Author: Shervin Farridnejad

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Persian Metalwork along the Silk Road

Entangled Objects of Eurasia: Persian Metalwork along the Silk Road

Wednesday 16 October 2024

  • Matthew Canepa | University of California, Irvine

Scriptive Things and Commensal Warfare: Luxury Vessels across post-Achaemenid Asia

  • Yukio Lippit | Harvard University

Echoes of Persian Silverware in the Shosoin Treasury

  • Yuka Kadoi  | University of Vienna          

Silver in the Mongol Empire: Alternative Nomadic Aesthetics

  • Johannes Preiser-Kapeller | ÖAW – IMAFO

Chair and moderator

Zoom registration required (anton.matejicka@univie.ac.at)

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the network of Eurasian trade routes, widely called the Silk Road. Connecting East Asia and North Africa via land and sea routes and spanning some 6,000 kilometres, it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political and religious interactions between the East and West. Although the significance of this century-old connector of commercial and cultural exchanges has been addressed since its scholarly acceptance in the early twentieth century, much needs to be said about the mobility dynamics of materiality and textuality, while overviewing recent discoveries and methodological trends.

Coinciding with the 700th anniversary of the death of Marco Polo, this research forum invites three distinguished art historians with particular expertise in non-European arts who will examine the modes and modalities of portable objects, other than silk textiles, from fresh perspectives. With the focus on metalwork, especially silver, three papers will collectively investigate different phases of material connectivities from the Asia Pacific to Mediterranean regions, from the time of Alexander the Great to the Mongol invasion of Eurasia. Taken together, this and subsequent academic fora are designed to foster a greater understanding of what used to be called ‘Persian art’—cultural artefacts that became predominantly associated with medieval and early-modern Iran and West Central Asia. cus on metalwork, especially silver, three papers will collectively investigate different phases of material connectivities from the Asia Pacific to Mediterranean regions, from the time of Alexander the Great to the Mongol invasion of Eurasia.

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Books

War in the Ancient Iranian Empires

Hyland, John O. & Khodadad Rezakhani (eds.). 2024. Brill’s companion to war in the ancient Iranian empires (Brill’s Companions to Classical Studies: Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World 9). Leiden: Brill.

Brill’s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires examines military structures and methods from the Elamite period through the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian empires. War played a critical role in Iranian state formation and dynastic transitions, imperial ideologies and administration, and relations with neighbouring states and peoples from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. Twenty chapters by leading experts offer fresh approaches to the study of ancient Iranian armies, strategy, diplomacy, and battlefield methods, and contextualise famous conflicts with Greek and Roman opponents.

Table of Contents

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Books

Zoroastrian Apocalypticism in The Maʿnī-yi Vahman Yasht

Alimoradi, Pooriya. 2024. “The wolf era ends, and the sheep era starts”: Zoroastrian apocalypticism in the Maʿnī-yi Vahman Yasht. Leiden: Brill.

This book studies, for the first time, the Maʿnī-yi Vahman Yasht , the New Persian version of the Zand ī Wahman Yašt , the most important Zoroastrian text in apocalyptic genre. Through offering a critical edition, translation, and commentary, Alimoradi argues that the MVY is not a translation of the extant Pahlavi ZWY and is derived from another recension of apocalyptic materials in Pahlavi. He also offers suggestions in identifying several unspecified characters and events referred to in the text whose identities have been debated for decades. The book is relevant to those interested in Zoroastrianism, Iranian apocalyptic traditions, and anyone studying the Arab conquests in Western and Central Asia in 6ᵗʰ to 9ᵗʰ c. CE.

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Books

Varia Manichaica

Morano, Enrico & Samuel N. C. Lieu (eds.). 2024. Varia Manichaica (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum. Analecta Manichaica 3). Turnhout: Brepols.

This volume brings together the works of some of the best known and most established scholars in Gnostic and Manichaean studies, Iranologists and art historians. It contains two important and indispensable catalogues of Turfan texts and also studies covering topics such as cosmogony, hymnology and manuscript illumination. A number of Turfan texts in Sogdian and Uygur are published here for the first time.

Table of Contents

  • Sergio Basso: “Manichaean fragments related to the ‘Barlaam and Ioasaph saga’”
  • Adam Benkato: A Fragment of an Iranian Manichaean ‘Oral Tradition’
  • Fernando Bermejo-Rubio: Mani as a paradigm of the Manichaean Church in the Cologne Mani Codex
  • Şehnaz Biçer and Betül Özbay: The Lotus illustration in a Manichaean manuscript
  • Iris Colditz: Strategies for success. Manichaeism under the early Sasanians
  • Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst: An update of Boyce’s Catalogue of Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian 
  • Eduard Iricinschi: How Do Wisdom, Law, and Revelation a Religion Make? Appropriation and Displacement in the ‘Chapters of the Wisdom of My Lord Mani’
  • Samuel N.C. Lieu: A catalogue of the Uygur Manichaean texts 
  • Enrico Morano: Uygur in the Manichaean Sogdian texts in Manichaean script from the Berlin Turfan Collection 
  • Nicholas Sims-Williams: The “seven adversities” in a Manichaean Sogdian hymn
  • Michel Tardieu: La métaphore de l’auberge
  • Peter Zieme: “Worte für die Seele”. Altuigurische manichäische Fragmente with an appendix by Yutaka Yoshida
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Books

Zoroastrian Iconographies from Pre-Islamic Persia and Central Asia

Compareti, Matteo. 2024. Studies on Zoroastrian Iconographies from Pre-Islamic Persia and Central Asia. Roma: WriteUp.

Sogdiana was an Eastern Iranian land situated in the territories of modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It never formed a significant political or military force although, between the 6th-9th centuries, Sogdians became the main actors in the caravan and maritime trade networks commonly called the “Silk Road”. Most of archaeological and artistic materials about Sogdians come from excavations in ex-Soviet Central Asia, especially the site of Penjikent (Tajikistan). Wall paintings from this important Sogdian site show a native polytheistic faith with Zoroastrian background, which is still puzzling experts of Iranian studies. During the centuries, local artists adopted external cultural elements that – once individuated – could help to shed light on unidentified deities of the Sogdian pantheon. Their comparison with Zoroastrian deities depicted in pre-Islamic Persian arts represents an invaluable instrument to improving our knowledge of this fascinating but still enigmatic field of studies.

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Books

An Armenian Futūh Narrative

La Porta, Sergio & Alison M. Vacca. 2023. An Armenian Futūh Narrative: Łewond’s Eighth-Century History of the Caliphate (Late Antique and Medieval Islamic near East 4). Chicago: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago.

The History of the Armenian priest Łewond is an important source for the history of early Islamic rule and the only contemporary chronicle of second/eighth-century caliphal rule in Armenia. This volume presents a diplomatic edition and new English translation of Łewond’s text, which describes events that took place during the century and a half following the Prophet Muḥammad’s death in AH 11/632 CE. The authors address Łewond’s account as a work of caliphal history, written in Armenian, from within the Caliphate. As such, this book provides a critical reading of the Caliphate from one of its most significant provinces. Reading notes clarify many aspects of the period covered to make the text understandable to students and specialists alike. Extensive commentary elucidates Łewond’s narrative objectives and situates his History in a broader Near Eastern historiographical context by bringing the text into new conversations with a constellation of Arabic, Greek, and Syriac works that cover the same period. The book thus stresses the multiplicity of voices operating in the Caliphate in this pivotal period of Near Eastern history.  

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Books

Festschrift Pierfrancesco Callieri

Colliva, Luca, Anna Filigenzi & Luca Maria Olivieri (eds.). 2023. Le forme della città: Iran, Gandhāra e Asia Centrale. Scritti offerti a Pierfrancesco Callieri in occasione del suo 65° compleanno (Serie Orientale Roma, Nuova Serie 34). Roma: ISMEO – Ass. Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l’Oriente.

This Festschrift volume is dedicated to Pierfrancesco Callieri, honoring their distinguished contributions to the fields of Iranian Studies. This collection brings together an array of essays by eminent scholars, covering a wide range of topics that reflect the depth and breadth of Callieri’s academic impact. From historical analyses and cultural studies to religious and linguistic explorations and archaeological insights, each contribution not only celebrates Callieri’s legacy but also advances our understanding of these richly diverse regions.

Table of Contents

Iran

  • Askari Chaverdi, M. Hasan Talebian, An Analysis on the Functionof Kabah-Ye Zardosht in Naqsh-e Rostam in the ArchaeologicalContext of Shahr-E-Parseh
  • A. Askari Chaverdi, From Seminar to World Heritage List. ArchaeologicalLandscape of Sasanian Fars: Firuzabad, Bishapur, andSarvestan
  • L. Colliva, Dal monumento alla città, una “via mediana” per l’archeologia
  • J. Cuny, Nouvelles « Épaves » de la vaisselle perse en pierre : deuxmortiers de Suse
  • B. Genito, Remains of Domestic Buildings of Probable AchaemenidDate in Eastern Iran
  • S. Gondet, R. Boucharlat, The Firuzi Area within the ArchaeologicalContext of Persepolis: a Reappraisal, Based on Mapping andChronological Remarks
  • W.F.M. Henkelman, Pitch and “All Happiness.” Bitumen in the PersepolisArchives
  • D. Huff, Remarks on the Development of Sasanian Fire Temples
  • E. Matin, From Tol-e Takht to the Persian Gulf. Pierfrancesco Callieriand the Landscapes of Ancient Fars
  • D.T. Potts, Race and Racialism in Ancient Elam: some Observationson the Archers Frieze at Susa
  • M. Rahbar, The Sasanian Tower of Silence at Bandian: a Refutationof the Excarnation Theory
  • E.W. Sauer, J. Nokandeh, H.O. Rekavandi, The Military Origins ofCities on the Sasanian Empire’s Northern Frontiers
  • .J. Wiesehöfer, Iran: Remarks on the Importance of a Major Area between550 BCE and 650 CE.

Armenia, Iraq & Centra Asia

  • Badalyan, Some Notes on the Statues of a Bull and a Cow with ItsCalf in the Haldi Temple of Musasir
  • H.-P. Francort, Sur les traces de sphinx centrasiatiques en Bactriane,dans l’Altaï, au Xinjiang, et du Martichoras en Bactriane et enInde (IVe Siècle BCE-I/IIe Siècle CE)
  • A. Invernizzi, The Adiabenian Rider. A Note on the Parthian Rock Reliefat Khinis-Bavian
  • A. Ivantchik, Iranians in the Bosporus: a New Inscription of the Roman Period
  • B. Kaim, Stucco Decoration in the Fire Temple at Mele Hairam
  • C. Lippolis, The Layout of Parthian Nisa: an Updated Overview
  • C. Lo Muzio, The “Red Hall” Murals in the Varakhsha Palace(Bukhara Oasis): Hints for a New Reading
  • P.B. Lurje, A Worship Scene on the Wall of Hisorak Palace
  • B. Lyonnet, Questions on the Origin of the Iron Age Circular Fortressesin Central Asia and of Monumental Architecture in Sogdiana
  • V. Messina, Polis o Cosmopoli? Percezioni e realtà della città anticoorientaledi età ellenistica
  • C. Rapin, Sources antiques sur Maracanda-Zariaspa (La Sogdianeentre Spitamène et Alexandre Le Grand)
  • F. Sinisi, Cesura e innovazione nella glittica e nella numismatica del Nord-Ovest indiano tra epoca saka-pahlava e kushana
  • G. Vignato, Boundaries and Gates in Rock Monasteries Kucha as a Case Study

Pakistan

  • Ashraf Khan, T. Saeed, The Contribution of the Italian ArchaeologicalMission in Swat (Pakistan): a Tribute to Pierfrancesco Callieri
  • S. Baums, The Dharmarājika Bowl and Slab from Butkara I
  • P. Brancaccio, Between Storytelling and Performance. The Narrativeof the Buddha’s Life in Urbanized Gandhara
  • O. Coloru, Demetrio Rex Indorum, Menandro I e Barikot. Un’ipotesidi lavoro
  • A. Filigenzi, Il Tempio Vishnuita di Barikot: nuovi dati archeologicie qualche riflessione sul paesaggio identitario
  • Ghani-ur-Rahman, A Fitting Tribute to Pierfrancesco Callieri
  • E. Iori, The Achaemenid “Mirage” in Gandhāra: a Study of the 5th-4th Century BCE Pottery from Barikot
  • L.M. Olivieri, M. Minardi, Scavare a Barikot. Le fasi tardo-antiche
  • C.A. Petrie, Regional Variations in the Ceramic Assemblages of theBorderlands of Pakistan during the Hindu-Shahi and Early IslamicPeriods. Some Observations about Barikot and Akra, and theBroader Patterns They Reveal
  • M. Vidale, R. Micheli, Out of Context, but Part of a Broader Picture.A Hand-Axe from Late Bronze Age Barikot
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Books

Sasanian Administrations and Officials

Gyselen, Rika (ed.). 2024. Administrations et préposés d’époque sassanide. Nouvelles données à la mémoire de Philippe Gignoux (Cahiers de Studica Iranica 66). Paris: Association pour l’Avancement des études iraniennes.

This volume brings together studies based on primary sources, often unpublished, which highlight important aspects of the administration of the Sasanian Empire. Some complete our knowledge on the territorial establishment of the various administrations and of the mints, others deal with the actors of these institutions such as the magi and the scribes. The sources used are mainly seals and seal impressions on clay bullae.

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Studies in Iranian Philology

Barbera, Gerardo, Matteo De Chiara, Alessandro Del Tomba, Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā, Federico Dragoni & Paola Orsatti (eds.). 2024. Siddham. Studies in Iranian philology in honour of Mauro Maggi. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag.

This volume is a tribute to Mauro Maggi, celebrating his distinguished career and significant contributions in the fields of Iranian, Indo-Aryan, and Central Asian philology and linguistics. It features a diverse collection of papers presented by colleagues, former students, and friends, reflecting the broad spectrum of Mauro Maggi’s research interests. This collection not only honours Mauro Maggi’s extensive scholarly contributions but also serves as a valuable resource for researchers in Iranian, Indo-Aryan, and Central Asian studies. It will be of interest and value to scholars of Iranian philology and linguistics, as well as those in Indo-European linguistics, Central Asian philology, and Buddhist literature. Through this comprehensive tribute, the volume underscores the lasting impact of Mauro Maggi’s work and his enduring legacy in the field.

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Transversal Studies on the Reigns of Yazdgird I and Wahrām V

Jullien, Christelle (ed.). 2023. Discourse, power issues, and images. Transversal studies on the reigns of Yazdgird I and Wahrām V (Late Antique History and Religion). Leuven: Peeters.

What images of Yazdgird I (399-420) and Wahrām V (420-438) have been transmitted in the sources from and outside the Persian empire? Those nearly forty years saw a rich and complex relationship develop between Persia and its neighbours, paving the way for the Sasanians to extend their influence beyond the borders. At the beginning of the fifth century, while exchanges and relations of subordination were being reconfigured in the Middle East, the religious communities of the Sasanian empire (Babylonian Jewry, diverse Christian communities, Manichaeans, etc.) created the conditions for a new relationship with power. These two great sovereigns were emblematic and inspired contrasting portrayals – either controversial or idealised – that integrate narrative models sometimes borrowed from other cultures. A major aim of this book is to bring together the up-to-date knowledge about this topic through a comprehensive enquiry and comparison of contemporaneous and later materials.

Table of Contents

  • Geoffrey Greatrex and George Amanatidis-Saadé: “Les relations romano-perses sous Yazdgird Ier et Wahrām V”
  • Giusto Traina: “Yazdgird I, Wahrām V, and the End of Greater Armenia: A Note on the Armenian Sources”
  • Rika Gyselen: “Entre tradition et innovation : temoignages materiels de l’epoque de Yazdgird Ier et de Wahrām V”
  • Touraj Daryaee: “The Two Kings of Erānsahr: Yazdgird I ‘The Sinner’ and Wahrām V ‘The Onager’ in the Xwadāy-nāmag Tradition”
  • Geoffrey Herman: “Tue Jews of Babylonia during the Reigns of Kings Yazdgird I and Wahrām V”
  • Scott McDonough: “A Tale of Two Isaacs: Christians and the Crown in Fifth Century Erānsahr”
  • Christelle Jullien: “Les affaires de pyrees sous Yazdgird I. Motif hagiographique et modèles littéraires”
  • Marie-Joseph Pierre and Chiemi Nakano: “Le synode de 410, avant et apres”
  • Philip Wood: “Rewriting History: Yazdgird I, Wahrām V and the Chronicle of Seert“