Categories
Events

The Sasanian Empire as a garden

The Sasanian empire as a garden: The walls and rivers of the Sasanian Empire

This lecture by Touraj Daryaee (UCI) looks at the physical and ideological boundaries which the Sasanians created for the idea of Iranshahr. In this late antique construct, inside the empire, protected by walls and rivers was imagined as a garden where order and beauty was in existence. Outside of the walls and the rivers it was seen as place of wilderness and disorder. This binary division was at the centre of Sasanian ideology which projected peace and power inside, while danger for its people lay outside of its boundaries.

Speaker: Touraj Daryaee (UCI)
Where: AIIT, Cambridge
When: 23 May 2014, 17:30.

Categories
Events

Go east, young man!

Go east, young man! A personal journey

In this informal talk the Chair of the Ancient India and Iran Trust, Nicholas Sims-Williams, will describe his research on the Sogdian language and literature, in particular on the Christian texts from the Turfan oasis in Western China, and will try to answer a question which he is often asked: What led you to study such an obscure subject?

Speaker: Nicholas Sims-Williams (SOAS)
Where: AIIT, Cambridge
When: 16 May 2014

Categories
Articles

Markets for land

Rezakhani, Khodadad & Michael Morony. 2014. Markets for land, labour and capital in late antique Iraq, AD 200-700. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 57. 231–261.

Read the article here. Abstract:

Lack of direct evidence on the functioning of factor markets in Sasanian/Late Antique Iraq makes it difficult to present a clear picture of the production side of economy during this period. However, relying on the Talmudic evidence, as well as what is men-tioned in the Mādayān ī Hezār Dādestān (MHD), this article aims to provide an idea of factor markets during the Sasanian period, as well as demonstrating the areas where further evidence and research could render better results and allow us to understand the economy of this region in more depth.
Categories
Articles

Manuscripts of the Wīdēwdād

Andrés-Toledo, Miguel Ángel & Alberto Cantera. 2012. Manuscripts of the Wīdēwdād. In Alberto Cantera (ed.), The transmission of the Avesta (Iranica 20), 207–243. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Read the article here.

Categories
Journal

A few of our favourite things

The The International Dunhuang Project‘s (IDP) series of  A Few of Our Favourite Things is now complete. The 20 contributions cover a wide range of manuscripts found at Dunhuang, featuring among others objects discussed by Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst, Nicholas Sims-Williams and Prods Oktor Skjærvø.

Categories
Events

Reading history anew

Dr Dieter Weber to speak on Reading history anew: Pahlavi documents from early-Islamic times at the School of History, University of St Andrews on Thursday 3 April 2014 at 5.15pm.

For Dr Weber’s list of publications, see here.

Categories
Books

Nomadism in Iran

Potts, D. T. 2014. Nomadism in Iran: From antiquity to the modern era. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

For details, see here. Abstract:

A completely new approach to nomadism in Iran, one which rejects the identification of nomads in the archaeological record of the Neolithic and Bronze Age (c. 8000-1200 BC). Emphasizes the fundamental changes brought about by major influxes of nomads from outside the region, beginning in the 11th century.

 

Categories
Articles

Perceptions of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti

Hintze, Almut. 2013. Perceptions of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. In: E. Pirart (ed.), Le sort des Gâthâs et autres études iraniennes in memoriam Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin (Acta Iranica 54), 53–73. Leuven – Paris – Walpole, MA: Peeters.

Read the article here.

Categories
Books

The Sih-Rozag in Zoroastrianism

Raffaelli, Enrico. 2014. The Sih-Rozag in Zoroastrianism: A textual and historico-religious analysis. Routledge.

For details, see here. Abstract:

Focusing on the Avestan and Pahlavi versions of the Sih-rozag, a text worshipping Zoroastrian divine entities, this book explores the spiritual principles and physical realities associated with them.

Categories
Articles

A Sasanian chariot

Shenkar, Michael. 2013. A Sasanian chariot drawn by birds and the iconography of Sraosha. In Sergei Tokhtasev & Pavel Lurje (eds.), Commentationes Iranicae. Vladimiro f. Aaron Livschits nonagenario donum natalicium, 211–223. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Historia.

Read the article here.