Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

  • Myths on the Origin of Language or on the Plurality of Languages

    Thinking in Many Tongues Reading Seminar

    Myths on the Origin of Language or on the Plurality of Languages

    08.02-09.02.2017, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

    Pieter Bruegel the Elder – The Tower of Babel, 1563 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

    Programm:

    Session 1: The Tower of Babel

    • Hindy Najman: “The origin of language and the Tower of Babel”
    • Florentina Geller: “The Tower of Babel from parabiblical sources”

     Session 2: Ancient Greece and Rome

    • Filippomaria Pontani: “Greek and Roman materials”
    • Comments by Glenn Most.

    Session 3: Iran and India

    • Shervin Farridnejad: “The Language of the Gods: Some Reflections on the Origin of the Language in Zoroastrianism”
    • Roy Tzohar: “Language originated in dreams: Why Indian Buddhists do not have (almost) any myths about the creation of Languages”
    • Comments by Sonja Brentjes

    Session 4: China and Inner Asia

    •  Wolfgang Behr: “Some Ideas on the Origin of Language in Late Imperial China,” with a few words on early China”
    •  Mårten Söderblom Saarela: “Accounts of the invention of scripts in Inner Asia”
    • Comments by Dagmar Schäfer

    About the working group:

    This working group brings together around a dozen historians and philologists with diverse kinds of linguistic expertise to discuss the relation between plurilingualism and the creation and reception of monolingual and plurilingual texts in various Eurasian societies. Through joint readings and translation the group explores how the text is affected by its origin in a plurilingual society and, conversely, the effect plurilingualism has on reading practices and on a “polyglot’s” understanding of the text (its concepts and ideals). In the past – as much as in the present – the majority of people in the world, and most probably most elite communities, were enmeshed in plurilingual practices. Elites from India to the Central Asia plains, Bengali Zamindars, Parsi businessmen, and scholarly travellers and the politically privileged inhabitants around the Mediterranean or the East Asian seas used two or more languages on a daily basis. Plurilingualism was widespread and a common response to the phenomenon of great linguistic diversity, not necessarily in the sense of language mastery, but rather in the form of effective negotiation of the immediate exigencies of communication. Seeking to better understand this dynamic, the seminar investigates topics such as the impact of filtering information through varied languages; the interplay between declarative and procedural knowledge; methods and means of classification; covert translations and covert multilingualism in monolingual texts; and scholarly ideals regarding reading, writing, and linguistic media, be they purportedly perfect or original languages or newly minted would-be rational or universal languages.

    The working group is conducted and organized by Glenn W. Most, Dagmar Schäfer and Mårten Söderblom Saarela.

  • Mani in Cambridge

    Mani in Cambridge: A Day-Symposium on Manichaean Studies | Ancient India & Iran Trust

    On Saturday 25 March, as part of an ongoing research project, we are holding a one day Symposium on Manichaean Studies sponsored jointly by the Ancient India and Iran Trust, the International Association of Manichaean Studies and the Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum Project.

    Source: Mani in Cambridge: A Day-Symposium on Manichaean Studies | Ancient India & Iran Trust

  • Editing Avestan Texts in the 21st Century: Problems and Perspectives

    The Institute of Iranian Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, invites you to the 5th meeting of the Corpus Avesticum

    Editing Avestan Texts in the 21st Century: Problems and Perspectives

    Participants: M. A. Andrés-Toledo, T. F. Aufderheide, A. Cantera, S. Farridnejad, J. Ferrer, L. Goldman, A. Hintze, J. Kellens, G. König, J. Martínez-Porro, A. Panaino, B. Peschl, É. Pirart, P. Widmer and A. Zeini

    Programme:

    23 March

    • J. Kellens: “Exégèse et grammaire: le destin de l’Ahuna Vairiia”
    • A. Panaino: “Y. 71-72 and the end of the Ritual”
    • É. Pirart : “Pour de nouveaux fragments avestiques”
    • G. König: “Xorde Avesta as an editorial concept? Some considerations.”
    • A. Cantera: “Yašt ī keh /yašt ī meh: Sasanian taxonomies of the rituals in Avestan language”
    • K. Rezania: “When the text and diagram do not accord. On the textual and diagrammatic representations of the ritual surface of Barǝšnum in Avestan manuscripts”
    • B. Peschl: “Simple thematic presents with root vowel ā in Avestan: Textual corruption, genuine Avestan innovation or PIE archaism?”
    • J. Martínez-Porro & A. Cantera: “huuarə.xšaētəm. …. raēm and the aporias of the archetype”
    • J. Ferrer: “Paleographie et édition”
    • T.  F. Aufderheide: “Avestisch <ṇ>: Über den Einfluss der einheimischen Sprachwissenschaft des Alten Indiens zur Verschriftlichung des Avesta”
    • F. Dragoni: “The Pāzand of M51”
    • P. Widmer: “Editing the Atharvaveda in the 21st century: The Zurich Paippalada project”

    24 March

    • A. Hintze/L. Goldman: “Transcribing Avestan manuscripts”
    • M. A. Andrés-Toledo: “Editing the Pahlavi Widewdad”
    • A. Zeini: “Editing the Pahlavi Yasna”
    • S. Gholami: “Editing the colophons of Avestan manuscripts”
    • Round Table: “Editing Avestan texts in the 21th century: Problems and perspectives”

    Time & Place: 23.03.2017 – 24.03.2017, Institute of Iranian Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

  • A Compendium of Zoroastrian Life & Culture

    Cama, Shernaz (ed.). 2016. Threads of continuity: Zoroastrian life & culture. New Delhi: Parzor Foundation.
    Threads of Continuity Focuses on the philosophy and cultur of the ancient Zoroastrian faith from its origins i Central Asia, tracing a geographical and chronological continum till the present. This philosophy became a part of the lived heritage of the Zoroastrian community — both in India and Iran.
    Of dpecial interest are the cross-cultural influences of the comunity in India. To highlight these, Gujarat and the Deccan will be examined in detail for the first time.
    A part of this compendium also studies the contribution of the community to the making of modern India. The programme envisaged, attempts to explain the Zoroastrian philodophy of a sacred thread linking all creation.
     Table of Contents:

    (more…)

  • Imagining the Ancients in the Iranian Popularization of Pre-Islamic History

    Rezakhani, Khodadad. 2016. The present in the mind’s past: Imagining the ancients in the Iranian popularization of pre-Islamic history. In Sonja Brentjes, Taner Edis & Lutz Richter-Bernburg (eds.), 1001 distortions. How (not) to narrate history of science, medicine, and technology in non-Western cultures (Bibliotheca Academica – Reihe Orientalistik 25),  97–106. Herausgeber: Würzburg: Ergon.

     

  • ReOrienting the Sasanians

    Rezakhani, Khodadad. 2017. ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in late antiquity (Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia). Edinburgh University Press.

    Central Asia is commonly imagined as the marginal land on the periphery of Chinese and Middle Eastern civilisations. At best, it is understood as a series of disconnected areas that served as stop-overs along the Silk Road.

    However, in the mediaeval period, this region rose to prominence and importance as one of the centres of Persian-Islamic culture, from the Seljuks to the Mongols and Timur.

    Khodadad Rezakhani tells the back story of this rise to prominence, the story of the famed Kushans and mysterious ‘Asian Huns’, and their role in shaping both the Sasanian Empire and the rest of the Middle East.

    Source: ReOrienting the Sasanians – Edinburgh University Press

  • Alexander’s Legacy

    Cinzia, Bearzot & Landucci Franca (eds.). (2016). Alexander’s Legacy: Atti del Convegno, Milano-Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, settembre 2015 (Monografie Del Centro Ricerche Di Documentazione Sull’antichita Classica). L’ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER.

     

    Recently, the history of Alexander and his Successors has attracted growing attention of modern academia. The Hellenistic world is not viewed anymore as a moment of decadence after the splendour of the Greek Classical age, enlightened by Athens’ bright star, but as an engaging example of ante litteram globalization, the essential premise to the development of the Roman Empire. We have consequently considered opportune and significant to organise a conference meeting devoted to Alexander’ s Legacy.
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  • Non-Mainstream Religion in Persianate Societies

    Raei, Shahrokh (ed.). 2017. Islamic Alternatives; Non-Mainstream Religion in Persianate Societies. (Iranica, GOF III/NF 16). Göttingen: Harrassowitz Verlag.
    Islamic Alternatives are the proceedings of a symposium which was held in April 2014 within the framework of a research project entitled The Khāksār Order between Ahl-e Ḥaqq and Shiite Sufi Order, funded by the German Research Foundation.
    The tradition and belief system of the Khāksār is closely connected to several cultural and religious traditions across a vast geographical area in the Orient: the territory of Persianate societies, which might also be called ‘the territory of wandering dervishes’. The extensive historical and cultural relations and associations, the similarities between the Khāksār Order and the Futuwwa tradition or religious communities (such as the Ahl-e Ḥaqq (Yārsān) and Bektashi order in different geographical territories), the relationship between this order and Dervish groups in Pakistan and Central Asia on the one hand and its connection with the official orthodox Shia on the other hand are the main topics dealt with in the present book.
    The commonalities and cultural relations of these numerous and diverse cultural traditions as well as the heterodox movements in this region are so substantial that understanding the related aspects of each helps us gain a deeper knowledge of the whole subject matter. This symposium and the present proceedings attempt to gather as many specialists of these diverse but associated themes as possible in order to achieve a better understanding of these concepts.
    Table of Contents (PDF):
    Early Shiʿism and Futuwwa
    • Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi: “New Remarks on Secrecy and Concealment in Early Imāmī Shiʿism: the Case of khatm al-nubuwwa – Aspects of Twelver Shiʿi Imamology XII
    • Mohsen Zakeri: “From Futuwwa to Mystic Political Thought: – The Caliph al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh and Abū Ḥafṣ Suhrawardī’s Theory of Government

    Ahl-e Ḥaqq (Yāresān)

    • Philip G. Kreyenbroek: “Some Remarks on the Early History of the Ahl-e Ḥaqq”
    • Martin van Bruinessen: “Between Dersim and Dālahū – Reflections on Kurdish Alevism and the Ahl-e Ḥaqq Religion
    • Yiannis Kanakis: “Yāresān Religious Concepts and Ritual Repertoires as Elements of Larger Net-works of Socio-Political ‘Heterodoxy’ – Some Thoughts on Yāresān , Shiite and Qizilbash/Bektashi Sources and Symbolism
    Cultural Anthropological Analysis
    • Jürgen Wasim Frembgen: “Beyond Muslim and Hindu – Sacred Spaces in the Thar Desert of Pakistan
    • Alexandre Papas: “Dog of God: Animality and Wildness among Dervishes”
    • Thierry Zarcone: “Sacred Stones in Qalandariyya and Bektashism”
      Khāksār
    • Mehran Afshari: “Quṭb al-Dīn Ḥaydar-e Tūnī and his Connection to the Ḥaydariyya and Khāksāriyya”
    • Shahrokh Raei: “Some Recent Issues and Challenges in the Khāksār Order”
    Folk Sufism
    • Razia Sultanova: “Female Folk Sufism in the Central Asian Space-Time Continuum”
     About the Editor:
    Shahrokh Raei is an scholar of Sufī and Khāksār Order and lecturer at the Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Freiburg.

  • Persian Manuscripts in Balkans and Central Europe

    <AryanicCMS:tags:77>Persian Manuscripts in Balkans and Central Europe

    Center for Iran, Balkans and Central European Studies

    Bulgarian National Library “St, Cyril and Methodius’’

    Sofia University ‘’St. Kliment Ohridski’’

    23-24 February 2017

    Center for Iran, Balkans and Central European Studies in partnership with the Cyril and Methodius National Library of Bulgaria, the “St. Kliment Ohridski” Sofia University, and Allameh Tabataba’i University are going to convene the international conference on “Persian Manuscripts in the Balkans and Central Europe”. The conference will be held in Sofia, with the contributions of scholars and researchers from 16 countries, expert in codicology. Scope of the topics to be discussed in this conference includes: Persian manuscripts; Persian documents; manuscripts about Iran in other languages; documents about Iran in other languages; and exploring Eastern manuscripts. Allameh Tabataba’i University (ATU) will publish the approved papers. Along with the conference, a workshop on “Codicology” will also be held.

    Conference Program

    • Akbar Irani “Mirase Maktub, Twenty-three years in the revival of Iranian culture and Civilization”
    • Shervin Farridnejad: “Zoroastrian Manuscripts in Classical New Persian. The Manuscripts of Ṣad Dar in Central European Libraries: A Work in Progress”
    • Davood Esparham: “Advantages and disadvantages of different methods of editing manuscripts”
    • Mohammad Hassan Hassanzadeh Niri: “ Catalogues of Persian Manuscripts in Turkey“
    • Iván Szántó: A Kashmiri Manuscript of the Shahname of Ferdowsi in Budapest”
    • Shiva Mihan: “An unidentified Timurid Manuscript: the Musibat-nama of ‘Attar Nishapuri from Prince Baysunghur’s library”
    • Zahra Parsapour: “Ghanun Al- Adab a treasure from Asia minor”
    • Dariush Zolfaghari: “The importance of rhetoric in edition of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh”
    • Maryam Mavadda: “Âdâb Al-Nesvân , Verses In Writing Of The ¼ Aqayed Al-Nesâ’,“
    • Zohre Allahyari Dastjerdi: “Tradition of making collection and anthology in Persian language by focus on index of manuscript”
    • Nigar Gozalova/Akram Bagirov: “On Bahman-Mirza’s Azerbaijani Collection”
    • Fariba Jabbari: “Maqazi Al-Nabi Verse narrative of the life of Prophet”
    • Katerina Venedikova: “Persian texts and Persian elements in manuscripts and epigraphic monuments from the Ottoman times”
    • Alireza Hoseini: “Parvardeie khial, a Manuscript from Mahmood Mirza Qajar”
    • Mahmood Heidari: “Omdatol Bolaqa va Eddatol Fosaha, A manuscript from Rashid aldin Vatvat”
    • Elham Malekzadeh: “The geography of the Caucasus, Almanak, survivor from the era of the Naseraldin  King of Qajar”
    • Yashar Abdolselamoghlu: “Story of occupation of Bulgaria by Ottomans- Edris Bitlisi“
    •  Namir Karahalilovic: “An Overview of the Persian Manuscript Collections in Bosnia-Herzegovina”
    • Nermin Hodzic: “A Copy of the “Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya” from Gazi Husrev-Beg Library in Sarajevo”
    • Ahmed Zildzic: “Two Copies of the Bahjat al-Tawarikh in the Balkans”
    • Saeid Abedpour: “Tradition of Masnavi-khani in Bosnia-Herzegovina”
    • Sabaheta Gačanin,: “Poetic Manuscripts of Islamic Canon as Cultural Memory”
    • Miklos Sarkozy: “Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences“
    • Mojdeh Mohammadi: “Persian Manuscript in Hungarian Academy of Science”
    • Saeed Safari: “The introduction to Persian manuscripts in the Central Library of the University of Belgrade”
    • Tatjana Pai -Vukic: “Persian Manuscripts in Croatian Collections”
    • Stoyanka Kenderova: “Persian book in the library of Osman Pazvantoglu in Vidin / 1837”
    • Nematollah Iranzadeh: “A manuscript from Vahid Tabrizi in Bulgarian National Library”
    • Ivo Panov: “Diwan-e Hafez Manuscripts in National Library”
    • Elisaveta Mousakova: “The Illumination of Manuscript Catalogues“
    • Nona Petkova: “Accepting and Respecting the Traditions of Others – Examples of Coexistence“
    • Morteza Nouraei: “The Evaluation of Iranian studies through Ottoman Turkish Documents preserved in the National Library of Sofia- Bulgaria”
    • Anka Stoilova: “The work with manuscript fragments before their cataloguing”
    • Hatije Berber: “Presentation of textbooks for teaching Persian language in  Ryushdiye schools”
    • Sheyda Rahimi: “An Overview of the Persian Manuscript Catalogue in Bulgarian National Library”

  • The Cults of Alexander the Great in the Greek Cities of Asia Minor

    Kholod, Maxim. 2016. “The Cults of Alexander the Great in the Greek Cities of Asia Minor“. Klio. Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte 98(2), 495-525.

     

    The paper deals with the cults of Alexander the Great in the Greek cities of Asia Minor (on the coast and the nearby islands). The author argues that although some cults in these cities could be set up after the Macedonian king’s death, at least most known to us (or supposed) cults of Alexander in them were instituted still in his lifetime, in all likelihood, in 324-323 BC. It seems that the cults of the king were established only in a certain, probably far from overwhelming, number of the Greek cities of Asia Minor in this period. In turn, it should be believed that the do ut des principle played an important role when these cities introduced such cults. At the same time, their institution was also caused by a sense of gratitude of the inhabitants of the Greek cities of Asia Minor to Alexander for the liberation of them from the unpopular power of both the Persians and pro-Persian oligarchs or tyrants and, in addition, for those general and particular benefactions that were given by the Macedonian king to the communities.