Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Tag: Iranian Studies

  • Study of religions, translation & Zoroastrianism

     

    Directions in the Study of Religion: Daniel Sheffield.

    Listen to Daniel Sheffield, Professor of History at the University of Washington, talk with Kristian Petersen about Translation & Zoroastrianism in Iran and South Asia.

  • Achaemenid Religion

    Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. 2014. Achaemenid Religion. Religion Compass.  8(6), 175-187.

    Achaemenid religion” was the religion of the rulers of Iran in the second half of the first millennium BCE and the local form of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of the Iranians. The earliest form of Zoroastrianism is known from the Avesta, their sacred texts, which probably originated in the last half of the second and first half of the first millennium BCE, but were transmitted only orally until priests began writing them down in the seventh century. The “Achaemenid religion” is known from cuneiform inscriptions in the local Iranian language, Old Persian, and from tablets in Elamite found at Persepolis, as well as from other sources. It was a dualist religion, postulating the existence of good and evil from the beginning, as well as a polytheistic religion, but with one god, Ahura-Mazdā, outranking the others. Scholarly discussion has centered on the question whether the Achaemenids were real Zoroastrians, in the sense of following the reformed teachings of the historical Zarathustra. As the assumed historicity of Zarathustra and his reform are increasingly being questioned, scholars are now focusing on the interpretation of the inscriptions, notably from the point of view of the orality of Iranian traditions and their relationship with the Avesta, but also increasingly on the editing of the Elamite tablets and mining them for information.

  • Memorial Volume for Chahryar Adle

    bokhara 107

    Bukhara, No. 107 (Memorial Volume for Chahryar Adle). Tehran. 2015.- Via Ehsan Shavarebi.

    The 107th issue of Bukhara Magazine (July-August 2015) is dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Chahryar Adle (1944-2015). Chahryar Adle, Iranian archaeologist specialised in art and architecture of Iran and Central Asia during the Islamic period, passed away in Paris on 21 June.
    This volume, edited by Ali Dehbashi, includes more than 50 papers in memory of the late Prof. Adle, by such scholars as Firouz Bagherzadeh, Mahmoud Mousavi, Rémy Boucharlat, Carlo G. Cereti, Marie-Christine David, Hekmatollah Mollasalehi, Ehsan Eshraghi, Rajab-Ali Labbaf-Khaniki, Ali Mousavi, Mehrdad Malekzadeh, Nader Nasiri-Moghaddam, Shahram Zare, Mohammad Taghi Ataee, Ehsan Shavarebi, etc. Also several papers and interviews of Prof. Adle are republished in this volume.
    The volume is in Persian and consists of 513 pages.

  • Iranian Studies (vol. 48, issue 5)

    Iranian Studies (vol. 48, issue 5)

    Special Issue of Iranian Studies 48(5), edited by Stephanie Cronin and Edmund Herzig: Russian Orientalism to Soviet Iranology: The Persian-speaking world and its history through Russian eyes.

    This collection comprises a collective study of the genesis and development of Iranian Studies, or Iranology, in imperial Russia and subsequently in the Soviet Union. It takes as its specific point of departure the controversies regarding whether Russian, or post-1917 Soviet, scholars and administrators and the discourses they produced on the Persophone world were Orientalist in the sense made famous by Edward Said.

    Guest Editors’ Preface

  • Newly launched peer-reviewed journal for Iranian Studies

    Image: Detail from "Youth reading", Persian miniature by Reza Abbasi (1565-1635), ca. 1625-26, Isfahan. © The Trustees of the British Museum, ME 1920.0917.02
    Image: Detail from “Youth reading”, Persian miniature by Reza Abbasi (1565-1635), ca. 1625-26, Isfahan. © The Trustees of the British Museum, ME 1920.0917.02

    DABIR: Digital Archive of Brief notes & Iran Review, 2015, Vol 1, No. 1.

    The first issue of the Digital Archive of Brief notes & Iran Review (DABIR) has been published and is available from the official website of DABIR.

    The Digital Archive of Brief notes & Iran Review (DABIR) is an open access, peer-reviewed online open access journal published by the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine. DABIR aims to quickly and efficiently publish brief notes and reviews relating to the pre-modern world in contact with Iran and Persianate cultures. The journal accepts submissions on art history, archaeology, history, linguistics, literature, manuscript studies, numismatics, philology and religion, from Jaxartes to the Mediterranean and from the Sumerian period through to the Safavid era (3500 BCE-1500 CE). Work dealing with later periods can be considered on request.

    Table of Contents:
    Articles

    1. Saber Amiri Pariyan: “A re-examination of two terms in the Elamite version of the Behistun inscription”
    2. Touraj Daryaee: “Alexander and the Arsacids in the manuscript MU29”
    3. Shervin Farridnejad: “Take care of the xrafstars! A note on Nēr. 7.5″
    4. Leonardo Gregoratti: “The kings of Parthia and Persia: Some considerations on the ‘Iranic’ identity in the Parthian Empire”
    5. Götz König: “Brief comments on the so-called Xorde Avesta (1)”
    6. Ali Mousavi: “Some thoughts on the rock-reliefs of ancient Iran”
    7. Khodadad Rezakhani: “A note on the Alkhan coin type 39 and its legend”
    8. Shai Secunda: “Relieving monthly sexual needs: On Pahlavi daštān-māh wizārdan“
    9. Arash Zeini: “Preliminary observations on word order correspondence in the Zand”

    Reviews

    1. Sajad Amiri Bavandpoor: “Review of Smith, Kyle. 2014. The Martyrdom and History of Blessed Simeon bar Sabba’e”
    2. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones: “Review of Mayor, Adrienne. 2014. The Amazons. Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World”
    3. Yazdan Safaee: “Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd & James Robson. 2010. CTESIAS’ History of Persia: Tales of the Orient”

    Special Issue

    1. Bruce Lincoln “Of dirt, diet, and religious others”

     

    DABIR

    Editor-in-Chief: Touraj Daryaee (University of California, Irvine)
    Editors: Parsa Daneshmand (Oxford University) and Arash Zeini (University of St Andrews)
    Book Review Editor: Shervin Farridnejad (Freie Universität Berlin)

  • Iranian Materilas in Roman Mithraism

    König, Götz. 2015. Iranisches im römischen Mithraskult: Iranische Wörter. In Richard Faber & Achim Lichtenberger (eds.), Ein pluriverses Universum: Zivilisationen und Religonen im antiken Mittelmeerraum, 301–331. (Mittelmeerstudien 7). Wilhelm Fink.

    Tauroctony scene on side A of a two-sided Roman bas-relief. 2nd or 3rd century, found at Fiano Romano, near Rome, now on display in the Louvre.

    Götz König discusses the origin and roots of some “Iranian words” in Mithraism under the Roman Empire from linguistic and philological point of view . Begining with the question of “Mithra” or “Mithras”, he addresses the history of scholarship regarding of “Mithraic Studies” connected with ancient Iranian studies. Other sub-chapters of his article is dedicated to analytical investigation of some Iranian linguistic materials, namely the greeting nama, the terms sebesio and nabarze, as well as the divine names Arimanius, Cautēs/Cautopatēs/ ˚is, Atar, Ōromazdēs and Miθra and also the liturgical term amara.
    About the Author:
    Götz König is a scholar of the Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies and presently the substitute head of the Institute of Iranian Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.

  • A manual for Iranian Studies

    Paul, Ludwig (ed.). 2013. Handbuch der Iranistik. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag.
    This manual for Iranian Studies  presents a comprehensive survey of status and trends of current research in the filed of Iranian Studies.  In 34 contributions, the most important disciplines of the field, namely history, literature, religion and language were examined by 33 authors on almost 500 pages. It comprised both the current state of Iran as well as  the Iranian cultural sphere in its geographic breadth and historical depth, from Anatolia to Central Asia and from the early history (7th millennium BC) Until today. The manual aims to provide a methodical presentation of research developments and tries to answer the questions such as: what research questions are fresh and interesting? why and in which research contexts they are important?
    All contributions of the manual are divided into three sections A, B and C.  The section A guides the reader through fundamental and self-reflexive methodological considerations to approach the subject. The section B provides a research overview, and the section C gives an alphabetical bibliography on each subject.

    (more…)

  • Studies on Iran and the Caucasus

    Bläsing, Uwe, Victoria Arakelova & Matthias Weinreich (eds.). 2015. Studies on Iran and the Caucasus: In honour of Garnik Asatrian. Leiden: Brill.

    This unique collection of essays by leading international scholars gives a profound introduction into the great diversity and richness of facets forming the study of one of earth’s most exciting areas, the Iranian and Caucasian lands. Each of the 37 contributions sheds light on a very special topic, the range of which comprises historical, cultural, ethnographical, religious, political and last but not least literary and linguistic issues, beginning from the late antiquity up to current times. Especially during the last decennia these two regions gained greater interest worldwide due to several developments in politics and culture. This fact grants the book, intended as a festschrift for Prof. Garnik Asatrian, a special relevance.

    Table of Contents:

    History and texts
    I. Early Mediaeval Period
    • Marco Bais: “Like a Flame Through the Reeds”: An Iranian Image in the Buzandaran Patmut‘iwnk‘
    • Jost Gippert: “The “Bun-Turks” in Ancient Georgia”
    • Dan Shapira: “On the Relative Value of Armenian Sources for the Khazar Studies: The Case of the Siege of Tbilisi”
    • Giusto Traina: “Some Remarks on the Inscription of Maris, Casit filius (Classical-Oriental Notes, 9)”
    II. Late Mediaeval Period
    • Kaveh Farrokh: “The Military Campaigns of Shah Abbas I in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus (1603-1618)”
    • Aldo Ferrari: “Persia and Persians in Raffi’s Xamsayi Melikʻutiwnnerə”
    • Hirotake Maeda: “New Information on the History of the Caucasus in the Third Volume of Afzal al-tavarikh”
    • Irène Natchkebia: “Unrealized Project: Rousseaus’ Plan of Franco-Persian Trade in the Context of the Indian Expedition (1807)”
    • Roman Smbatian: “Nadir’s Religious Policy Towards Armenians”
    Religion and Ethnography
    • Victoria Arakelova: “The Song Unveiling the Hidden”
    • Viacheslav A. Chirikba: “Between Christianity and Islam: Heathen Heritage in the Caucasus”
    • Matteo Compareti: “Armenian Pre-Christian Divinities: Some Evidence from the History of Art and Archaeological Investigation”
    • Peter Nicolaus: “The Taming of the Fairies”
    • Antonio Panaino: “The Classification of Astral Bodies in the Framework of a Historical Survey of Iranian Traditions”
    • Vahe S. Boyajian: “From Muscat to Sarhadd: Remarks on gwātī Healing Ritual within the Social Context”
    Linguistics
    • Uwe Bläsing: “Georgische Gewächse auf türkischer Erde: Ein Beitrag zur Phytonomie in Nordostanatolien”
    • Johnny Cheung: “The Persian Verbal Suffixes -ān and -andeh (-andag)”
    • Claudia A. Ciancaglini: “Allomorphic Variability in the Middle Persian Continuants of the Old Iranian suffix *-ka-“
    • Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst: “Vowel Length in Middle Persian Verbal Endings”
    • Vladimir Livshits: “Some Khwarezmian Names”
    • Ela Filippone: “Kurdish bažn, Persian bašn and Other Iranian Cognates”
    • Adriano V. Rossi: “Once Again on Iranian *kund”
    • James R. Russell: “A Note on Armenian hrmštk-el”
    • Wolfgang Schulze: “Aspects of Udi-Iranian Language Contact”
    • Martin Schwarz: “Armenian varkaparazi and Its Iranian Background”
    • Donald Stilo: “The Poligenetic Origins of the Northern Talishi Language”
    • Matthias Weinreich: “Not only in the Caucasus: Ethno-linguistic Diversity on the Roof of the World”
    Ritual and Folklore
    • Anna Krasnawolska: “Hedayat’s Nationalism and His Concepts of Folklore”
    • Mikhail Pelevin: “Early Specimens of Pashto Folklore”
    • Nagihan Haliloğlu: “Activist, Professional, Family Man: Masculinities in Marjane Satrapi’s Work”
    • Khachik Gevorgian: “On the Interpretation of the Term “Futuwwa” in Persian Fotovvatnamehs“
    Historico-Political Issues
    • Çakır Ceyhan Suvari, Elif Kanca: “The Alevi Discourse in Turkey”
    • Pascal Kluge: “Turkey’s Border with Armenia: Obstacle and Chance for Turkish Politics”
    • Irina Morozova: “On the Causes of Socialism’s Deconstruction:
      Conventional Debates and Popular Rhetoric in Contemporary
      Kazakhstan and Mongolia”
    • Caspar ten Dam: “The Limitations of Military Psychology: Combat-stress and Violence-values among the Chechens and Albanians”
    • Garry W. Trompf: “The Ararat Factor: Moral Basics in Western Political Theory from Isaac Newton to John Stuart Mill”
    • Eberhard Werner: “Communication and the Oral-Aural Traditions of an East-Anatolian Ethnicity: What us Stories tell!”

  • The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi as World Literature

    The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi as World Literature

    Iranian Studies, volume 48, Number 3, May 2015. Special issue: “The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi as World Literature”

    The special issue of the Journal of Iranian Studies, guest-edited by Franklin Lewis is dedicated to studies on Shahname within a  “world literature”  framework.

    Iranian Studies is a peer reviewed journal of history, literature, culture and society, covering everywhere with a Persian or Iranian legacy, especially Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus and northern India.
    (more…)

  • Iran Nameh: Volume 30, Number 2 (Summer 2015)

    Irannameh-30-2Iran Nameh is a quarterly journal of Iranian Studies. A special issue, volume 30, Number 2 (Summer 2015), is  dedicated to Ehsan Yarshater
    for his lifetime service to Iranian Studies.

    (more…)