Bibliographia Iranica – A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Zoroastrianism and contemporary philosophy
Nolan, Daniel. 2025. Zoroastrianism and contemporary philosophy (Elements in Global Philosophy of Religion). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zoroastrianism is a religion with a long history, but it has been comparatively neglected by contemporary philosophers. This Element aims to bring aspects of its long intellectual history into conversation with contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. Section 1 provides an introduction to Zoroastrianism and its history, some of the important texts, and some contemporary philosophy engaged with Zoroastrian themes. Section 2 discusses distinctive contributions Zoroastrian thought can make to the problems of evil and suffering. And Section 3 discusses a ‘quasi-universalist’ approach to puzzles about heaven and salvation, inspired by Zoroastrian theological texts.
Summary
For those with access,this title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
13/10/2025
The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period
Leuchter, Mark A. 2025. An Empire Far and Wide: The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This book offers a new approach to evidence to examine Persian imperial ideology and surveys literary products of ancient Jewish scribes to analyze the influence of Persian imperialism on the development of Yehudite scribal ideology and presents an argument for the existence of Judaism in the Persian period.
10/10/2025
Iran and the Caucasus 29 (3)
We are grateful to the staff at Yale Classics Library (@yaleclassicslib.bsky.social), who have been wonderful collaborators, sharing publication information with us:
Volume 29, issue 3, of Iran and the Caucasus has now been published.
The following articles relate to the disciplinary focus of BiblioIranica:
Did Arrian Ever Fight the Alans?
Author: Fatima Foltz
Pages: 233–246
Who Hides under the Name “Šahrbarāz, Malik al-Bāb” by aṭ-Ṭabarī under 22 A.H. (642/3 A.D.)?
Author: Arsen K. Shahinyan
Pages: 247–259
“Meinen Namen habe ich folgendermaßen inskulpiert”. Engelbert Kaempfer in Shirvan.
Author: Daniel T. Potts
Pages: 260–274
Tiriya: A God Restyled
Author: Martin Schwartz
Pages: 275–281
A Short Glossary of Northern Talishi
Author: Garnik S. Asatrian
Pages: 282–294
Contributions to Zagrology: V.F. Minorsky and C.J. Edmonds Correspondence (1928–1965), by Gennady Kurin and Metin Atmaca (eds./annotation/introduction)
Author: Victoria Arakelova
Pages: 332–333
09/10/2025
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft
The latest issue (175.2) of the legendary Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (ZDMG) has been published and is accessible here.
Research articles
Die ZDMG und ihre „Kinder“. Über die Rolle wissenschaftlicher Zeitschriften in der Geschichte der Orientalistik
Thomas L. Gertzen
Page 273 – 292
Beyond Rage and Fear. Negative Emotions in Middle Babylonian Letters
Jacob Jan de Ridder
Page 293 – 310
Ein christliches Liebesgedicht eines Muslims aus dem 10. Jahrhundert. Mudrik b. ʿAlī aš-Šaybānīs (st. 1000) muzdawiǧah über ʿAmr b. Yūhannā an-Naṣrānī
Werner Diem
Page 311 – 342
Following the Path. On the Early Modern Commentary Tradition on Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s Poem of the Way
Enrico Boccaccini
Page 343 – 368
Contributions to Iranian Etymology III
Marco Fattori
Page 369 – 395
Was ist Iranistik? Eine fachgeschichtliche Würdigung von Bert G. Fragner (1941–2021)
Christoph U. Werner
Page 397 – 409
The Yuktidīpikā on Yogins’ Perception
Ołena Łucyszyna
Page 411 – 435
Das Menschen- und Kinderopfer im alten und modernen Indien – Material, Interpretation, Debatte
Adelheid Herrmann-Pfandt
Page 437 – 466
Bringing Tibetan Buddhism Down to Earth. Part II: Gnam babs kyi dar ma bam po gcig go (IOL Tib J 370/6) Between Revelation and Legitimisation
Joanna Bialek
Page 467 – 492
Were There Really Cham Muslims in Hainan and Guangzhou in the Late Tenth Century? A Re-Examination of Relevant Chinese Sources
Johannes L. Kurz
Page 493 – 518
08/10/2025
Calque and Loanword in Early ʿAbbāsid Time (750–800 CE)
Abedi, Milad & Johannes Thomann. 2024. The emergence of Arabic scientific terminology at the eastern contact zone: Calque and loanword in early ʿAbbāsid time (750–800 CE). Asiatische Studien – Études Asiatiques 78(4). 705-717.
Superstratum languages often become substratum languages after military defeats. This was the case with Middle Persian in the Islamic Empire. There were different phases of interference between Middle Persian and Arabic. For example, Middle Persian terms, especially in administration and technology, were borrowed into Arabic. Later, in the first decades of Abbasid rule, a new scientific terminology was developed in Arabic based on translations of Sanskrit and Middle Persian texts in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. Besides that, some scientific concepts of Chinese origin were received too. Most of these early Arabic scientific texts are lost, having been replaced later in the 3rd/9th century by translations of Greek scientific works. However, many fragments of them are preserved in secondary tradition, and such materials have been only partially studied. This paper will discuss cases of Arabic borrowings, including calques and loanwords from Sanskrit and Middle Persian.
06/10/2025
Weaponry and a healed wound from the Parthian era
Eghdami, Mohammad Reza, Majid Gholamzadeh Roudbordeh & Meysam Navaeiyan. 2025. Weaponry and a healed wound from the Parthian era (247 BCE to 224 CE): Insights from the Liyarsangbon cemetery, Guilan, Iran. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Early View. 1–9.
The current research examines the health and medical treatment implications associated with an iron arrowhead found among the skeletal remains of an individual unearthed from the Parthian cemetery at Liyarsangbon, Iran. This site is dated to the period between 247 bc and ad 224, as determined through relative dating methods. Non-invasive testing methods, including XRF and Quantometer analysis, established the elemental composition of grave artifacts, while CT Hounsfield scans assessed damage around the arrowhead within the bone. The soil exhibited a pH level of 8.67, signifying its alkaline nature. Among the metallic residues surrounding the subject of investigation, iron was identified as the predominant metal, with average concentrations of 89.93 (XRF) and 90.93 (Quantometer). A Hounsfield unit measurement of 4000 suggested a metallic object within the bone. This study focuses on the production of iron artifacts and examines their practical effectiveness. The intricate design of the arrowhead, characterized by its sharp precision, underscores the advanced level of craftsmanship within the toolmaking industry and reflects a high degree of expertise in metallurgy. Its ability to penetrate deeply into the lateral condyle of the right tibia serves as a testament to the skill and technological sophistication involved in its creation. Conversely, the inability to remove the embedded arrowhead from the bone reveals the constraints and shortcomings in the surgical practices of this particular society, shedding light on the limitations of medical techniques during that era.
Abstract
03/10/2025
Man, Landscape, and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran
Cereti, Carlo Giovanni, Pierfrancesco Callieri & Vito Messina (eds.). 2025. Eranshahr. Man, Landscape, and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran (Collana Convegni 75). Rome: Sapienza Università Editrice.
This fourth volume of the Atlas of the Ancient Near East (OCAVOA) collects 15 contributions by members of the three Units composing the PRIN 2017 ‘Eranshahr: Man Landscape and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran. Texts, material culture, and society from Arsaces to Yazdegard III. Three case studies: Pars, Pahlaw and Khuzestan’ (2017PR34CS). These papers were presented during the conclusive workshop of the project, held in Ravenna on February 22-23, 2024. The project was conceived in 2017 and launched in 2018, representing a collaborative effort by a multidisciplinary team of scholars from Sapienza University of Rome, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, and Turin University, as well as several international partners. The project aimed to study the long millennium bridging two important transition periods in the history of western Asia, the first marking the passage from the Seleucid to the Arsacid era, the second being the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the rise of the Islamic Caliphate. In this framework, the book contains a set of archaeological, historical-geographical, and cultural studies on three ancient regions of western Iran during the Arsacid, Sasanian, and early Islamic periods, which combine into a coherent and innovative narration, shedding new light on the Iranian world in Antiquity, Late-Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages and opening the way for future investigations.
02/10/2025
From Alexander to Kanishka
Bousdroukis, Apostolos. 2025. D’Alexandre à Kanishka : Interactions culturelles dans les fondations des successeurs d’Alexandre, du Proche-Orient à la vallée de l’Indus, aux époques hellénistique, romaine et arsacide : Volume I & Volume II (MDAFA 35). Athens: École française d’Athènes.
From the Eastern Mediterranean to the Indus Valley, the successors of Alexander the Great founded, as early as the 4th century BCE, an impressive network of cities inspired by Macedonian urban models. Who were their inhabitants? How did these cities function and evolve within such diverse cultural contexts as the Near East, Mesopotamia, or Bactria? In this two-volume work, Apostolos Bousdroukis invites us to rediscover these foundations through a scholarly investigation grounded in the most recent archaeological evidence. Civic institutions, public monuments, sanctuaries, domestic architecture, and religious practices are all examined, not only in their local particularities but also in their capacity to absorb, transform, or blend Greek and indigenous traditions. Far from offering a simple urban history, this study sheds light on the complex interactions between Greek settlers and local populations — encompassing processes of adoption, adaptation, and cultural hybridization. It reveals how these cities became dynamic centers of exchange and cultural innovation, contributing to the shaping of new identities in a world undergoing profound transformation.
30/09/2025
The Assyrian Provincial Seal of Surkh Dom-i Luri, a pattern for Darius I’s Seal
Alibaigi, Sajjad. 2025. A Clue to a Puzzle: The Assyrian Provincial Seal of Surkh Dom-i Luri, a pattern for Darius I’s Seal. Arta 2025.004.
This short article examines the iconographic origins of the famous seal of Darius I, for which an Egyptian provenance has been proposed and now in the British Museum (BM 89132). Although the influence of the glyptic art of the first millennium BC on Achaemenid seal-carving is well evident, scholars have paid less attention to this influence on the cylinder seal of Darius I. Among the Assyrian seals and impressions of the second and first millennia BC, there are important examples that are iconographically similar to the seal of Darius, but the provincial seal of Surkh Dom provides the most clues to the connection between the seal of Darius and the Assyrian style seals. This seal, which was found from the excavations of the Surkh Dom shrine, is more similar to Darius’ seal than any other. It seems that the Assyrian provincial style of Surkh Dom-i Luri seal should also be added to the long list of influences of Neo-Assyrian art on Achaemenid and considered as a pattern for the seal of Darius I.
29/09/2025
A Military Origin for New Persian?
Vaissière, Étienne de La. 2025. A military origin for New Persian? Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. Akadémiai Kiadó 78(3). 471–489.
The question of the transition from Middle Persian to New Persian has been hotly debated. This article attempts to answer two questions: who spoke New Persian before it was put into writing in the middle of the 9th c.? This social group is identified with the soldiers of the armies of Abū Muslim, i.e. peasants from Marw
and their descendants. They came during one century to the forefront of Abbasid political and administrative life and imposed their specific dialect as a political language, in the shadow of Arabic. The second question is: what could have been the origins of the spoken language in the Marw oasis of the first half of the 8th c.? The article tries to demonstrate, on a much more tentative basis, that the demographic history of an oasis twice manned by soldiers from the South, first Middle Persian-speaking ones and then Arabic ones, both groups added to the local, Parthian-speaking population, is well reflected in the unique combination of
Middle Persian, Arabic and Parthian characteristic of Early New Persian. Early New Persian is the language of 8th c. Marw, or more generally Outer Khurāsān. This Marw hypothesis, based on the presence of Parthian vocabulary, is however very cautious, as nothing is known of the grammar of spoken late Middle Persian and many of the linguistic differences between Middle and New Persian might have evolved separately in different historical processes.
Abstract
26/09/2025