendum to the second part of his Old Avestan dictionary: a translation and glossed version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti.

    Uesugi, Heindio (ed.). 2026. Old Avestan dictionary. Addendum to Part II: Text and translation: Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.

    For more context on these publications, I recommend the blogs in Language Hat and Language Log.

    This is the draft version of the annotated new translation of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (YH) along with that of Yasna 42. We have prepared this translation as an addendum to Part II. We hope to further improve it (along with the corrigenda) when time permits, taking into consideration any feedback we may receive.
    Although arguably less contentious than the Gāthās, the YH is of course not without its share of difficulties. Even where there is general consensus on the basic meaning, the view on the intended nuance, implications, and significance can vary, at times considerably.

    From the ‘Short Introduction’
  • Two unpublished Bactrian documents

    Two unpublished Bactrian documents

    Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2026. Two unpublished Bactrian documents in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Bulletin of SOAS FirstView. 1–8.

    Bactrian, the principal written language of pre-Islamic Afghanistan, was little known until the early 1990s, when more than 150 contracts, economic documents and letters, together with a few Buddhist texts, were acquired by collectors. Most of these were published by Nicholas Sims-Williams between 2001 and 2012 in three volumes entitled Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan. The present article presents two additional documents which have come to light more recently, a receipt for a sum of ten dirhams and a letter from an otherwise unknown ruler of Rōb, modern Rui in the Hindukush mountains. The text and translation of the documents are accompanied by a discussion of their linguistic and historical significance.

    Abstract
  • Studia Iranica (53/1)

    Studia Iranica (53/1)

    The first issue of Studia Iranica 53 is out. Here is the table of contents:

    • BELELLI, Sara: Laki Nominal Morphology in Historical and Comparative Perspective
    • BORJIAN, Habib: Southern Kurdish in the Anti-Alborz: A Case of Language Isolation
    • PREUD’HOMME, Nicolas: The Fall of Safavid Power According to an Anonymous Manuscript from Post-Revolutionary France