Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Tag: Philology

  • 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:

  • Professionals of Writing in Late Antiquity

    Professionals of Writing in Late Antiquity

    First Bahari Workshop for Early Career Scholars

    Professionals of Writing in Late Antiquity

    A workshop organised by Olivia Ramble, Yuhan S-D Vevaina, and Alessia Zubani

    13 June 2025 | 09:00 – 18:30
    Wolfson College, University of Oxford
    Professionals_of_Writing_ProgrammeDownload
  • New Readings in Seven Middle Persian 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.

    Abstract
  • Indo-Iranian Journal

    Indo-Iranian Journal

    Indo-Iranian Journal volume 68, issue 1 (Feb 2025) has been published. Three articles are more closely related to our work:

    Fattori, Marco. 2025. Old Persian mav‑ and the evolution of the inchoative suffix in Iranian. Indo-Iranian Journal 68(1). 1–14.

    Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2025. Further Old Khotanese texts in ‘Metre B’. Indo-Iranian Journal 68(1). 15–33.

    Gethin, Rupert. 2025. Playing with formulas. Indo-Iranian Journal 68(1). 35–56.

  • Deciphering 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.

    Abstract

    Table 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

  • Lost Turfan Fragments

    Benkato, Adam. 2024. Lost Turfan fragments from the Nachlass of W.B. Henning. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, FirstView. 1–17.

    During the Second World War, a number of manuscript fragments in Iranian languages from the Berlin Turfan collections were lost. Photographs of these fragments preserved in the Nachlass of Walter B. Henning bring to light their contents and fill gaps in the record of Turfan texts. These photographs are published here for the first time, together with a description of the fragments and their contents.

    Abstract

  • 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.

    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.

    Description
    (more…)

  • Ricerche Linguistiche

    Ricerche Linguistiche is a new journal, giving new life to an older version of itself. It is published annually and aims to provide ‘a venue for contributions in the fields of diachronic and historical linguistics concerning all levels of linguistic analysis, with a special focus on ancient Indo-European and Semitic languages, as well as Romance languages and varieties’. You can read more about the journal, its history and goals here. Sadly, the journal does not seem to be open access.

    It’s first issue has two articles of interest:

  • On the Etymology of pourušaspa-

    Volume 28, Issue 1, of Iran and the Caucasus has been published. We would like to point out Mehrbod Khanizadeh’s contribution in the issue:

    Khanizadeh, Mehrbod. 2024. On the etymology of the Avestan personal name pourušaspa-. Iran and the Caucasus 28(1). 72–86.

    This article discusses the formation and meaning of the Avestan personal name of Zarathuštra’s father, pourušaspa-. Taking side with the current scholarly view on the etymology and meaning of the word, i.e., *pourušāspa– → pourušaspa– ‘one who has grey horses’, it is argued here that the shortening of the vowel can be explained by an analogical model in Wištāsp Yašt 1.2, where pourušaspa– m. is described as pouru.aspa– ‘having many horses’. The article also challenges the view that Wištāsp Yašt 1.2 is a recent text.

    Abstract

  • Lād: A Bactrian loanword

    Halfmann, Jakob. 2023. Lād “law”: A Bactrian loanword in the Nuristani languages. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 86(3). 505–510.

    This article proposes a new etymology for the Nuristani word family of Katë lod ~ lot, Nuristani Kalasha lād, etc. It is argued that these are best understood as early borrowings from Bactrian λαδο “law”.