Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Tag: History

  • Jerusalem in the Achaemenid Period

    Kim, Jieun. 2016. Jerusalem in the Achaemenid period. Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.

    This is the first book to explore the importance of agriculture in relation to the restoration of the Jerusalem temple in the Book of Haggai during the Achaemenid period. Scholars discussing the rebuilding of the temple have mainly focused on the political and social context. Additionally,the missions of Ezra and Nehemiah have been used as a basis for analysing the economy of postexilic Judah. This has, however, understated the wider socio-economic significance of the temple by disregarding the agricultural capacity of Judah.
    The Book of Haggai is primarily concerned with agriculture and the temple. This analysis of Haggai includes an examination of the temple’s reconstruction from a historical and economic point of view, with agriculture playing a central role. Archaeological records are examined and show that prized commodities such as olives and grapes were produced in and around Jerusalem in large quantities and exported all over theancient Near East.
    This book is intended to shed new light on the value of agriculture for the people of Judah and the whole imperial economy. It also presents a new interpretation of the Book of Haggai and a new perspective on the temple economy in Jerusalem.
    Jieun Kim finished her second PhD at the School of Divinity,  University of Edinburgh in November 2013. After receiving her first  PhD from Yonsei University, she taught for several years in Seoul as a lecturer and an assistant professor. She is currently an independent scholar and her next research project will focus on land ownership in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

  • The Nisibis War

    Harrel, John. 2016.  The Nisibis War: The Defence of the Roman East AD 337–363. Pen & Sword Military.

    The war of 337-363 (which the author dubs the ‘Nisibis War’), was an exception to the traditional Roman reliance on a strategic offensive to bring about a decisive battle. Instead, the Emperor Constantius II adopted a defensive strategy and conducted a mobile defence based upon small frontier (limitanei) forces defending fortified cities, supported by limited counteroffensives by the Field Army of the East. These methods successfully checked Persian assaults for 24 years. However, when Julian became emperor his access to greater resources tempted him to abandon mobile defence in favour of a major invasion aimed at regime change in Persia. Although he reached the Persian capital, Ctesiphon, he failed to take it, was decisively defeated in battle and killed. The Romans subsequently resumed and refined the mobile defence, allowing the Eastern provinces to survive the fall of the Western Empire.
    John Harrel applies his personal experience of military command to a strategic, operational, tactical and logistical analysis of these campaigns and battles, highlighting their long-term significance.

  • Iranian Studies in Honor of Pierre Lecoq

    Achaemenid Royal Archers, Coloured glazed terracotta brick panels, Susa, around 510 BC © Pergamon Museum, Berlin
    Achaemenid Royal Archers, Coloured glazed terracotta brick panels, Susa, around 510 BC © Pergamon Museum, Berlin

    Redard, Céline (ed.). 2016. Des contrées avestiques à Mahabad, via Bisotun. Etudes offertes en hommage à Pierre Lecoq. (Civilisations Du Proche-Orient Série III. Religion et Culture 2). Paris: Recherches et Publications.

    This  volume is dedicated to Pierre Lecoq, one of the prolific and renowned scholars of Ancient Iranian and Orietal Studies. The book consists of seventeen papers written by some of the foremost scholars in the field of Iranian Studies, essentially concerned with different aspects of Ancient Iranian Art, Archaeology, History, Numismatics and Religion, reflecting Pierre Lecoq’s scholarly interests.
    Table of Contents:
    • Bibliographie de Pierre Lecoq
    • Gilbert Lazard:  “Pour saluer Pierre Lecoq”
    • Rudiger Schmitt: “Zur altpersischen Grammatik und Inschriftenkunde”
    • Adriano V. Rossi: “Considérations sur le § 14 de DB et sur Āyadana-/ANzí-ia-an ANna-ap-pan-na É.˹MEŠ˺ šá DINGIR.MEŠ
    • Ela Filippone: “Goat-Skins, Horses and Camels: How did Darius’
      Army Cross the Tigris?”
    • Rémy Boucharlat: “À propos de parayadām et paradis perse : perpléxité de l’archéologue et perspectives”
    • Margaret Cool Root: “Tales of Translation: Leroy Waterman, Biblical Studies, and an Achaemenid Royal-Name Alabastron from Seleucia”
    • Jan Tavernier: “À propos de quelques noms iraniens dans les
      inscriptions lyciennes”
    • Georges-Jean Pinault: “Ariyāramna, the Pious Lord”
    • Jean Haudry: “Le rejeton des eaux”
    • Philippe Swennen: “Le Yasna Haptaŋhāiti entre deux existences”
    • Jean Kellens: “Stratégies du Mihr Yašt“
    • Antonio Panaino: “Later Avestan maɣauua– (?) and the (Mis)Adventures of a ‘Pseudo-Ascetic’”
    • Céline Redard: “Le fragment Westergaard 10”
    • Enrico Raffaelli: “The Amǝša Spǝṇtas and Their Helpers: The
      Zoroastrian ham-kārs”
    • Rika Gyselen: “Noeud d’Héraclès, noeuds lunaires et sceaux
      sassanides”
    • Agnès Lenepveu-Hotz: “L’emploi de mar … rā chez Firdausī: simple raison métrique ou cause linguistique?”
    • Halkawt Hakem: “Kurdistān, Le journal de la République de Mahabad (1946)”
    About the Editor:
    Céline Redard (PhD 2010) is a scholor of Ancient Iranian Languages and a Research Assistant at the Université de Liège, Département des Sciences de l’Antiquité, Langues et religions du monde indo-iranien ancien.

  • Lecture series: Visual and Spatial Cultures of Power in Iran between Alexander and Islam

    Matthew Canepa, University of Minnesota (Minneapolis), will deliver a series of four lectures at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris.

    Les cultures visuelles et spatiales du pouvoir en Iran entre Alexandre et l’Islam

    • Mercredi 1er juin 2016, 17h-19h
      Rebâtir le passé perse et imaginer de nouvelles identités iraniennes
    • Mercredi 8 juin 2016, 17h-19h
      L’image royale en Iran après Alexandre
    • Mercredi 15 juin 2016, 17h-19h
      Les espaces du pouvoir iranien : palais, jardins et paysage
    • Mercredi 22 juin 2016, 17h-19h
      La scène mondiale

    Source: Matthew CANEPA | École Pratique des Hautes Études

  • New issue of Anabasis

    Anabasis Anabasis. Studia Classica et Orientalia vol. 6 (2015).

    The sixth issue of ANABASIS: Studia Classica et Orientalia is published by department of Ancient History and Oriental Studies, Institute of History at Rzeszów University.

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  • Folly and Violence in the Court of Alexander the Great and his Successors?

    Howe, Time & Sabine Müller (eds.). 2016. Folly and Violence in the Court of Alexander the Great and his Successors?. Bochum & Freiburg: Projekt verlag.

    The ancient Greco-Roman sources on the history of Alexander III and the Successors contain numerous epi­sodes on diverse forms of Macedonian violence. Viewed from a mocking, moralistic perspective, the Macedonians served as a distorted mirror in which Greeks and Romans asserted their identities. The theme of Macedonian violence was also present in Greek comedy. This volume explores four case studies aiming at the deconstruction of these Greco-Roman topoi. The articles examine images of the Macedonians, Alexander, and Demetrius Poliorcetes analyzing the dimensions and expressions of Greco-Roman bias and its socio-political background.

    Table of contents

    • Time Howe & Sabine Müller: “Introduction: Does the cliché suffice?”
    • Sulochana Asirvatham: “Youthful Folly and Intergenerational Violence in Greco-Roman Narratives on Alexander the Great”
    • Matti Borchert: “Between Debauchery and Ludicrousness – Alexander the Great and the Golden Plane Tree”
    • Sabine Müller: “Make It Big: The ‘New Decadence’ of the Macedonians under Alexander in Greco-Roman Narratives“
    • Frances Pownall: “Folly and Violence in Athens Under the Successors”
    • The Editors and Contributors

     

  • The concept of Iran: Transition and revival

    A panel discussion in Persian

    Panelists:
    Touraj Daryaee, University of California, Irvine
    Hossein Kamaly, Columbia University
    Ali Mousavi, University of California, Los Angeles
    Parvaneh Pourshariati, New York City College of Technology (CUNY) & New York University

    Moderator: Nayereh Tohidi, Professor and Director of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, CSUN

    Sunday, May 8, 2016
    4:00 PM

  • Reconstructing the lost history of Ancient Afghanistan

    The Bactrian archives: Reconstructing the lost history of Ancient Afghanistan

    A lecture by Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams (SOAS)

    Date: May 12
    Time: 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
    Venue: Royal Asiatic Society
    14 Stephenson Way
    London, NW1 2HD

    For more information, see the event’s page on the RAS’s website.

  • Iranica Antiqua, Volume 51

    The table of contents of the latest issue (51) of the journal Iranica Antiqua:

     

     

  • Sex, Death, and aristocratic empire

    Bahram huntingPayne, Richard. 2016. Sex, death, and aristocratic empire: Iranian jurisprudence in late antiquity. Comparative Studies in Society and History 58(2). 519–549.

    The article is also available from the author’s Academia.edu page here.

    Sex, Death, and Aristocratic Empire: Iranian Jurisprudence in Late Antiquity

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