Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Author: Arash Zeini

  • Christians in Middle Eastern History

    Christians in Middle Eastern History

    Ghobrial, John-Paul, Michael Reynolds, Christian C. Sahner & Jack Tannous (eds.). 2026. Christians in Middle Eastern history: Strangers no more (Edinburgh Studies in Middle Eastern Christianity). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    The dazzling array of languages and religions in the Middle East, from Late Antiquity to the present, has long made the region a source of fascination. But the specific features of pluralism in the Middle East have also made writing its history a difficult enterprise, as scholarly specialisation has often meant that this or that religious group becomes invisible. The challenges of the Middle East’s particular pluralism, however, also represent an opportunity for creative reflection and innovation in historical research.
    This volume takes as its starting-point the fact that, for much of the past 1,500 years, the population of the Middle East has been significantly Christian. It offers a series of case studies by leading scholars that offer different answers to the question of what histories of the region might look like if this demographic situation were taken seriously. Critiquing dominant narratives that conflate the history of the Middle East and the history of Islam, they show how integrating Christian actors, experiences and sources can enrich our understanding of the region.

  • Language and script in Achaemenid and Hellenistic Central Asia

    Language and script in Achaemenid and Hellenistic Central Asia

    Mairs, Rachel. 2026. Language and script in Achaemenid and Hellenistic Central Asia (Elements in Writing in the Ancient World). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    This Element examines – for the first time in a single volume – the written evidence from the ‘Far East’ of the Hellenistic world (Bactria, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Gandhara). It examines how successive invaders of this region, from Persia, Greece and India, left their linguistic and textual mark. It reviews the surviving Hellenistic-period written material from archaeological sites in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan in Aramaic, Greek and Prakrit.

    Summary
  • Research in Iranian Studies

    Research in Iranian Studies

    Ehrenberg, Erica (ed.). 2025. The American Institute of Iranian Studies: Half a century of foundational research. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

    The American Institute of Iranian Studies is devoted to fostering research in the field of Iranian studies and promoting scholarly exchange between the United States and Iran. This collection of essays addresses the history and development of Iranian studies in the United States and the pivotal role of the Institute in furthering research in the field.

    The purview of the Institute is vast, covering Iranology—the study of Iranian peoples and cultures both within and across regions of Central and South Asia and the Middle East, where various forms of the Persian language are spoken. In keeping with the Institute’s dedication to facilitating research in Iran, the chapters in this volume represent fields of inquiry that have benefited from direct access to materials in the country. The essays describe the founding and work of the Institute, the emergence of Iranian studies in American universities, the Encyclopaedia Iranica, early archaeological research in Iran by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago, the birth and development of American museum collections of art from Iran, and case histories of areas of Iranian Studies that have been the traditional focus of Institute-sponsored research, including art history, history, philology, religion, and sociology.

    The contributors to this volume are Ahmad Ashraf, Shiva Balaghi, Medhi Bozorgmehr, Elton L. Daniel, Erica Ehrenberg, Carl W. Ernst, Stephen C. Fairbanks, Prudence O. Harper, Linda Komaroff, Judith A. Lerner, Franklin D. Lewis, Beatrice Forbes Manz, Alessandro Pezzati, Holly Pittman, D. T. Potts, Richard L. Spees, Mathew W. Stolper, Keyvan Tabari, and Christopher Thortnon.

    Description
  • Bahari Career Development Fellow

    Bahari Career Development Fellow

    Bahari Career Development Fellow in Sasanian Studies

    A postdoctoral opportunity at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES):

    The Bahari Career Development Fellow will carry out original research in the field of Sasanian studies broadly defined.  The Fellowship offers early career researchers the opportunity to develop their research within one of the world’s leading universities and to strengthen their future position in the academic job market. The postholder will be a member of both the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) and Wolfson College, joining Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina (Bahari Professor of Sasanian Studies) and the Faculty’s team in Persian Studies. She or he will be part of a lively and intellectually stimulating research community which performs to the highest international levels in research and publications and will have access to the excellent research facilities which Oxford offers.

    For more information, see the job details.

  • Aramaic Literature

    Aramaic Literature

    Holm, Tawny L. 2026. Aramaic literature from Egypt and the Levant (Writings from the Ancient World 30). Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.

    In this volume, Tawny L. Holm provides bilingual editions of the majority of Aramaic literary compositions written between the fifth century BCE and first century CE. Each text is presented in transliteration and accompanied by an introduction, notes, and an English translation. The section on Egypt includes, among others, the fascinating anthology found on Papyrus Amherst 63, an Aramaic text written in the Demotic Egyptian script, as well as the Story and Proverbs of Ahiqar. The Levant section includes a selection of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as Tales from the Persian Court. These compositions cover a broad array of themes, from insights into the human condition to unique portraits of kings, heroes, and deities. The book also addresses matters of history, language, genres, poetics, and scribalism, and it offers a comprehensive collection of primary sources for use in ancient Near Eastern studies courses as well as biblical studies.

  • The Pearlsong

    The Pearlsong

    Bremer-McCollum, Adam. 2025. The Pearlsong (Texts & Translations of Transcendence and Transformation). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    The Pearlsong is an ancient poem that recounts the story of a Parthian prince sent by his parents on a mission to Egypt to retrieve a pearl from the clutches of a giant serpent. Along the way, the prince falls asleep and forgets his identity and mission. A letter from his parents awakens him, gives him a spell to put the serpent to sleep so he can retrieve the pearl, and then guides him home. The poem was originally composed in Syriac, translated into Greek, and later paraphrased in Greek again in a homily. These three texts are all published here with a parallel English translation on facing pages, accompanied by an introduction, commentary, and Syriac and Greek glossaries.

    Summary

    The book is available open-access.

  • Two priest-brothers

    Two priest-brothers

    Colditz, Iris. 2026. Two priest-brothers: Theological argumentation, linguistic expressions and style in the second Epistle of Manuščihr. Bulletin of SOAS, FirstView. 1–14.

    The Middle Persian Nāmagīhā ī Manuščihr “Epistles of Manuščihr”, the Zoroastrian high priest of Pārs and Kermān, written in 881 ce, are an important testimony of an inner-Zoroastrian dispute on orthopraxy in early Islamic Iran. They reflect Manuščihr’s efforts to preserve the extensive purification ritual Baršnūm against being substituted with a simplified ritual by his brother, the teacher-priest (Hērbed) Zādspram. Manuščihr wrote three letters to make his position clear. His second letter, addressed to Zādspram, is interesting not only for its theological debate but also for the personal relationship it reveals between two priest-brothers. Manuščihr argues on an elaborate scholarly level by quoting from the religious authoritative texts, and expresses his brotherly love and responsibility for leading his younger brother back to the correct path. This article focuses on his theological argumentation but also on the debate, how the family ties may have affected it and how he used linguistic expressions and style in this context.

    Abstract
  • Ancient Persian

    Ancient Persian

    van Bladel, Kevin. 2026. Ancient Persian: A linguistic history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    When ancient Persian conquerors created a vast empire from the Mediterranean to the Indus, encompassing many peoples speaking many different languages, they triggered demographic changes that caused their own language to be transformed. Persian grammar has ever since borne testimony to the social history of the ancient Persian Empire. This study of the early evolution of the Persian language bridges ancient history and new linguistics. Written for historians, philologists, linguists, and classical scholars, as well as those interested specifically in Persian and Iranian studies, it explains the correlation between the character of a language’s grammar and the history of its speakers. It paves the way for new investigations into linguistic history, a field complimentary with but distinct from historical linguistics. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

    Description
  • Women of the Empire

    Women of the Empire

    Safaee, Yazdan. 2026. Women of the empire: Life and labor in the Achaemenid Persepolis Archives (Ancient Iran Series 20). Leiden: Brill.

    This book offers a comprehensive examination of the status and roles of women within the socio-economic framework of the Achaemenid Empire. Drawing primarily on the Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Archives, it foregrounds the documentary evidence as a lens through which the lives, labor, and agency of women—both within royal institutions and beyond—can be critically assessed. Women of the Empire explores a range of thematic issues across its chapters, highlighting the diverse contexts in which women appear in administrative records and reconstructing their participation in the imperial economy.

    Congratulations to our colleague Yazdan on this outstanding achievement.
  • A bitter Norouz!

    A bitter Norouz!

    Today we celebrate renewal. We welcome a new season, we hope for joy, we reaffirm friendships, we eat together, we celebrate love and life. This year, as we face war and destruction, we also reflect on the bombs that fall, the bullets that fly, and the lives that are senselessly lost. We hear the last sighs of our loved ones and feel the wounds they leave behind in our hearts. This is a bitter Norouz, but Norouz nonetheless.

    Continue reading this post on Arash’s personal blog: This is a bitter Norouz!