Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Category: Events

  • Summer school in the Turfanforschung: Sogdians and Turks on the Silk Road

    Manichaean priests writing Sogdian manuscripts, in Khocho, Tarim Basin, ca. 8th/9th century AD
    Manichaean priests writing Sogdian manuscripts, in Khocho, Tarim Basin, ca. 8th/9th century AD

    Summer school in the Turfanforschung:

    “Sogdians and Turks on the Silk Road”

    August 22 – September 2, 2016

    Duration: two weeks, daily four seminars each 90 min.
    Location: Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

     

     

    A detailed programme is available here: “Sogdians and Turks on the Silk Road” Summer School”

    Participation is free.

    The Turfanforschung (Turfan Studies) at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities offers in 2016 a summer school providing an introduction to the field of Turfan Studies, which deals with the many languages and scripts used along the Silk Road as well as the histories and cultures of those who used them. The summer school will center around the two main languages of Turfan research. Sogdian, a middle Iranian language, was widely used as a lingua franca in Central Asia since the 1st c. A.C. Old Turkic was the language of Turkic nomads which had a strong influence on the Silk Road since the middle of the 6th c. After the migration of the Uyghurs it was also used as the main language in the Turfan area under Uyghur rule until 14th c.

    The courses in this summer school will be given by the staff of the Turfanforschung and the Katalogisierung der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland (Arbeitsstelle Berlin): A. Benkato, D. Durkin-Meisterernst, Y. Kasai, S.- Ch. Raschmann, C. Reck, A. Yakup. There will also be guest lectures by I. Colditz, M. Peyrot and L. Sander.

    Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jägerstraße 22-23,
    10117 Berlin

    Topics:
    1. Scripts

    • Sogdian script
    • Uyghur script
    • Turkic Runic
    • Nestorian script
    • Manichaean script
    • Brāhmī script

    2. Language: Old Turkic

    • language course with reading
    • lecture for linguistics

    3. Language: Sogdian

    • language course with reading
    • lecture for linguistics

    4. Language: Tocharian

    5. Turfan studies

    • history of the Turfan expeditions
    • Central Asian book culture
    • history
    • religions
    • research history

    Because a minimum number of participants are required for the summer school to take place, we ask for a binding registration by 20th May 2016 at rabuske@bbaw.de or in writing at: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften AV Turfanforschung, Jägerstraße 22-23, D-10117, Berlin.

     

     

  • The concept of Iran

    Sasanian SilkThe Concept of Iran in Zoroastrian and Other Traditions

    Professor François de Blois (AHRC Research Fellow, UCL)

    Date: 21 April 2016Time: 6:00 PM
    Finishes: 21 April 2016Time: 8:00 PM
    Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings
    Room: Khalili Lecture Theatre

    Series: Dastur Dr Sohrab Hormasji Kutar Memorial Lecture Series

    (more…)

  • Calendars in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

    ERC Project ‘Calendars in Antiquity and the Middle Ages’, Workshop 7

    Al-Biruni and his world

    15 February 2016

    Calendars in Antiquity and the Middle Ages’

    Source: ERC Project ‘Calendars in Antiquity and the Middle Ages’, Workshop 7

    Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, who flourished at the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century CE, was a famous Central Asian astronomer, mathematician and polymath. His book known in English as “The Chronology of Ancient Nations” is probably the most important book ever on the history of calendars and technical and historical chronology. In our workshop we will be examining different aspects of this work, and also of his great astronomical compendium “al-Qanun al-Mas’udi”.

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  • Networks: Connecting the Middle East through Time, Space and Cyberspace

    Image: josullivan.59 via Flickr | ‘World Airline Routes’

    BRISMES Annual Conference 2016 Networks: Connecting the Middle East through Time, Space and Cyberspace

    BRISMES Annual Conference 2016 will take place at the University of Wales Trinity St David, Lampeter Campus, on 13 – 15 July.

    The Middle East and North Africa as a region is intimately connected both regionally and to the wider world. This is true historically, where the region has long acted as a crossroads of trade, culture and ideas, as well as in more contemporary contexts – when Arab protest movements inspired similar actions around the world, and migration within and from the region is having a global impact. It is no coincidence that the Middle East is at the forefront of innovative developments in social media and other networks of communication.

    Papers and panels on historical or contemporary issues are welcome as part of sub-themes such as this one:
•Networks within religion: religious communities (ancient and modern), interfaith connections, religious authority and evolving theological interpretations.

  • Amélie Kuhrt to deliver the Harold Bailey Lecture 2015

    Friday 11th December, 5.30pm at FAMES, Cambridge
    Professor Amélie Kuhrt, FBA  – The King Speaks: The Persians and their Empire
    The Achaemenid empire was created in the space of less than thirty years and dominated, with considerable success, a region stretching from Central Asia to the Aegean for around 200 years. How did the Persian kings and ruling elite visualise their immense power? How was that vision expressed? In this talk, Amélie Kuhrt, Professor Emeritus at University College London, aims to present an outline of the Persian image of their domain, concentrating on monuments and inscriptions from the royal centres and leaving aside the stories of outsiders, such as Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Jews. 
    The lecture will begin promptly at 5.30pm, followed by a reception.
    Admission free. Booking not required.
    Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
    Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA
    Enquiries: info@indiran.org
    Tel. 01223 356841

  • Sasanian law in its social context

    The 2015 UCLA Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series will be delivered by Prof. Maria Macuch:

    Sasanian law in its social context

    November 9-18, 2015

    Legal texts are among the more important sources for the reconstruction of the political and economic institutions, and cultural practices, of late antique Iran, as they considerably further our understanding of past social complexities that are decisively different than our own. This year’s Ehsan Yarshater Biennial Lectures shall provide a sweeping overview and detailed analysis of the principal fields of jurisprudence in Sasanian Iran (third to seventh centuries CE). The five lectures will be investigating the genesis of legal institutions that were instrumental in consolidating the social status of Sasanian élites, notably, the Zoroastrian clergy and the Iranian aristocracy.

    As far as we know, the lectures are announced individually. The brochure for Prof. Macuch's lectures is available here: UCLA Yarshater Lectures 2015 Macuch

    The Lectures:

      1. Legal Sources and Instruments of Law
        The opening lecture will provide an overview of the available legal material, dispersed in a great variety of sources, and discuss the many pitfalls Iranists encounter in reconstructing the Sasanian legal system.
      2. Kinship Ties and Fictive Alliances
        The second lecture examines questions pertaining to Family Law, in particular, the role of kinship ties that are of paramount importance in Sasanian jurisprudence. The lecture also elaborates on the significance of legal institutions within the context of marriage and succession.
      3. Property and Inheritance
        The third lecture explores the general concept of property, in particular,
        how it gave rise to complex categories crucial to preserving the possessions of affluent élites, while ensuring that proprietary rights were preserved from one generation to the next.
      4. Civil and Criminal Proceedings
        The fourth lecture reviews the judicial system, the foundation upon which the privileges of the élites were built, and the position of religious minorities, the Jews and Christians, within the framework of the judiciary.
      5. Sasanian Law and other Legal Systems
        The final lecture discusses the impact of Iranian law on other important legal systems of the Near East, be it Rabbinic and Nestorian-Christian, or be it Islamic and especially Shi’ite, law.

  • Sanskrit in Persianate India

    Sanskrit and Persian—both as languages and cultural systems—overlapped in time and space for several centuries on the precolonial subcontinent. But only more recently have scholars investigated points of intersection and exchange between these two linguistic and intellectual traditions. Scholars of Indo-Persian have recently devoted substantial attention to various sorts of Sanskrit-Persian encounters, such as the translation of Sanskrit works into Persian and multilingual patronage ties. In this conference, we aim to highlight and spur thinking about similar cross-cultural interactions between members of the Sanskrit and Persian traditions from the vantage point of Sanskrit literary culture.

    The last few decades have witnessed a surge in scholarly attention to Sanskrit during the medieval and early modern periods. Within this wider area of interest, many scholars have begun to ask questions about how Sanskrit thinkers conceptualized Persian, the only viable rival to Sanskrit as a transregional idiom, and exchanges between the two traditions. Sanskrit-focused scholarship sheds light on intellectual, social and literary aspects of medieval and early modern India and is thus crucial for understanding these complex periods. Sanskrit texts also provide tools for analyzing the larger categories that we use for precolonial Indian literature, including the popular but problematic idea of “Indo-Persian” as a distinct literary and cultural realm. Yet such scholarship is still in its infancy and struggles for attention among a wider audience. This conference will highlight fresh, dynamic research and consider future avenues, both individually and collectively, for emphasizing Sanskrit materials in the exciting, but currently Persian-dominated, study of medieval and early modern India. We aim to give coherence and visibility to an emerging, vibrant subfield of South Asian studies, especially the crucial place of Sanskrit materials and Sanskritists within that subfield.

    For more information see Papers and Abstracts. (more…)

  • CfP: Endangered Iranian Languages

    ISEIL 2016

    Second International Symposium on “Endangered Iranian Languages”

    8 – 9  JULY  2016, PARIS, FRANCE

    CNRS, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, INALCO, EPHE

    The International Symposium on Endangered Iranian Languages (ISEIL) proudly announces the second symposium to be held at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle, France, from 8 to 9 July 2016, as part of a cooperation between the Empirical Linguistics, at the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany and UMR “Mondes iranien et indien” (CNRS, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, INALCO, EPHE).

    The Symposium is the most significant gathering of scholars from all the regions of the world and across different disciplinary interests in the field “Endangered Iranian Languages”. It serves as a platform for presenting new knowledge and insights. (more…)

  • Photography of the Persian Past

    Persepolis in Qajar era, c. 1902. © Wikimedia

    Exhibition: The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past

    October 22, 2015- January 17, 2016
    Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Sunday 11am-6pm, Friday 11am-8pm, Closed Monday and Tuesday

    The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past explores a pivotal time in Iran, when the country was opening itself to the Western world. With over 150 photographic prints, a number of vintage photographic albums, and memorabilia that utilized formal portraiture of the shah, the exhibition shows how photographers—many of them engaged by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848-1896), the longest reigning Shah of the Qajar Dynasty (1785-1925)—sought to create a portrait of the country for both foreigners and Iranians themselves. Most of the photographs in the exhibition have never been publicly displayed.

    The Eye of the Shah includes unprecedented photographs of life in the royal court in Tehran, such as images of the last shahs of the Qajar Dynasty, their wives and children, and court entertainers. These are complemented by photographs of iconic ancient monuments and sites, such as Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam, capturing Iran’s expansive and rich historical past, which further promoted Iran and Iranian culture to the West. The photographers depicted the Iran of their day through images of modernization initiatives, such as the military, the railway, and the postal system, while the daily lives of Iranian people was revealed through photographs showing shopkeepers, street vendors, and field workers. Additionally, Eye of the Shah features pieces by two modern-day Iranian photographers, Bahman Jalali (1944-2010) and Shadi Ghadirian (b. 1974), who evoke and sometimes incorporate images of photography from the Qajar Dynasty, illustrating the continuing and powerful influence that Iranian photography of 19th and early 20th century photography has in the country’s contemporary art world.

    The image is taken from ©Wikimedia Commons.

  • Conference: The Past in the Present of the Middle East

    The Past in the Present of the Middle East

    Starts: 15 April 2016, 9:00 AM
    Finishes: 16 April 2016, 5:00 PM
    Venue: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre

    Call for papers and posters for a two-day conference organised by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and the London Middle East Institute to showcase the work of CBRL and its partners in the region. The conference will present sessions on a number of themes linking the past to the present day in the Middle East.

    • Cultural heritage in conflict
    • Cultural heritage, society and economics
    • Britain and the Levant: Culture and (Mis)Communication
    • The past in the political present: the legacy of colonialism and intervention
    • The Politics of Dissent: challenges to Orientalism and Zionism
    • The impact of research – working with humanitarian agencies/practitioners

    Closing session: The future of the past in the Middle East

    (more…)