Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Category: Articles

  • Sasanian and Islamic Exports to Japan

    Priestman, Seth. 2016. “The Silk Road or the Sea? Sasanian and Islamic Exports to Japan“, Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 3(1).

    This article considers the movement of commodities manufactured in southern Iraq during the Sasanian and Early Islamic periods to the furthest eastern extremity of the Old World: to the archipelago of Japan. In particular the focus is on two categories of non-perishable finds that survive within the archaeological record: glass vessels and turquoise blue alkaline glazed ceramic jars. We begin by providing an outline of the definition and dating of what is a commonplace and widely distributed ceramic product within the Middle East and western Indian Ocean area. It is then possible to place these finds within a broader context by reviewing the evidence for the earliest West Asian exports to Japan and what these might tell us about the mechanisms of their transmission and circulation and the role of such imports within an East Asian context. Specifically these include glass vessels dated to the Sasanian period followed some time later by ceramic vessels manufactured at the time of the Abbasid Caliphate. The continued arrival of Islamic glass into this later period is not a subject that will be covered specifically as it does not contribute directly to the main arguments that are developed below. Finally the finds are used to shed light on the broader debate surrounding the development of the Indian Ocean economy and to what extent Japan itself may have been commercially integrated within a wider commodity exchange
    network.

    Seth Priestman is a research assistant at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on processes of long-term socio-economic change, commodity exchange networks and craft production within the Middle East and the wider Afro-Eurasian area during the Sasanian (Late Antique) and Islamic periods.

  • The Burning of Greek Temples by the Persians

    Rung, Eduard. 2016. “The Burning of Greek Temples by the Persians and Greek War-Propaganda“, in Krzysztof Ulanowski (ed.), The Religious Aspects of War in the Ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome (Ancient Warfare Series Volume 1), Leiden; Boston: Brill, 166–179.

     

     

  • The Mystery of the Central Stone Slab in the Tripylon Gate of Persepolis

    Razmjou, Shahrokh. 2015-2016. “The Mystery of the Central Stone Slab in the Tripylon Gate of Persepolis”, Journal of Archaeological Studies 7(2), 69-83.

    It has been proposed that some structures at Persepolis served as calendrical or astronomical mechanisms. Despite a general lack of evidence of such functionality at the site, a stone slab in the Central Palace (the Tripylon Gate) has been claimed as evidence supporting this theory. The chiselled signs on this slab have been interpreted as symbols indicating the precise time of the spring equinox (March 21) marking the beginning of the new year. The suggestion that the Central Palace served as an ancient observatory, however, requires a closer inspection. To properly interpret the intended function of this stone and its mysterious signs, it must be studied in the context of archaeological and architectural investigations.

    In original:
    رزمجو، شاهرخ. 1394. «معمای سنگ میانی در کاخ مرکزی تخت جمشید»، مطالعات باستان‌شناسی، دورۀ 7، شمارۀ 2، صفحات 69-83.

  • Images of Daēnā and Mithra on Two Seals

    Shenkar, Michael. 2015. “Images of Daēnā and Mithra on Two Seals from the Indo-Iranian Borderlands“, Studia Iranica 44(1), 99-117.

    The article discusses two seals from the recently published collection of Aman Ur Rahman that depict previously unrecognized images of Iranian deities. It is suggested that the first seal, of eastern Sasanian manufacture, depicts a unique image of the Daēnā accompanied by two dogs. The second seal shows a well-known motif of a chariot of Mithra. The inscription connects it with the Pārata kings and helps to date the seal to the third-fourth centuries CE.

  • The making of Turan

    Payne, Richard. 2016. The making of Turan: The fall and transformation of the Iranian east in late antiquity. Journal of Late Antiquity 9(1). 4–41.

    Contemporaneously with the fall and transformation of the Roman West, the Iranian Empire yielded its East to Hun—and later Turk—conquerors. This article traces the development of post-Iranian regimes through the dynamic interplay of nomadic and sedentary political institutions in the fourth through early seventh centuries. The conquerors adopted Iranian institutions, integrated the Iranian aristocracy, and presented themselves as the legitimate heirs of the kings of kings in a manner reminiscent of post-Roman rulers. At the same time, however, the Huns and the Turks retained the superior military resources of nomadic imperialism, included the Ira-nian East in trans-Eurasian networks, and distinguished themselves as rul-ing ethno-classes tied to the steppe. The resulting hybrid political culture came to be known as Turan.

    The article is also available from the authors’s academia.edu page here.

  • Parthian kingship

    Edward Dąbrowa, “Kingship ii. Parthian Period,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2016, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kingship-02-parthian-period (accessed on 25 July 2016).

    Parthian kingship started with the Arsacids monarchy and was an original form of Oriental kingship. The royal ideology was created by combining elements of different provenance; Greek elements were systematically removed or relegated to be replaced by Iranian traditions.

  • Vermin and poison in Zoroastrian thought

    Lincoln, Bruce. 2015. Toward a more materialistic ethics: Vermin and poison in Zoroastrian thought. Studia Iranica 44(1). 83–98.

    Absent from the Older Avesta, vermin and poison first appear in a few verses of the Younger Avesta, whose authors misinterpreted Yasna 34.5c (where they mistook adjectival xrafstra- for a substantive) and Yasna 49.11c (whose ‘evil foods’ [akāiš xvarəθāiš] they took to be poison [viša-]). The Pahlavi texts take the argument further, developing a narrative in which these creatures and substances become prime weapons of Ahriman in his assault on Ohrmazd’s Good Creation. Speculation along these lines introduced novel understandings of evil as a lethal substance, rather than a destructive disposition or spirit, moving questions of morality from metaphysics to physics.

  • Repetitions or Omissions? Different Versions of Widēwdād 22

    Ferrer-Losilla, Juanjo. 2015. Repetitions or omissions? Different versions of Widēwdād 22. Studia Iranica 44 (2).  207–225.

    The present paper analyses two versions that appear in the 22nd chapter of an intercalated text of the Zoroastrian Long Liturgy, the Widēwdād: a longer version in the Iranian manuscripts and a shorter in the Indian ones. It is shown that we stand before two different real versions in the ritual praxis of this ceremony, though it is difficult to evaluate the date in which each version appeared or whether one version could arise from the other after the beginning of the written transmission. Other passages of the Widēwdād containing similar problems are analysed in a brief appendix.

  • DABIR – Vol. 1, Issue 2

    The latest issue of DABIR has been published and is available here: Issue 02 – Dabir Journal.

    The Digital Archive of Brief notes & Iran Review (DABIR) is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal published by the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine.

    Table of Contents

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  • Middle Persian abāz-handāxtan

    Saadat, Yusef. 2014. “Middle Persian abāz-handāxtan,” Journal of persianate studies 7, 137-148.

    The verb abāz-handāxtan is used in Dēnkard IV. Different definitions of the verb caused two divergent interpretations of the history of the Zoroastrians scriptures during Sasanian era. This article does not attempt to provide a third category of meaning, but tries to suggest a kind of modification to the traditionally accepted meaning of ‘to collate’. The new proposed meaning is derived from New Persian texts, which include similar usage of the verb and were written not much later than Middle Persian ones. The suggested meaning is ‘to (re-)measure’.