Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Category: Articles

  • Christian Slavery in Fars

    Christian Slavery in Fars

    Stadel, Seth M. 2025. The legal constructions of Christian slavery in Fars at the end of Late Antiquity. Journal of Late Antiquity 18(2). 401–422.

    In the seventh and eighth centuries, the Church of the East community in Fars (southwest Iran) slowly developed a distinctive identity in response to the political, religious, and cultural changes that transformed the region in the wake of the Arab conquest of Iran in the early to mid-seventh century. One facet of this emerging identity centered around the institution of slavery. The only known witnesses preserving details of the practice of Christian slavery in Fars are the lawbooks of Church of the East metropolitan bishops Simeon of Revardashir (mid-seventh century) and Isho‘bokht of Revardashir (late eighth century), each of whom produced their respective legal work for the Christian community in this region. This article examines the legal constructions of Christian slavery in Fars in the context of extant Sasanian slave laws and documentary evidence. It also discusses the extent to which these two metropolitan bishops developed Sasanian slave laws for the purpose of establishing legal boundaries that demarcated Christian slavery from non-Christian slavery in Fars, and it considers the probable reasons that motivated their production of slave regulations for Christians in this region at the end of Late Antiquity.

    Abstract
  • Persian Mazdaism in Cappadocia

    Persian Mazdaism in Cappadocia

    Fattori, Marco & Marco F. Ferrari. 2025. Zeus Pharnauas and Persian Mazdaism in Cappadocia. Iran 1–16.

    This article deals with the spread of Iranian religion in the western regions of the Achaemenid Empire by means of a combined analysis of historical and linguistic data. The core of the discussion is about the word Φαρνάουας, which appears as an epithet of Zeus in a Greek inscription from Roman Cappadocia. After showing, on linguistic grounds, that this epithet must have originated in the empire heartland during the Achaemenid period, some reflections are offered on the way by which Persian religious elements ended up in Cappadocia. In the framework of a survey of the traces of Iranian religion in Achaemenid and post-Achaemenid Cappadocia, another interesting point of contact between Cappadocia and the local cultic reality of Persia is pointed out – the female theonym *R̥tāna fravr̥tiš “Frauuaṣ̌i of the Righteous”, both attested in the Cappadocian calendar and the Elamite administrative documents from Persepolis.

  • Achaemenid Zoroastrian Echoes

    Achaemenid Zoroastrian Echoes

    Barnea, Gad. 2025. Some Achaemenid Zoroastrian echoes in early Yahwistic sources. Iran. 1–10.

    In her magnum opus, A History of Zoroastrianism, Mary Boyce perceptively noted that often, in the history of this Iranian religion, “developments within Iran itself have to be deduced from the ripples which they caused abroad”. This is certainly true of the history of Achaemenid-era Zoroastrianism, the characteristics (and in some circles even the existence) of which, continue to be a matter of debate even as more and more information regarding its possible features continues to emerge. This article aims to complement the current body of knowledge with data gathered from Yahwistic sources outside of Iran to enhance and solidify our understanding of Achaemenid-era Zoroastrianism and its contours. It reviews the current state of scholarship and the significant progress that has been made in the recent decades and studies some Zoroastrian/Avestan echoes preserved in Yahwistic sources in Upper Egypt, mostly at Elephantine, which provide first-hand documentation of Zoroastrian devotion.

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  • Two articles by Arish Dastur

    Two articles by Arish Dastur

    Dastur, Arish. 2025. Imbued with the essence of the Gods: The intersection between Zoroastrian theology and the Old Avestan possessive adjectives derived from personal pronouns. Bulletin of SOAS, FirstView 1–34.

    The Gāϑās of Zaraϑuštra provide us with the Old Avestan attestations of the adjectives mauuaṇt-, ϑβāuuaṇt– and xšmāuuaṇt-/yūšmāuuaṇt-. The adjective mauuaṇt– occurs twice in the Gāϑās, while ϑβāuuaṇt– occurs five times and xšmāuuaṇt-/yūšmāuuaṇt– occurs seven times. Over the years, little effort has been put into studying the broader context in which these words are situated or into understanding the specific use and significance of these words in the Gāϑās. The basis for their translation has mostly been exogenous, with the early Avestan scholars using the readily available meanings of the Vedic equivalents mā́vat-, tvā́vat– and yuṣmā́vat– for this purpose. In contrast, this article endeavours to understand the meaning and significance of the words mauuaṇt-, ϑβāuuaṇt– and xšmāuuaṇt-/yūšmāuuaṇt– in the context of Zoroastrian theology. It further seeks to examine the morphological basis of their meaning, to offer updated translation options for them and to situate these updated translations into the Gāϑic stanzas in which they occur.

    Abstract

    Dastur, Arish. 2024. Contending for the cosmos: A Zoroastrian poet’s mysterious rival. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 34(1). 79–108.

    The ancient Zoroastrian hymn of worship dedicated to the frauuaṣ̌i-s (affirmative choices) of righteous mortals and divinities refers to an important discourse that takes place between an unnamed Zoroastrian poet-sage and his mysterious rival, named Gaōtəma. The figure of Gaōtəma has intrigued Avestan scholars through the years, but the significance and the implications of Gaōtəma’s identity, and of his presence in the hymn, has to date not been seriously studied. This article first examines the context in which Gaōtəma is presented in the hymn. Building upon this, it then evaluates four potential identities for Gaōtəma: Avestan, Turanian, Buddhist, and Vedic. Conducting a multidisciplinary and comparative assessment, the article eventually argues in favour of a Vedic identity for Gaōtəma, specifically that of a poet-sage who was a proponent of the Rig Vedic divinity Indra. This investigation into Gaōtəma’s identity concomitantly provides important perspectives on certain aspects of the Zoroastrian religion, and often in a comparative context.

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  • East and West (vol. 64)

    East and West (vol. 64)

    The latest volume of East and West contains several interesting articles, some of which deal with aspects of ancient Iran.

    • M. Minardi, A. Bekbauliev: Report on the First Campaign of Excavations of 2023 at Bazar-kala, with Additional Considerations on the Urbanism of Ancient Chorasmia
    • S. Tusa, M. Vidale, I. Caldana, E. Lant, Faizur Rahman, L.M. Olivieri: A “Bactrian Lady” and Other Terracotta Figurines from Aligrama, Swat
    • S. Aliyari Babolghani: A Short Note on the So-called Conjugation IIm in Achaemenid Elamite
    • M.C. Benvenuto: Notes on the Bactrian Personal Name Σανδο
    • E. Filippone: Paratactic and Hypotactic Strategies in the Discourse Organization of the Multilingual Achaemenid Texts
    • F. Pompeo: Who are They Rebelling against? The Constructions of hamiçiya- bav- in the Achaemenid Royal Texts
    • A.V. Rossi: Rüdiger Schmitt and Achaemenid Iran
  • Amélie Kuhrt

    Amélie Kuhrt

    Briant, Pierre. 2025. Amélie Kuhrt. 23 September 1944 – 2 January 2023. Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy 22: 483-503.

    Amélie Kuhrt, eminent historian of the Ancient Near East, and more specifically renowned for her teaching at University College London, for actively contributing to organising the Achaemenid History Workshops and for her many leading publications on the Achaemenid Empire and Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylonia, died on 2 January 2023, after living for several years with Parkinson’s disease.

  • An Achaemenid Column Base from Farouq

    Shobairi, S.A. 2025. An Achaemenid column base from Farouq. ARTA 2025.003.

    This paper examines a column base from the Achaemenid period (ca. 550–330 BC), discovered in the village of Farouq, approximately 20 kilometers northeast of Persepolis, and provides a report and analysis of the issues surrounding this column base. Although its original location remains uncertain, similar examples have been documented at well-known Achaemenid sites in Fars. These parallels offer a basis for chronological analysis and may yield insights into the intended function of the column base.

  • Women in Cultic Functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon

    Debourse, Céline. 2025. Women in Cultic Functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon. In: Shawna Dolansky & Sarah Shectman (eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in the Ancient Near East, 147-157. London: Bloomsbury.

    This chapter explores the roles of women in cultic functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon, focusing on cuneiform evidence from temple contexts. These sources reveal their increasing involvement in sacred rituals and temple administration. Through analysis of titles, the study highlights both continuity and innovation in female religious roles.

  • Miscellanea Epigraphica Susiana II

    Fattori, Marco. 2025. Miscellanea Epigraphica Susiana II: Addenda et corrigenda. Arta 2025.002.

    In this article I propose some corrections and additions to my previous contribution Miscellanea Epigraphica Susiana, made possible by the recent publication of a book dealing, among other things, with the same inscriptions (DSe, DSi, A2Se). In particular, I provide: a complete restoration of the final portion of the Elamite version of DSe highlighting some textual parallels found in the Meso-Elamite, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian epigraphic tradition; an etymological discussion on the newly discovered OP word kabnu– “ruined, dilapidated”; and some improvements in the reading and interpretation of a new fragment of the Elamite version of A2Se.

  • Indo-Iranian Journal

    Indo-Iranian Journal

    Indo-Iranian Journal volume 68, issue 2 (June 2025) has been published (h/t @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social‬). Two articles and two reviews relate to our work: