Tag: Pahlavi Documents
New Readings in Seven Middle Persian Documents
Asefi, Nima. 2025. New readings in seven Middle Persian documents from the archive of Hastijan with an edition of Berk. 19. Berkeley Working Papers in Middle Iranian Philology 3(5). 1-19.
This article proposes new readings and interpretations for parts of seven Middle Persian documents first published by Dieter Weber, namely: Berk. 80, Berk. 95, Berk. 43B, Tehran B, LA1, Berk. 149, and Berlin 28. It also provides the editio princeps of Berk. 19.
AbstractMiddle Persian Documents
Benfey, Thomas. 2025. Middle Persian documents and the making of the Islamic fiscal system: Problems and prospects. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 87(3). 395–420.
This article charts a new course for the study of the Middle Persian documents from early Islamic Iran, which takes their early Islamic context into account more fully than has hitherto been done. This approach and its potential fruits for the study of early Islamic history are illustrated through an in-depth treatment of four seventh-century documents from the Qom region (previously edited and discussed by Dieter Weber), each of which contains a fiscal term that is apparently otherwise unattested in the documentary corpus. I show that the existing interpretations of these documents anachronistically project the fiscal terminology and structures of a later time into early Islamic Iran, and that these documents, considered in aggregate, suggest a certain course of development for the Islamic fiscal system in the post-Sasanian territories in the decades following the initial conquests: from broad and relatively unspecific impositions to more targeted exactions, based on increasingly detailed assessments.
AbstractDeciphering the Illegible
Macuch, Maria & Arash Zeini (eds.). 2024. Deciphering the illegible: Festschrift in honour of Dieter Weber (Iranica 33). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
The commemorative publication Deciphering the Illegible is dedicated to Dieter Weber, one of the most important scholars in the field of Iranian Studies, who is best known for his work on deciphering original documents in the extremely ambiguous Pahlavi cursive script, which was long considered ‘illegible’. In addition to an appreciation of his research and a bibliography of his publications, the volume contains twenty-eight contributions by renowned experts, reflecting the broad spectrum of the dedicatee’s academic interests and research work. The articles cover a wide range of topics and offer many new insights and original perspectives on religious, linguistic and historical problems, including several editions of previously unpublished texts.
AbstractTable of Contents
- Dieter Weber — A Scholarly Profile
- Publications of Dieter Weber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- Miguel Ángel Andrés-Toledo: Three Zoroastrian Manuscripts in Armenia
- Thomas Benfey: Windādag’s Orders: Ten Unpublished Middle Persian Ostracafrom Chāl Ṭarkhān-ʿEshqābād
- Adam Benkato: A Manichaean Remedy for Headaches
- Alberto Cantera: The Passive Suffix -ī̆h̆– in Middle Persian
- Carlo G. Cereti: From the Zamyād Yašt to the Seventh Book of the Dēnkard, Some Notes on Sistan and Zoroastrian Eschatology
- Iris Colditz: How to Make Clarified Butter in Sogdian
- Touraj Daryaee: The Owl in the Zoroastrian Tradition: Contribution to Iranian Bestiary I
- Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst: Hübschmann and the Middle Iranian Part on Armenian Loanwords
- Shervin Farridnejad and Arash Zeini: “Who Will Protect the Cattle”? On Dogs and the Sin of Meat Consumption in Zoroastrianism
- Ela Filippone: A Contribution to Pahlavi Lexicography: The Case of ⟨twk(‘)⟩ and ⟨twp(‘)⟩ in the Pahlavi Corpus and their Possible Cognates in Modern Iranian Languages
- Philippe Gignoux †: Sur l’argenterie sassanide, relectures et nouveautés
- Rika Gyselen: Le y final et le trait final en moyen-perse: le cas des sceaux des administrations territoriales
- Almut Hintze: The Pahlavi Psalter in its Historical Context
- Philip Huyse: Klimawandel und die spätantike Pest im sasanidischen Reich
- Götz König: Notizen zur Überlieferung und zum Gebrauch der Yašts
- Pavel B. Lurje and Boris Zheleznyakov: “Let Buyruq Sangun Live Long and be Divinely Blessed” Another Sogdian Dedicatory Inscription
- Maria Macuch: Trading with Infidels: A Balancing Act in Zoroastrian Legal Reasoning
- Mauro Maggi: Blowing out saṃsāra in Khotan.
- Jaime Martínez Porro: A Brief Note on an Avestan Quotation in the Wizī̆rgerd ī̆ Dēnī̆g
- Enrico Morano: Fragments from a Sogdian Cosmogonical Manuscript in Manichaean Script.
- Antonio Panaino: The ‘starred’ Frawahr and the ‘Katasterization’ of Humanity
- Anna-Grethe Rischel: Studies of ‘Watermarks of Technology’ from the Turfan Collection in Berlin
- Adriano V. Rossi: Minima Iranica for Dieter
- Nikolaus Schindel: Zur Bronzeprägung des Ohrmazd IV.
- Martin Schwartz: Mnemonica Iranica
- Nicholas Sims-Williams: Further Notes on Sogdians in Khotan
- Yutaka Yoshida: Training of Scribes along the Silk Road: A Case from Manichaean Sogdian
- Arash Zeini: The Covenant that Binds: Ownership of Life in Late Antique Zoroastrianism
On Middle Persian Documents
The 2nd Berkeley Workshop on Middle Persian Documents and Sealings
This is the second workshop in a series that began in Spring 2023 with the idea of bringing together scholars around the world who were actively working on, or interested in working on Middle Persian documents and sealings. The workshop is organised by Adam Benkato (UC Berkeley) and Arash Zeini (University of Oxford).
To attend the workshop, which takes place on Zoom, register here. The programme is below.
Studies in Iranian Philology
Barbera, Gerardo, Matteo De Chiara, Alessandro Del Tomba, Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā, Federico Dragoni & Paola Orsatti (eds.). 2024. Siddham. Studies in Iranian philology in honour of Mauro Maggi. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag.
(more…)This volume is a tribute to Mauro Maggi, celebrating his distinguished career and significant contributions in the fields of Iranian, Indo-Aryan, and Central Asian philology and linguistics. It features a diverse collection of papers presented by colleagues, former students, and friends, reflecting the broad spectrum of Mauro Maggi’s research interests. This collection not only honours Mauro Maggi’s extensive scholarly contributions but also serves as a valuable resource for researchers in Iranian, Indo-Aryan, and Central Asian studies. It will be of interest and value to scholars of Iranian philology and linguistics, as well as those in Indo-European linguistics, Central Asian philology, and Buddhist literature. Through this comprehensive tribute, the volume underscores the lasting impact of Mauro Maggi’s work and his enduring legacy in the field.
DescriptionA new Middle Persian document from Hastijan
Asefi, Nima. 2023. A new Middle Persian document from Hastijan belonging to the Farroxzād family. Berkeley Working Papers in Middle Iranian Philology 1(3), 1–14.
This study publishes a first edition of a newly-discovered Middle Persian document located in a private collection but stemming from the area of Hastijan, Iran. It is related to the ‘Pahlavi Archive’, the majority of which is held in the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, and the contents concern the family of a certain Farroxzād, mentioned in several other documents in the archive.
AbstractBulletin of the Asia Institute, 31
Volume 31 (2022-23) of the Bulletin of the Asia Institute has been published.
Table of Contents
- Harry Falk: “Faxian and Early Successors on Their Route from Dunhuang to Peshawar: In Search of the “Suspended Crossing”
- Osmund Bopearachchi and Richard Salomon: “Two Gandharan Seated Buddha Images”
- Henri-Paul Francfort: A “Blessing” Hand Gesture in Images of Deities and Kings inthe Arts ofBactria and Gandhara (2nd Century B.C.E.-1st Century C.E.): The Sign of the Horns
- Ryoichi Miyamoto: Letters from Kadagstān
- Dieter Weber: Studies in Some Documents from the “Pahlavi Archive”
- Nicholas Sims-Williams and Frantz Grenet: A New Collection of Bactrian Letters on Birchbark
- Zhang Zhan: Two Judaeo-Persian Letters from Eighth-Century Khotan
Sometimes Sasanian, Always Ēr
Gyselen, Rika (ed.). 2022. Sometimes Sasanian, Always Ēr (Res Orientales 29). Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient.
Volume 29 of the Res Orientales, edited by Rika Gyselen is now published. The preface to this volume is available online here.
Table of Contents:
Rika Gyselen: “Un objet insolite avec une inscription moyen-perse”
Mateusz M. P. Klagisz: “Bābāye Dehqān in Central Asian ethnography , and the literary and iconographic motif of the ploughman with two oxen in Sasanian times”
Yousef Moradi an d Almut Hintze: “The main administrative seal of the sanctuary of A.dur Gusnasp and some other sealings from Takt-e Solayman”
L’archive du Tabarestan (VIII° siècle de notre ère)
Dieter Weber: “Pahlavi Legal Documents from Tabarestan: The Documents Tab.16, 19, 20, 22bis and 25: A Philological Approach”
Maria Macuch: “Pahlavi Legal Docun1ents from Tabarestan: The Juristic Context of Tab.16, 19, 20, 22bis and 25”
Maria Macuch: “Pahlavi Legal Documents from Tabarestan: The Juristic Context of Tab.12 and 26”
Sasanian Studies: Late Antique Iranian World
Farridnejad, Shervin & Touraj Daryaee (eds.). 2022. Sasanian studies: Late antique Iranian world | Sasanidische Studien: Spätantike iranische Welt. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
The first issue of theSasanian Studies: Late Antique Iranian World is now published. The Sasanian Studies 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 focuses 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.
Table of Contents (PDF):
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