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Books

Bodyguards in the Ancient Mediterranean

Hebblewhite, Mark & Conor Whately (eds.). 2023. Brill’s Companion to Bodyguards in the Ancient Mediterranean. Leiden: Brill.

Among other interesting papers, two contributions are related to ancient Iranian history:

  • Michael Charles: Apple Bearers and Kinsmen Cavalry: Guards Units of the Kings of Achaemenid Persia
  • Jeffrey Rop: The Four Hundred and the Ten Thousand: The Politics of Greek Bodyguard Service in the Achaemenid Empire
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Journal

Dabir (vol. 10)

Volume 10 of Dabir, dated 2023, is now available with two issues.

Issue 1:

  • Nima Asefi: Open Access Frāy in Seven Documents from the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijan
  • Majid Daneshgar: Anthologies of Persian Poetry Inscribed in Indonesia: A Handlist of Rare Manuscripts
  • Mustafa Dehqan: Restricted Access From Historian to Poet: A Checklist of the Persian Poems of Idrīs Bidlīsī (Hašt Bihišt VI, Nuruosmaniye 3209)
  • Marco Ferrario: Before Skunḫa. A (Trans)Local Perspective on the Rise of the Teispid-Achaemenid Frontiers in Baktria, Sogdiana, and Beyond
  • Saloumeh Gholami: The Zoroastrian Manuscripts of the Rostam Jāmāsb’s Family and a New Dating of Videvdād 4100
  • Book Review:
  • David Gilinsky: ‘Shirat Moshe: A Complete Hebrew translation of Shahin’s Musa Nameh – the greatest poet of Iranian Jewry’ [Hebrew] , written by Baruch Pickel

Issue 2:

  • Negar Habibi: On Persian Design and Fashion in Twentieth-Century France: The 1930 Jean Pozzi Catalogue of Persian Art
  • Stefan Härtel: Thoughts on the Iconography of the Sophytos Coinage
  • Götz König: On the Yašt Gāhān (= Gāh Sārnā)
  • Nina Mazhjoo: Taking the Bull by His Horn: Augustus Slays the Mithraic Bull
  • Daniel T. Potts: Restricted Access The Tassels of Royal and Divine Sasanian Horses
  • Enrico G. Raffaelli: Restricted Access Dahmān Āfrīn and Srōš: Analyzing a Connection
  • Book Reviews:
  • Khodadad Rezakhani: the Age of the Great Kings , written by Lloyd Llwellyn-Jones
  • Hossein Sheikh: Hunnic peoples in Central and South Asia: sources for their origin and history , edited by Dániel Balogh
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Books

The Art of Teaching Persian Literature

Lewis, Franklin,Asghar Seyed-Gohrab & Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi (eds.). 2024. The Art of Teaching Persian Literature: From Theory to Practice. Leiden: Brill.

This unique book is the first publication on the art of teaching Persian literature in English, consisting of 18 chapters by prominent early-career, mid-career and established scholars, who generously share their experiences and methodologies in teaching both classical and modern Persian literature across various academic traditions in the world. The volume is divided into three parts: the background to teaching Persian literature: pedagogy, translation and canon, and thematic and topical approaches to the Persian literature class. It includes such topics as the history of teaching Persian literature, the traditional teaching of Persian literature, the political and ideological intentions revealed in the formation of the Persian literature curriculum, the necessity to include marginalized modern Persian literature, such as women’s or diaspora literature, and more applied approaches to curriculum development and teaching.

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Journal

Iran, Volume 62, Issue 1 (2024)

The table of contents of the latest issue (62/1) of the journal Iran:

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Books

In Search of Cultural Identities in West and Central Asia

Colburn, Henry P., Betty Hensellek & Judith A. Lerner (eds.). 2023. In Search of Cultural Identities in West and Central Asia: A Festschrift for Prudence Oliver Harper (Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology 3). Turnhout: Brepols.

How do we reconstruct ancient societies’ cultural and visual identities? Prudence Oliver Harper has dedicated her scholarly and curatorial career to piecing together the material culture of communities across ancient Western Asia, Iran, and Central Asia. A number of her colleagues – art historians, archaeologists, philologists, and conservators – have contributed essays to this volume to reflect Harper’s range of contributions throughout her six-decade career. Many of the essays focus on ancient metalwork, Harper’s major expertise, while others on glyptics, ivory, or glass, three of her other interests. The essays aim to make sense of this region’s diverse cultural identities, many of which are the results of cross-cultural exchange. Some authors have employed iconographical or socio-historical approaches; others have complementarily opened new facets of cultural identities through technical and scientific analyses, collection history, and provenance research.

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Books

Landscapes, Scriptures, Symbols and Architectures of Ancient Iran

The volume 26 of the journal ISIMU is now out and it is dedicated to aspects of ancient Iranian architecture and culture: Landscapes, Scriptures, Symbols and Architectures of Ancient Iran.

  • Fernando Escribano Martín, Carmen del Cerro Linares, Carlos Fernández Rodríguez y Francisco L. Borrego Gallardo: Presentación
  • Silvia Balatti: I materiali scrittori dell’Iran achemenide
  • Pierfrancesco Callieri: Babilonesi a Persepoli. Nuovi studi sull’architettura dell’Antica Persia
  • Fernando Escribano Martín: El jardín persa, intento de explicación y búsqueda de orígenes y trascendencias
  • Carlos Fernández Rodríguez: La gestión del agua y la habitabilidad del sur de Irán durante la Edad del Hierro
  • Zahara Gharehkhani: Criaturas híbridas de la Persia preislámica. Reflexiones y simbolismo
  • Sébastien Gondet: Observations on the environmental setting of the agricultural development and occupational history of Achaemenid Persepolis
  • Alireza Khounani: The Vineyards of Parthian Arsacid Nisa (151–15 BCE): Rent Farming and Cash Crop Agriculture from the Perspective of the Ostraca
  • Giulio Maresca: An overview of the pottery from Sistan in the Late Iron Age/Achaemenid period
  • Negin Miri and Cyrus Nasrollahzadeh: Another bulla of Weh-Šāpur, ĒrānSpāhbed of Kust-i-Nēmrōz from the Treasury of Mostazafan Foundation’s Cultural Institution of Museums in Tehran
  • Davide Salaris and Roberto Dan: Exploring the archaeology and significance of Masjed-e Soleyman: a reassessment of the Elymaean Temple and its socio-cultural context in southwestern Iran
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Books

Contextualizing Herodotus

Degen, Julian, Hilmar Klinkott, Robert Rollinger, Kai Ruffing & Truschnegg Brigitte (eds.). 2024. Ancient World in Perspective: Contextualizing Herodotus (Philippika 150). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

This volume is a collection of papers presented at a workshop commemorating the 20th anniversary of Reinhold Bichler’s monograph Herodots Welt.

It convenes a group of international specialists discussing Herodotus’ work from different perspectives. From the backdrop of ongoing scholarly debates, this volume seeks to offer a fresh look on the Histories. The various contributions present a nuanced portrayal of Herodotus as an author and the Histories as a literary cosmos, enhancing our comprehension of one of the most significant surviving texts from the Classical period. The topics cover a wide range of themes, including the structure of Herodotus’ historiographical narrative, his responses to the politics of Athens as well as the Achaemenid Empire, and the reception of his work. Finally, Herodotus’ description of the “world”, his conceptual ideas on regions and human culture and also the ongoing problems of how to deal with the Histories as a historical source are central questions addressed in this volume.

For a ToC, click here.

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Journal

Iranica Antiqua, Volume 58

The table of contents of the latest issue (58) of the journal Iranica Antiqua:

  • Enrico ASCALONE, Pierfrancesco VECCHIO: Shahr-i Sokhta New Revised Sequence
  • Roberto DAN, Annarita S. BONFANTI: Seals and Sealing in Bia/Urartu. The Inscribed Seal
  • Hanna VERTIIENKO: A ‘Rooster-Man’ on the Gold Plate from Soboleva Mohyla
  • Eduard RUNG: On Metonomasia in the Achaemenid Dynasty
  • Marco FERRARIO: Just Send me Words. The Imperial Political Economies of Ancient Bactria
  • Rika GYSELEN, Hamid ZOHOORIAN: Deux sceaux sassanides avec le motif de l’autel du feu et la formule ātaxš … deh nišāst
  • D.T. Potts: The Antiquity and Nature of Horseshoeing in Iran
  • Clélia PALADRE: Rediscovering Mudbrick Architecture in Susa Fantasy or Reality?
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Books

The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra

Raja, Rubina (ed.). 2024. The Oxford handbook of Palmyra. New York: Oxford University Press.

The monumental remains of Palmyra (also known as Tadmor) have fascinated travelers and scholars for centuries. The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra gives a detailed analysis of the archaeology and history of this ancient oasis city in the Syrian Desert, spanning evidence from several millennia. With contributions from thirty archaeologists, epigraphists, historians, and philologists, this book covers the city’s archaeological findings and history from its earliest mentions in the pre-Roman era to the destruction of many of its monuments during the Syrian Civil War and the subsequent looting. The authors recap evidence and present significant new findings and analyses from fieldwork they or others undertook in Palmyra prior to the 2011 conflict and discuss the recent occupation by ISIS and calls to defend the site’s remains from current and future threats.

Description
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Journal

Iran and the Caucasus 28 (1-2)

The first and second issues of volume 28 of Iran and the Caucasus are published and contain several interesting contributions. Below are listed the articles that deal with ancient Iran: