Bibliographia Iranica

Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

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  • The Zoroastrian Manuscripts of the Matenadaran

    The Zoroastrian Manuscripts of the Matenadaran

    Andrés-Toledo, Miguel Ángel (ed.). 2025. The Zoroastrian manuscripts of the Matenadaran. Facsimile edition (Corpus Avesticum / Handbuch der Orientalistik 32/6). Leiden: Brill.

    Armenia was a stronghold of the Zoroastrian religion in antiquity and late antiquity. Of the rich Zoroastrian literature that was composed and transmitted in the region, no single text was extant there after long periods of cultural, political and religious changes.
    The three Zoroastrian manuscripts of this facsimile edition, containing precious copies of texts in the Avestan, Pahlavi and Zoroastrian New Persian languages, are the only exception. Stemming from Iran and now preserved at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran), they are heirs of an ancient Iranian faith that once flourished also in Armenia.

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    16/05/2025
  • Journal of Iran National Museum

    Journal of Iran National Museum

    The new issue (vol. 3, issues 1/2) of Journal of Iran National Museum is out. It is open access.

    Table of contents:

    • Sepehr Zarei: Giant Cores and Large Flake Production at Dehtal: An Acheulean Site in the Northern Hinterland of Persian Gulf, Iran
    • Hossein Davoudi; Marjan Mashkour; Fereidoun Biglari: Animal Biodiversity during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the Zagros Mountains: Evidence from the Wezmeh Cave
    • Arkadiusz Sołtysiak: Human remains from Zard-e Sahel, Kashan, Iran
    • Ali Khayani; Sahar Abdolahi: A Door Sealing from Tape Jameh Shuran Sofla, the Mahidasht Plain, Western Central Zagros
    • Saman Hamzavi Zarghani; Cyrus Barfi; Samira Jafari; Mohsen Zeidi: Tol-e Khaki: Tracing the Footsteps of a Chalcolithic Community in the highlands of Fars Province, Southern Zagros Mountains, Iran
    • Rouhollah Yousefi Zoshk; Hassan Afshari Salaki; Donya Etemadifar: Agricultural Practices in Proto-Elamite Susa: An Analysis of Proto-Elamite Tablets at Iran National Museum (MDP 26)
    • Parsa Daneshmand: An Inscription of Hammurapi in the National Museum of Iran
    • Kiumars Alizadeh: From Hanni to Kidin-Hutran the son of Kurluš: a new look into the Arjān bowl
    • Wouter Henkelman: Tacara- and *tacarana-: Palatial terminology in a new exemplar of A2Sde and in the Persepolis Fortification archive
    • Fahimeh Homayoun; Siroos Zare; Younes Zare; Hamid Fadaei: The Newfound Footprints of a Discrete Decoration Type on the Column Capitals at Persepolis: An Outline
    • Zahra Alinezhad: A Review of Coin Finds From Ernst Herzfeld’s Excavations at Persepolis in the National Museum of Iran
    • Sepideh Qaheri: Aegyptiaca of Achaemenid Persia: re-examination of the documentation from Iran
    • Lena Ohrstrom; Natascha Bagherpour Kashani; Roger Seilera; Beata Bode; Abolfazl Aali; Sara Khalifeh Soltani; Shapour Shirani; Gabriela Ruß-Popa; Thomas Stöllner; Frank Rühli: Paleopathological assessment of the ancient Iranian salt mummies #1, #7 and #X, Chehrābād salt mine of Douzlākh, Iran
    • Ali Aarab; Leila Khamooshi; Bahareh Salimian Rizi; Ali Shojaee Esfahani; Yimin Yang: The Origin of Cobalt: A Review of Blue Glazed Ceramics in Iran and China from the 12th to the 17th Centuries CE
    • Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani; Andrej Vladimirovich Gromov: An Analysis of the Arms and Armor of the Battle Scene titled “the battle of Yerevan” (National Museum of Iran)
    • Ali Tarmigh: Seismic Risk Mitigation of Art Objects in Museums
    • Naghmeh Hosein Qazvini: Museum and the sublime (Based on Kantian sublime)

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    16/05/2025
  • Recent publications by Maria Carmela Benvenuto

    Recent publications by Maria Carmela Benvenuto

    We would like to bring a number of recent publications by Maria Carmela Benvenuto and her collaborators to the attention of our readers. Her publications are listed on her departmental page, but also on her academia account.

    • Benvenuto, Maria Carmela & Flavia Pompeo. 2020. Towards a morphosyntax of Old Persian cases: The genitive (Indogermanische Textlinguistik, Poetik Und Stilistik 3). Hamburg: Baar.
    • Benvenuto, Maria Carmela & Flavia Pompeo. 2022. La lingua degli antichi Persiani (Lingue Antiche del Vicino Oriente e del Mediterraneo). Milano: Editore Ulrico Hoepli.
    • Benvenuto, Maria Carmela & Harald Bichlmeier. 2022. Zu den Umlauterscheinungen im Baktrischen. Lautgesetz oder Tendenz? Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 74(2). 7–32.
    • Bichlmeier, Harald & Maria Carmela Benvenuto. 2024. On predicative possessive constructions in Avestan. In Paola Cotticelli-Kurras & Filip Johannes de Decker (eds.), Berthold Delbrück, historical and comparative Indo-European syntax 1922–2022, 129–149. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
    • Benvenuto, Maria Carmela. 2024. Notes on the Bactrian personal name Σανδο. East and West (New Series 5) 64(1). 13–21.

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    15/05/2025
  • What is Zoroastrianism?

    What is Zoroastrianism?

    In a series of workshops, Dr Mehrbod Khanizadeh (SOAS, University of London) will explore the history of Zoroastrianism from its roots in the second millennium BCE through to the present day. He will discuss religious, historical as well as social aspects of the religion’s development.

    Dr. Mehrbod Khanizadeh currently teaches courses on Avestan, Middle Persian (Pahlavi), and Zoroastrianism at SOAS, University of London. He specialises in Zoroastrianism and ancient Iranian languages.  His recent peer-reviewed publications include an article on the genealogy of the Iranian bilingual Avestan Pahlavi Yasna manuscripts, published in the Bulletin of SOAS in 2021, and a study of the etymology of the Avestan personal name pourušaspa- published in the journal of Iran and the Caucasus in 2024. His edition of the Avestan text of chapters 9-11 of the Yasna will be published as a monograph in 2025.

    Six sessions from 25 May to 30 November 2025.

    For more information and to register, see the document below:

    WorkshopFlyerDownload

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    14/05/2025
  • Representation of Aphrodite and Eros

    Representation of Aphrodite and Eros

    Moradi, Yousef & Almut Hintze. 2025. Representation of Aphrodite and Eros on Sasanian clay bullae: Evidence from the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp at Takht-e Solaymān. Iranian Studies 1–31.

    This article examines five Sasanian bullae from the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp with seal impressions depicting Aphrodite and Eros, and Aphrodite Anadyomene. It is argued that the original seal with Aphrodite and Eros likely dates from the late 1st century BCE to the early 1st century CE, reused between the 5th–7th centuries CE, while the Aphrodite Anadyomene seal is from the 2nd or 3rd century CE. Contextualizing these findings within Graeco-Roman and Iranian cultures, this article explores reinterpretations of Graeco-Roman iconography for both Zoroastrian and non-Zoroastrian audiences, as well as highlights that bullae with concave impressions of cylindrically curved objects on the reverse had once been attached to vessels, not just documents. Additionally, this article also discusses other sealings on the new bullae, some with Middle Persian inscriptions, identifying a mgw (priest) and an astrologer, providing the first attestation of the word axtar (constellation) on a Sasanian seal.

    Abstract

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    14/05/2025
  • The Frontier Pushes Back

    The Frontier Pushes Back

    Garosi, Eugenio. 2025. The frontier pushes back: From local languages to imperial substrate(s) in scribal practices in 8th-century Central Asia. Iranian Studies FirstView. 1–15.

    This article draws on documentary texts from multilingual archives of early Islamic Central Asia to illustrate connections between the Arabic and Middle Iranian scribal world. Here, I contend that some lesser-known evidence from Sogdia contributes new elements to current debates on the contact between Arabic and Middle Iranian scribal traditions and provides a measure of “intensity” of Arab rule in the region more generally. In particular, ostraca from various Transoxanian administrative centers provide documentary confirmation that a class of biliterate Arabic-Sogdian scribes was active in the local bureaucracy as early as the mid-8th century. When viewed in dialogue with archives from coeval Iran and Iraq, the Transoxanian evidence helps lead to a more nuanced understanding of the so-called “Pahlavi diplomatic substrate” model.

    Abstract

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    13/05/2025
  • Studia Iranica (52/1)

    Studia Iranica (52/1)

    The new issue of Studia Iranica is out (volume 52, issue 1). Here is the table of contents:

    • Maryam NOURZAEI, Thomas JÜGEL: On the Function of -ag in Middle Persian. Evaluative Marker or Derivational Suffix?
    • Parviz MOHEBBI: Sweet Orange and Mandarin in Iran and India (14th-19th Centuries) with a Glimpse at Europe
    • Piero DONNINI: Khayyām Literacy among Turkman Copyists
    • Willem FLOOR: Trois Rapports inédits de fonctionnaires belges concernant l’occupation ottomane (1907) et russe (1911) du territoire iranien
    • Comptes rendus

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    12/05/2025
  • An Early Judeo-Persian Rabbanite Text

    An Early Judeo-Persian Rabbanite Text

    Bernard, Chams Benoît. 2025. An Early Judeo-Persian Rabbanite Text: Vat. Pers. 61, Its Linguistic Variety, Its Arabic Vocabulary, and the Targum Onqelos. Journal of Jewish Languages 1–55.

    Vat. Pers. 61, found in the Vatican library, is a Judeo-Persian translation of the Torah. It has been variously described as a 13th, 14th, or 15th century text. This study aims to more accurately pinpoint its age and establish whether it is a direct translation of the Masoretic Text or whether it is based on Targum Onqelos. Based on a limited corpus of this manuscript (the Decalogue and a few other verses), this study also provides a more detailed description of the language variety of the manuscript and discusses the Aramaic and Arabic loanwords found in it. The study concludes that Vat. Pers. 61 is largely based on Targum Onqelos, and the language of the text is found to be generally pre-Mongolian Early Judeo-Persian, which is rare for a religious Rabbanite text.

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    08/05/2025
  • Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92)

    Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92)

    Barnea, Gad. 2025. Imitatio Dei, Imitatio Darii: Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92). Religions 16(5), 597.

    The Bīsotūn inscription of Darius I (DB) is a masterpiece of ancient literature containing descriptions of historical events, imperial propaganda, cultic statements, ethical instructions, wisdom insights, blessings and curses, and engagements with posterity. It was disseminated far and wide within the empire and left a lasting impression on the cultures with which it came into contact. However, a specific section of this royal inscription (DB 4:36–92), carefully crafted to address future audiences in the second person, stands out sharply from the rest of the text. This passage has made a striking, profound, and durable impression on future generations—which extended over the longue durée in both time and space. This article focuses on the decisive cultic theme undergirding DB in general and its fourth column in particular namely, the king’s profound sense of imitatio dei in the cosmic battle against “the Lie,” complemented by his appeal to an imitatio Darii by all future audiences of his words. The impact of this call can be traced in later literature: in a DB variant found at Elephantine and, most notably, a hitherto unknown exegetical legend found in Qumran, which seeks to explain this portion of DB through an Achaemenid court tale.

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    06/05/2025
  • 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

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    25/04/2025
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