Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

  • The Zurkhāneh

    The Zurkhāneh

    Rochard, Philippe. 2025. The Zurkhāneh and its milieu: A study of traditional athletics in Iran (Ilex Series). Boston: Harvard University Press.

    The athletes known in Iran as pahlavāns and the domed structure, the zurkhāneh, where they congregate to practice ritualized martial arts, physical culture, and spirituality, are usually presented as the cornerstone of traditional Iranian masculine identity. However, this idealization does not do justice to the complex history of Iranian society.
    Philippe Rochard, who has observed the zurkhāneh world for the past thirty years and actually lived in it for over four years, sets out to reveal through his own experience and a reconsideration of the extant historiography the various identities—real or imagined—of the zurkhāneh, its role within ancient and contemporary Iranian society, and the intimate mechanisms of the male societies that frequent it, as well as the moral and social values—real or simply proclaimed—that the athletes embody

    Summary

  • 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.

  • Georges Dumézil’s tripartite theory

    Georges Dumézil’s tripartite theory

    Redard, Céline (ed.). 2025. ). L’Inde et l’Iran dans la théorie trifonctionnelle de Georges Dumézil (1898-1986) (Publications d’Etudes Indo-Iraniennes 3). Strasbourg: Université de Strasbourg.

    India and Iran occupy an important place within Georges Dumézil’s (1898-1986) tripartite theory. This book revisits Georges Dumézil’s treatment of ancient Iranian texts and Indian texts, the latter from the Vedas to the Mahābhārata.

    Résumé
  • Bactrian Documents IV

    Bactrian Documents IV

    Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2025. Bactrian Documents IV: Documents from South of the Hindukush, I (Part II Inscriptions of the Seleucid and Parthian Periods and of Eastern Iran and Central Asia, Vol. VI Bactrian). London: Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum. With a contribution by Frantz Grenet.

    Following on from the three volumes of Bactrian documents from Northern Afghanistan (BD1-3), the present volume primarily contains the edition of a collection of fourth-century letters written on birchbark in a place which cannot be located precisely but which was evidently somewhere to the south of the Hindukush, in what is now Southern Afghanistan or Pakistan. One eighth-century document written on parchment is also included on the grounds that it is also known to come from the south of Afghanistan , almost certainly from a place named Khesh between Bamiyan and Kabul.

    From the preface

    Readers of this blog will be familiar with Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum (CII) and the many volumes published in the series on inscriptions and documents in Iranian languages. The CII forms part of the academic infrastructure at SOAS, where it has its own page (linked above and here). A list of publications is provided below.

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  • Sasanian Studies 3

    Sasanian Studies 3

    Farridnejad, Shervin & Touraj Daryaee (eds.). 2024. Sasanian Studies: Late antique Iranian world | Sasanidische Studien: Spätantike iranische Welt. Vol. 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

    Sasanian Studies: Late Antique Iranian World is a refereed journal that publishes papers on any aspect of the Sasanian Empire and ist neighboring late antiquity civilizations. The journal welcomes essays on archaeology, art history, epigraphy, history, numismatics, religion and any other disciplines which focuse on the Sasanian world. This annual publication focuses especially on recent discoveries in the field, historiographical studies, as well as editions and translations of texts and inscriptions. We aim to facilitate dialogue and contact among scholars of Sasanian Studies around the world. The journal will publish papers mainly in English, but also in German, French, Italian and may also consider Persian and Arabic.

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  • Festschrift in Honor of Elton L. Daniel

    Festschrift in Honor of Elton L. Daniel

    Ashtiany, Mohsen, Marisa McCrone & Mahnaz Moazami (eds.). 2025. Studies in Iranian history and culture: In honor of Elton L. Daniel (Iran Studies 27). Leiden: Brill.

    This Festschrift volume presents eleven essays on Iran in honor of Professor Elton L. Daniel, an eminent scholar of Iranian studies and former Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopaedia Iranica, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The diversity and wide range of topics and eras critically explored in this volume highlight the remarkable breadth of the honoree’s scholarship and research interests on the history and culture of Iran.

    From the summary with minor modifications.
  • 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:

  • The Sanskrit Version of Yasna

    Palladino, Martina. 2025. The Sanskrit Version of Yasna 1–8. A Critical Edition with Commentary and Glossaries (Corpus Avesticum / Handbuch der Orientalistik 32/5). Leiden: Brill.

    This book contributes to the Multimedia Yasna (MUYA) Project, led by Prof. Almut Hintze of SOAS, by presenting an edition of the first eight chapters of the Sanskrit Yasna. This new edition is accompanied by an English translation and two glossaries.
    This study aims to provide a framework for Parsi literary production in the Indian context and, at the same time, to relate the Sanskrit text to its Avestan and Pahlavi versions. The special feature of this unique text is that it belongs to the Indian cultural environment while remaining part of the Zoroastrian tradition.

  • Myth and History in Ancient Persia

    Myth and History in Ancient Persia

    Shaghaghi Zarghamee, Reza. 2025. Myth and History in Ancient Persia: The Achaemenids in the Iranian Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    This book fills an important gap in Achaemenid studies by using traditional Iranian narratives, such as those found in the famous Shahnameh, or ‘Book of Kings’, of Ferdowsi, to analyse the Greco-Roman accounts of Median and Persian royalty. The study shows that the classical authors derived their accounts from Iranian traditions, grounded in age-old myths and legends. This analysis serves many purposes. It refines the extent to which the classical sources may be used in historical reconstructions and sheds new light on the literary methods of authors, such as Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon. Finally, the book offers insights into one of the thorniest enigmas in Iranian historiography, the apparent disappearance of Illustrious rulers like Cyrus II, Darius I, and Xerxes I from native historical traditions. Standing at the crossroads of Iranian studies and Classics, this book is an indispensable source for scholars of ancient Iran, Greek historiography, and the Shahnameh.

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  • The House of the Satrap

    The House of the Satrap

    King, Rhyne. 2025. The House of the Satrap: The Making of the Ancient Persian Empire. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Starting in the sixth century BCE, the conquests of the Persian kings Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius transformed the lives of humans on a continental scale, as their empire reached from the Iranian plateau to eastern Europe, Central Asia, and North Africa. Beyond the imperial center, the kings’ vast territory was ruled by royal representatives known as satraps, who managed the practicalities of running the empire. In this book, Rhyne King explores how the empire was governed by investigating how the satraps and the structures supporting them—their “houses”—operated across great distances. Examining satrapal houses in Egypt, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Central Asia, King demonstrates how these systems encouraged local self-interest and advancement even as they benefited the imperial whole. Ultimately, he argues, it was these Persian forms of transregional governance that were key in enabling the vast polity to endure for more than two centuries.