Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Author: Shervin Farridnejad

  • Manichaeism and Church History

    Manichaeism and Church History

    Toft, Lasse Løvlund, Mattias Sommer Bostrup & René Falkenberg (eds.). 2025. On the Matter. Studies on Manichaeism and Church History Presented to Nils Arne Pedersen at Sixty-Five (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum – Analecta Manichaica 4). Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.

    The anthology consists of twenty-nine studies on Manichaean texts in Coptic, Syriac, Chinese, and Iranian languages, as well as on broader Church History including texts from the Nag Hammadi Codices, Coptic and Syriac heresiology and Early Modern religious polemics. Of interest to all scholars of Manichaeism and Late Antique and Medieval Eastern Christianity, and to scholars working on the phenomenon of heresiology and doctrinal polemics within the churches at large. The anthology is a Festschrift for Nils Arne Pedersen at Aarhus University.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Manichaean Texts, Imagery, and Terminology

    • Jean-Daniel Dubois, About the Use of the Term Pistos in Coptic Manichaean Writings
    • Iain Gardner, Who Was Salmaios and What Was His Lament?
    • Jason BeDuhn, Rethinking Manichaean Asceticism
    • Samuel N.C. Lieu, Database of Manichaean Texts – Past, Present, and Future
    • Claudia Leurini, Secret Messages: Traces of Cryptography in the Middle Persian Manichaean Hymns to the Church
    • Iris Colditz, Eine Parabel in einer Homilie Manis in parthischer Sprache
    • Yutaka Yoshida, Middle Iranian Fragments in Sogdian Script from the St. Petersburg Collection – The Fourth Section of the Manichaean Daily Prayers in Parthian and Some Other Middle Iranian Texts
    • Nicholas Sims-Williams, On the Sources of the Manichaean Sogdian Religious Terminology
    • Enrico Morano, A Manichaean Middle Persian Text on the Descent of the Holy Spirit and the Beginning of Mani’s Church (M788)
    • Gunner Mikkelsen, Pearl Imagery in a Chinese Manichaean Hymn
    • John Møller Larsen, Ligatures in the Syriac Manichaean Texts from Kellis
    • Erica C.D. Hunter, Hunting Manichaean Syriac Incantation Bowls
    • Sebastian P. Brock, Imagery Shared and Imagery Avoided: The Manichaean Psalms and Syriac Religious Poetry

    Nag Hammadi, the Bible, and Early Heterodoxy

    • Einar Thomassen, Manichaeans and Gnostics on the Creation of Humanity
    • Hugo Lundhaug, A Luminous Soul in the Likeness of God: Dispensing with the Psychic God in Paul’s Prayer for Revelation in Nag Hammadi Codex I
    • Anders Klostergaard Petersen, The Gospel of Truth as Fully-Fledged Christ Religion
    • Peter Nagel (†), Das Gleichnis vom viererlei Acker in den synoptischen Evangelien und im Thomasevangelium (Logion 9)
    • Mogens Müller, Traces of Marcion in the New Testament?

    Eastern Orthodoxies in Formation

    • Jan Dochhorn, Acherusischer See und Paradies im Zauberpapyrus London, Brit. Libr. Or. 5987, l. 13–24
    • Lasse Løvlund Toft, Virgin Mary as a Heavenly Power in Egypt: Doctrinal Polemics and Theological Diversity in Coptic and Copto-Arabic Homiletic Apocrypha on the God-bearer
    • David G.K. Taylor, Eschatological Rivers of Fire and Purgatorial Purification in Sixth-Century Syriac Texts
    • Flavia Ruani, Le catalogue d’hérésies de Jacques bar Šakko (XIIIe s.) :Livre des trésors II. De l’Incarnation du Verbe, ch. 1
    • Paul-Hubert Poirier (†), Une traduction latine inédite du Contra Manichaeos de Titus de Bostra
    • Henning Lehmann, Eusebius of Emesa Interpreting Exod. 3:14f: Some Remarks on Recent Eusebius Studies

    Churches, and Theologies in Early Modern and Modern Northern Europe

    • Per Ingesman, ‘In Principio Erat Error, Et Error Erat Apud Lutherum’: Paulus Helie on Luther and His Adherents in the Danish Reformation
    • Rasmus H.C. Dreyer, Between Danish and German: A First-Generation Danish Reformer as Lutheran Superintendent (1541–1561)
    • Carsten Bach-Nielsen, Theme and Variations: Lazarus and the Rich Man. Iconography of a New Testament narrative in an age of Reform, c. 1500–1640
    • Kim Arne Pedersen, Grundtvig, the Greeks, and Heresy
    • Mattias Sommer Bostrup, The Life and Afterlives of Bishop Fredrik Nielsen (1846–1907): Social Functions of Church History at the Fin de Siècle
  • Zoroastrian Women

    Zoroastrian Women

    Niechciał, Paulina. 2025. Zoroastrian Women in the United States of America: Practicing Lived Zoroastrianism in a Diaspora (The Vastness of Culture). Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press.

    This book examines how ancient Zoroastrianism is practiced in the US diaspora and how it has evolved dynamically. As it developed in the patriarchal cultures of Iran and India, to move beyond the dominant male perspective, this book focuses on women. The lived religion approach demonstrates that Zoroastrianism in their everyday experiences is more than just a religion, but is a spiritual path, an ethnic tradition, and a cultural identity. Some women challenge old patterns, and Zoroastrianism in the diaspora turns out to be multifaceted and vibrant, despite the fear held by some community members that it may become extinct.

    Richly illustrated with the narratives of subsequent generations of Iranian and Parsi immigrants as well as photos, the book gives a taste of the diverse Zoroastrian life across the US. It not only broadens the picture of the ethnoreligious landscape in the country and expands interest in Zoroastrian studies, but also highlights the role of social practice theory in the study of religion, demonstrating how it may apply to qualitative field research, stimulating further discussion.

  • The Sanskrit Version of Yasna

    Palladino, Martina. 2025. The Sanskrit Version of Yasna 1–8. A Critical Edition with Commentary and Glossaries (Corpus Avesticum / Handbuch der Orientalistik 32/5). Leiden: Brill.

    This book contributes to the Multimedia Yasna (MUYA) Project, led by Prof. Almut Hintze of SOAS, by presenting an edition of the first eight chapters of the Sanskrit Yasna. This new edition is accompanied by an English translation and two glossaries.
    This study aims to provide a framework for Parsi literary production in the Indian context and, at the same time, to relate the Sanskrit text to its Avestan and Pahlavi versions. The special feature of this unique text is that it belongs to the Indian cultural environment while remaining part of the Zoroastrian tradition.

  • Myth and History in Ancient Persia

    Myth and History in Ancient Persia

    Shaghaghi Zarghamee, Reza. 2025. Myth and History in Ancient Persia: The Achaemenids in the Iranian Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    This book fills an important gap in Achaemenid studies by using traditional Iranian narratives, such as those found in the famous Shahnameh, or ‘Book of Kings’, of Ferdowsi, to analyse the Greco-Roman accounts of Median and Persian royalty. The study shows that the classical authors derived their accounts from Iranian traditions, grounded in age-old myths and legends. This analysis serves many purposes. It refines the extent to which the classical sources may be used in historical reconstructions and sheds new light on the literary methods of authors, such as Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon. Finally, the book offers insights into one of the thorniest enigmas in Iranian historiography, the apparent disappearance of Illustrious rulers like Cyrus II, Darius I, and Xerxes I from native historical traditions. Standing at the crossroads of Iranian studies and Classics, this book is an indispensable source for scholars of ancient Iran, Greek historiography, and the Shahnameh.

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  • The Zoroastrian Manuscripts of the Matenadaran

    The Zoroastrian Manuscripts of the Matenadaran

    Andrés-Toledo, Miguel Ángel (ed.). 2025. The Zoroastrian manuscripts of the Matenadaran. Facsimile edition (Corpus Avesticum / Handbuch der Orientalistik 32/6). Leiden: Brill.

    Armenia was a stronghold of the Zoroastrian religion in antiquity and late antiquity. Of the rich Zoroastrian literature that was composed and transmitted in the region, no single text was extant there after long periods of cultural, political and religious changes.
    The three Zoroastrian manuscripts of this facsimile edition, containing precious copies of texts in the Avestan, Pahlavi and Zoroastrian New Persian languages, are the only exception. Stemming from Iran and now preserved at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran), they are heirs of an ancient Iranian faith that once flourished also in Armenia.

  • An Early Judeo-Persian Rabbanite Text

    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.

  • The Significance of the Wreath in the Late Antique Orient

    The Significance of the Wreath in the Late Antique Orient

    Corfù, Nicolas Assur. 2025. Die Bedeutung des Kranzes im spätantiken Orient: zu Thronbesteigung, Kranzübergabe und Religionen im Sasanidenreich. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.

    The wreath first appears in funerary culture in the West and in Egypt. Later, it increasingly came to represent victory as well, deriving from the oriental nose-rope with ring, which was adopted and adapted into the West during Greece’s ‘Orientalizing Period’. In Sasanian iconography, the wreath was re-imported from the West: it now symbolizes victory, honor, or a funerary aspect.

    This book examines the wreath in East and West from its first appearance up to Late Antiquity. The author develops a new interpretation of the inscription ANRm-b and offers a novel reading of rock reliefs depicting wreath-giving, using a group-theoretical approach from mathematics: as an act of honoring a deceased predecessor of the commissioning Sasanian ruler.

  • Hybrid Judeo-Persian and Arabic Correspondence

    Hybrid Judeo-Persian and Arabic Correspondence

    Haim, Ofir, Andreas Kaplony, Maximilian Kinzler & Ludwig Paul. 2025. Hybrid Judeo-Persian and Arabic correspondence. Eight documents from the Cairo Genizah (Veröffentlichungen zur Iranistik 92). Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.

    The more than 300,000 documents discovered in a storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo in the late 19th century, now housed in the collections in St. Petersburg, Cambridge, and Paris, are known as the Cairo Genizah. These documents, which span a wide array of subjects, are invaluable sources for understanding the history of medieval Judaism, as well as for the social and economic landscape of the Mediterranean from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Among them are thousands of private and commercial letters written in Arabic (in both Hebrew and Arabic scripts), alongside some 25 documents in Judeo-Persian—Persian written in Hebrew script. Due to the considerable challenges posed by their interpretation, only a small fraction of these texts has been published thus far.   This volume presents editions of eight previously unpublished documents dated to around the turn of the millennium (991–1002 CE) and mentioning key places such as Baghdad and Basra. Included are two pages from a merchant’s notebook, written in both Jewish-Persian and Arabic, along with several letters. Of particular interest are two letters, one in Judeo-Persian and its near-literal Arabic translation, highlighting the fluidity between these two languages. The blending of Judeo-Persian and Arabic in all eight texts offers a compelling reason to publish them together. This linguistic fusion underscores the fact that the authors of these letters were part of a broad network of Jewish merchants, notably including the Tustarī and Ibn ʿAwkal families.

    Table of Content.

  • The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection

    The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection

    Aliyari Babolghani, Salman. 2024. The Great King’s word under AhuraMazdā’s protection: Trilingual Achaemenid royal inscriptions of Susa I (Dariosh Studies III/1) (Ancient Iranian Series 17). Leiden: Brill.
    This volume presents part of the author’s research on the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions recovered in the ruins of the Achaemenid palaces in Susa, conducted within the framework of the DARIOSH-Louvre Project. It offers a new study of several fragmentary inscriptions in Old Persian, Achaemenid Elamite, and Achaemenid Babylonian, currently designated as DSe, DSt, DSb, DSl, DSa, DSk, DSi, DSp, D²Sb, DSj, A²Se, DSs, ‘Inc. Sb’, and others. The book provides a new edition of each inscription based on both published and unpublished fragments. Additionally, it introduces some new lexicons and cuneiform signs in the Old Persian language and script.

    Table of Contents (PDF)

    Part 1: Some Fragments of a Foundation Stone Table Inscription

    1 AhuraMazdā Protected the Great King’s “Written Word” 

    Fresh Old Persian Lexicon in Newly Discovered Fragments of DSe 

    Part 2: Terracotta Brick Inscriptions

    2 “AhuraMazdā Belongs to Me” 

    Inscriptions DSa, DSb, DSk, DSl, and DSae 

    Part 3: Some Threshold Inscriptions

    3 “I Did All Superior” 

    4 A Marvelous Palace Built by a Righteous King 

    DSj Inscription 

    Appendix 1: Persian Translations of the Inscriptions

    Appendix 2: Revised List of Old Persian Logograms 

  • Zarathustra in Pahlavi Literature

    Vassalli, Massimiliano. 2024. Zarathustra nella letteratura pahlavi: Il libro VII del Denkard (Testi del Vicino Oriente antico/Letteratura iranica, 3.1). Torino: Paideia.

    In this work, readers are introduced to the first Italian translation of the main Pahlavi source of the legend of Zarathustra, Chapter VII of the Dēnkard. This fundamental text of Zoroastrian literature, dating back to the early Islamic period (7th–10th century CE), narrates the biography of the Iranian “prophet” within the framework of the universal history of creation. The guiding thread of this account is the miracles performed by the divine word throughout the centuries, up until the end of time. The work, edited by Massimiliano Vassalli, contextualizes the Iranian text and its protagonist within the historical and cultural background of the period in which it was written and provides an Italian version accompanied by philological, historical, and literary explanatory notes.