A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies
The latest issue of the journal Iranian Studies 48(1), dated 2015 and entitled Religious trends in late ancient and early Islamic Iran, is a treasure trove of highly recommended articles. This special issue has been edited by Jason Mokhtarian & David Bennett.
Read the editors’ introduction here.
Alberto Cantera and his team have launched a new journal, entitled Sociedad de Estudios Iranios y Turanios, with the aim to promote the study of Iran and Central Asia in Spain. The first volume has already been published and is available from academia.edu. A dedicated website is under construction.
The original announcement: (more…)
Cantera, Alberto. 2014. Repetitions of the Ahuna Vairiia and animal sacrifice in the Zoroastrian long liturgy. Estudios Iranios y Turanios 1. 25–29.
The Ahuna Vairiia prayer is never repeated three times in extant Avestan texts and also the Pahlavi literature excludes this number of repetitions. This is because three repetitions of the Ahuna Vairiia is the Avestan text used for the very centre of the Zoroastrian long liturgy: the slaughter of the sacrificial victim and the meat offerings to the fire. Here again, we discover the central importance of the sacrifice when the Avestan texts used in the long and short liturgies got their current shape. Further, it is shown a ritual parallelism between the slaughter of the victim and the pounding of the haōma.
The PDF of the article is here.
The new issue, vol. 24, of the Bulletin of the Asia Institute (BAI) has been published. As of this post, the journal’s website has not been updated to reflect the content of vol. 24, and the issue contains too many articles and reviews of interest to individually list them here.
Michael Shenkar has made a PDF of his article available here:
Shenkar, Michael. 2014. The epic of Farāmarz in the Panjikent paintings. Bulletin of the Asia Institute 24. 67–84.
Update:
The following content list has been posted by Carol Bromberg:
Bulletin of the Asia Institute 24 (December 2014)
David Stronach, Solomon at Pasargadae: Some New Perspectives
Domenico Agostini, Encountering a Beautiful Maiden: On the Zoroastrian dēn in Comparison with Dante’s Beatrice
Yishai Kiel, Gazing through Transparent Objects in Pahlavi and Rabbinic Literature: A Comparative Analysis
Dieter Weber, Villages and Estates in the Documents from the Pahlavi Archive: The Geographical Background
Michael Shenkar, The Epic of Farāmarz in the Panjikent Paintings (2 color plates)
Étienne de la Vaissière, Silk, Buddhism and Early Khotanese Chronology: A Note on the Prophecy of the Li Country
Harry Falk, Libation Trays from Gandhara
Phyllis Granoff, Maitreya and the Yūpa: Some Gandharan Reliefs
David Frendo, Sovereignty, Control, and Co-existence in Byzantine-Iranian Relations: An Overview
Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, The Prophet’s Seal: A Contextualized Look at the Crystal Sealstone of Mani (216–276 c.e.) in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (2 color plates)
Reviews
Prods Oktor Skjærvø, Gnosis and Deliverance: Werner Sundermann’s “Speech of the Living Soul”
Azarnouche, ed. and trans. Husraw ī Kawādān-ē ud Rēdag-ē: Khosrow fils de Kawād et un page (Jenny Rose)
Agostini. Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg: Un texte eschatologique zoroastrien (Daniel Sheffield)
Jullien, ed. Eastern Christianity: A Crossroads of Cultures (David Frendo)
The first part of a survey by Almut Hintze on Avestan research from 1991 to 2014:
Hintze, Almut. 2014. Avestan research 1991–2014. Part 1: Sources and phonology. Kratylos 59. 1–52.
For more information and a PDF, see here.
Call for Papers for a conference at the University of Warwick:
BL’s Asian and African studies blog has a highly recommended piece on George Percy Churchill’s biographical notices of Persian statesmen and notables.
Potts, Daniel. 2014. Elamite monumentality and architectural scale: Lessons from Susa and Choga Zanbil. In J.F. Osborne (ed.), Approaching monumentality in archaeology, 23–38. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
Read the article here.
Rante, Rocco. 2014. Rayy: from its origins to the Mongol invasion. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
This book offers a new history of the ancient city of Rayy. Based on the results of the latest excavations on the Citadel and the Shahrestan (the political and administrative nucleus of the city in all periods), the study of historical and geographical texts and on surveys carried out between 2005 and 2007 by the author and the Iranian archaeologist, Ghadir Afround, the complete occupation sequence of the city, from its foundation in the Iron Age and the Parthian reconstructions (2nd to 1st centuries BC), up to the Mongol invasions and rapid depopulation in the 13th century CE, comes to light.
For more information, see here.
Potts, Daniel. 2014. Guriania, Γουράνιοι and the Gūrān. In Salvatore Gaspa, Alessandro Greco, Daniele Morandi Bonacossi, Simonetta Ponchia & Robert Rollinger (eds.), From source to history: Studies on the Ancient Near Eastern worlds and beyond dedicated to Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi on the occasion of his 65th birthday on June 23, 2014 (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 412), 561–571. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Find the article here.