Author: Arash Zeini
Le Yasna Haptaŋhāiti
Kellens, Jean. 2025. Le Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (Publications d’Etudes Indo-Iraniennes 2). Strasbourg: Université de Strasbourg.
Inséré entre la première la deuxième Gâthâ, le Yasna Haptaŋhāiti, rédigé en vieil-avestique, occupe les chapitres 35 à 41 du Yasna. Ce texte fait l’objet d’une traduction commentée dans le présent ouvrage.
Résumé
The realm of the Kuru
Witzel, Michael. 2025. The realm of the Kuru: Origins and development of the first state in India. Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 30(2). 1–165.
Major old-new article by Michael Witzel with references and discussions of the relevant Iranian traditions. Open access.
This issue of EJVS contains the long version of my article “Early Sanskritization. Origins and development of the Kuru state” of 1997, published in a volume edited by B. Kölver. At that time, I had merely presented the outline and results of the longer paper published here. After 1997, I have added some data, over the next few years,to the unpublished long version. I have mow [sic] minimally updated it, for example by important genetic aDNA data about the first immigration of steppe people to India (Swat) around 1250 BCE. However, I could not find the time to thoroughly update the paper and therefore present it here as is, in the hope that it will be useful to colleagues.
Preface
As the current version includes many sections of the 1997 paper, some repetitions and overlaps will occur in the bulk of the text, for which I beg the reader’s indulgence.WZO’s Annual Seminar 2025
Three lectures as part of the World Zoroastrian Organisation’s annual seminar.
- Alexandra Buhler: Relations between Zoroastrians in India & Iran during the late Qajar period
- Khodadad Rezakhani: The Heart of the Empire: Ctesiphon & DilĒrānšahr in the Sasanian World
- Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis: Royal Splendour: the art of the Sasanian kings
Iranica Antiqua
Volume 59 of Iranica Antiqua has been published:
- 1 – 24 – Against Cuneiform: The Dawn of Writing in Iran
DANESHMAND, Parsa
abstract details - 25 – 33 – Cylinder Seals in the National Museum of Iran
BAGHBIDI, Bahar Rezai, MIRGHADERI, Mohammad Amin, D’ORAZIO, Claudia
abstract details - 35 – 62 – Petrographic and XRF Analysis of the Ceramics of the Achaemenid Period in the Ramhormoz Plain, Southwestern Iran
AFSHARI, Leila, AKARSU, Rabia
abstract details - 63 – 82 – In Search of the Plains of Gaugamela
SZYPUŁA, Bartłomiej, GŁOGOWSKI, Piotr, MARCIAK, Michał
abstract details - 83 – 108 – The Statue of the ‘Prince’ of Shami: Parthian Nobleman, Local Ruler or Arsacid King of Kings?
SINISI, Fabrizio
abstract details - 109 – 128 – Why the Title rāmšahr for Yazdgerd I?
JALILIAN, Shahram
abstract details - 129 – 151 – Between Dome and Eyvān: Building Techniques, Function, and Symbolism of the Kushk-e Ardashir in Bozpar (Bushehr, Iran)
LABISI, Guiseppe
abstract details - 153 – 193 – The Dynamics of Anthropogenic Landscape Evolution in the Bozpar Valley (South Iran). A Case Study for Small-Scale Hydraulic Engineering in Antiquity
RASHIDIAN, Elnaz
abstract details - 195 – 218 – Passing through the Northwestern Heights of the Alvand Mountains: Restoring the Caravan Routes between Asadabad and Hamadan in Different Historical Periods
REZAEI, Iraj
abstract details
- 1 – 24 – Against Cuneiform: The Dawn of Writing in Iran
Iran and the Caucasus 29 (2)
Volume 29, issue 2, of Iran and the Caucasus has now been published. While all articles relate to the focus of BiblioIranica, two stand particularly out:
- Barnea, Gad. 2025. The significance of ṛtācā brzmniy in Xerxes’ cultic reform: A new light on the “Daiva” inscription (XPh). Iran and the Caucasus. Brill 29(2). 131–152.
This article is open access.
Ever since its preliminary publication, Xerxes’ “Daiva” inscription (XPh) has been seen as an important and unique witness to early Achaemenid Mazdean orthopraxy and cultic propaganda. It is an essential document that captures a major reform in Achaemenid-Zoroastrian cult patterns and its relationship to cognate cults. This royal inscription describes a liturgical reform or, at least, the enforcement of such a reform, targeting and condemning the cult of the daivā—a designation describing competing deities. The key to decoding this reform hinges upon an obscure expression that appears thrice in the document—normalized as a-r-t-a-c-a : b-r-z-m-n-i-y—the meaning of which is yet to be fully understood. In this article, I revisit and analyze the various approaches previously taken to interpreting this remarkable syntagm and provide a methodological approach and a broader and more comprehensive translation which is presented in a more holistic comparative context—including onomastic, epigraphic and archeological data.
Abstract- Arakelova, Victoria. 2025. “She did not give bread to a dog with puppies”: The idea of retribution according to the Yezidi text A’lī Šērē Xwadē Āxiratēdā. Iran and the Caucasus. Brill 29(2). 153–166.
There is no unified Yezidi source that would give a complete understanding of sins and retribution in this tradition. The article is an attempt to identify a number of sins and the expected retributions for them, based on the analysis of the text A’lī Šērē Xwadē Āxiratēdā—“ ‘Ali, the Lion of God in the Hereafter”. The text, which can be attributed to the apologetic genre, tells about ‘Ali’s journey to the afterlife and the opportunity he was given to see the punishments of sinners, in order to pass on this information to people in the “world of light”, i.e. the material world.
Abstract
Across the deserts of Iran
Céline Redard, Université de Strasbourg, has established a new series entitled Publications d’Etudes indo-iraniennes. The first book in the series has already been published and two more volumes are announced. This promises to be an exciting series. The books of the series will be open access.
Redard, Georges. 2025. A travers les déserts de l’Iran. Rapport d’expédition 1951 – 1952 (Publications d’Etudes Indo-Iraniennes 1). Edidetd by Céline Redard. Strasbourg: Université de Strasbourg.
Le présent ouvrage contient le récit de voyage rédigé par Georges Redard (1922-2005) lors de sa première mission en Iran, de fin 1951 à début 1952, en compagnie de Murray Barr et Richard Nelson Frye. Le lecteur les suivra ainsi à travers les déserts de l’Iran pendant 49 jours, et prendra connaissance de leurs rencontres et de leurs découvertes, mais aussi de leurs ennuis mécaniques ou techniques. Autant d’anecdotes qui lui permettront de s’immerger dans une autre époque, une autre culture et d’entreprendre un voyage scientifique à leurs côtés.
RésuméGeorges Redard (1922-2005) était un linguiste suisse, qui s’est notamment intéressé aux langues iraniennes anciennes ainsi que modernes. Il fut professeur à l’Université de Neuchâtel sur la chaire de Grammaire comparée, puis à l’Université de Berne sur la chaire de linguistique indo-européenne.
Recent publications by Maria Carmela Benvenuto
We would like to bring a number of recent publications by Maria Carmela Benvenuto and her collaborators to the attention of our readers. Her publications are listed on her departmental page, but also on her academia account.
- Benvenuto, Maria Carmela & Flavia Pompeo. 2020. Towards a morphosyntax of Old Persian cases: The genitive (Indogermanische Textlinguistik, Poetik Und Stilistik 3). Hamburg: Baar.
- Benvenuto, Maria Carmela & Flavia Pompeo. 2022. La lingua degli antichi Persiani (Lingue Antiche del Vicino Oriente e del Mediterraneo). Milano: Editore Ulrico Hoepli.
- Benvenuto, Maria Carmela & Harald Bichlmeier. 2022. Zu den Umlauterscheinungen im Baktrischen. Lautgesetz oder Tendenz? Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 74(2). 7–32.
- Bichlmeier, Harald & Maria Carmela Benvenuto. 2024. On predicative possessive constructions in Avestan. In Paola Cotticelli-Kurras & Filip Johannes de Decker (eds.), Berthold Delbrück, historical and comparative Indo-European syntax 1922–2022, 129–149. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
- Benvenuto, Maria Carmela. 2024. Notes on the Bactrian personal name Σανδο. East and West (New Series 5) 64(1). 13–21.
What is Zoroastrianism?
In a series of workshops, Dr Mehrbod Khanizadeh (SOAS, University of London) will explore the history of Zoroastrianism from its roots in the second millennium BCE through to the present day. He will discuss religious, historical as well as social aspects of the religion’s development.
Dr. Mehrbod Khanizadeh currently teaches courses on Avestan, Middle Persian (Pahlavi), and Zoroastrianism at SOAS, University of London. He specialises in Zoroastrianism and ancient Iranian languages. His recent peer-reviewed publications include an article on the genealogy of the Iranian bilingual Avestan Pahlavi Yasna manuscripts, published in the Bulletin of SOAS in 2021, and a study of the etymology of the Avestan personal name pourušaspa- published in the journal of Iran and the Caucasus in 2024. His edition of the Avestan text of chapters 9-11 of the Yasna will be published as a monograph in 2025.
Six sessions from 25 May to 30 November 2025.
For more information and to register, see the document below:
Representation of Aphrodite and Eros
Moradi, Yousef & Almut Hintze. 2025. Representation of Aphrodite and Eros on Sasanian clay bullae: Evidence from the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp at Takht-e Solaymān. Iranian Studies 1–31.
This article examines five Sasanian bullae from the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp with seal impressions depicting Aphrodite and Eros, and Aphrodite Anadyomene. It is argued that the original seal with Aphrodite and Eros likely dates from the late 1st century BCE to the early 1st century CE, reused between the 5th–7th centuries CE, while the Aphrodite Anadyomene seal is from the 2nd or 3rd century CE. Contextualizing these findings within Graeco-Roman and Iranian cultures, this article explores reinterpretations of Graeco-Roman iconography for both Zoroastrian and non-Zoroastrian audiences, as well as highlights that bullae with concave impressions of cylindrically curved objects on the reverse had once been attached to vessels, not just documents. Additionally, this article also discusses other sealings on the new bullae, some with Middle Persian inscriptions, identifying a mgw (priest) and an astrologer, providing the first attestation of the word axtar (constellation) on a Sasanian seal.
Abstract
