Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

  • Stucco in the Architecture of Iran and Neighbouring Lands

    Stucco in the Architecture of Iran and Neighbouring Lands

    Korn, Lorenz, Ana Marija Grbanovic, Iman Aghajani & Moslem Mishmastnehi (eds.). 2026. Stucco in the Architecture of Iran and Neighbouring Lands. New Research – New Horizons (Arts and Archaeology of the Islamic World, 25). Brill: Leiden.

    This volume examines stucco as a key medium of architectural ornamentation in Islamic Iran and neighbouring lands. It features articles that explore a range of sites, materials, and meanings from late antiquity through the Islamic periods. Drawing on disciplines such as art history, archaeology, conservation science, and aesthetics, the book offers new research and interdisciplinary approaches that expand current scholarship. The contributions range from focused case studies to broader methodological reflections. Originating from a 2022 conference at the University of Bamberg, the volume brings together scholars from Iran, Europe, and North America in a collaborative and wide-ranging inquiry.

    Table of Contents:

    • Lorenz Korn: Introduction: Stucco in Iran and Neighbouring Lands. Reviving Faded Colours through Art History and Science
    • Ruba Kanaʾan: Matter, Making, and Mode: Stucco in the Legal Texts of Iran and Central Asia (11th–13th c.)
    • Iman Aghajani and Majid Montazer Zohouri: Archaeological Study of Islamic Stucco Decorations in the Storage of the National Museum of Iran
    • Niloufar Ehteshami: Continuity or Discontinuity in the Stucco Motifs from the Sasanian to the Early Islamic Periods: Finds from the Sites of Jahangir and Guriyah in Ilam, Iran
    • Giuseppe Labisi: Stucco Decoration in Semi-Dome Squinches: Sasanian Architectural Heritage within Early Islamic Architecture
    • Iman Aghajani: From Tradition to Innovation: Iranian Stucco Decoration from the Early Islamic Period to the Saljuq Era
    • Andrea Luigi Corsi: Beyond the ‘Samarra Styles’: Reconsidering the Early-10th century Stuccowork in Dayr al-Suryan (Monastery of the Syrians) in Egypt as a Reflection of Post-Samarra Mesopotamian Stucco Production
    • Robert Hillenbrand: Twelfth-Century Stucco Decoration in the Ulu Cami of Van
    • Bernard O’Kane: Mamluk Stucco ‒ the Iranian Connections?
    • Elaheh Khakbaz Alvandian: The Unique Stucco of Sayyid Rukn al-Din Muhammad’s Tomb in Yazd: A Fresh Look at Understanding the Art and Technique of Stucco during the Muẓaffarid Period
    • Ana Marija Grbanovic: Some Remarks Concerning Uljaytu’s Mausoleum at Sultaniyah and Its Architectural Revetments
    • Marco G. Brambilla: Prefabricated Plaster Decorations in the Mausoleum of Uljaytu at Sultaniyah
    • Yves Porter and Anaïs Leone: Designing Architectural Décors in Ilkhanid Iran: Combinations of Stucco and Lustre
    • Sheila Blair: Stucco Workers, Lustre Potters, and Builders: the Case of Hasan ibn ʿAli ibn Ahmad Babawayh al-Vidguli
    • Moslem Mishmastnehi and Tomasz M. Stawski: Crystals of Gypsum in the Hands of Masters: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the chaîne opératoire of Saljuq and Ilkhanid Stuccoes
    • Meysam Labbaf-Khaniki and Atefeh Shekofteh: Technical Examination of Stucco Decorations from Bazeh Hur in North-Eastern Iran. Case Study: the High Relief of a Reclining Ram
    • Amir-Hossein Karimy and Parviz Holakooei: Blue ‘Out of the Blue’: Scientific Studies on the Blue Pigments Applied on Persian Stucco
    • Stefan Masarovic: Iranian Stuccoes from the 12th–14th Centuries: Material Examination of Three Monumental Figurative Panels and Two Additional Objects at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha
    • Yaser Hamzavi: A Contemporary Challenge for Conservators to Preserve Creative Stuccoes from the Past: Moulded Stuccoes of the Tombs of Sayyid Rukn al-Din and Sayyid Shams al-Din in Yazd
    • Hamed Sayyadshahri and Mohammad Mortazavi: Reconstruction of the Missing Parts of Stucco Decorations: Some Restoration Experiences

  • Journal of Ancient Civilizations 41/2

    The latest issue of the Journal of Ancient Civilizations (41/2) features two articles related to ancient Iran:

    • FERRARIO, MARCO: Learning to become Persians. Achaemenid Afġanistān in the Making: An Imperial Experience (139-199)
    • LI, XIAOJIA: What was Philosophy to Khosrow I? A Study Based on the Manuscript of Ketāb-e Dādār ebn-e Dāddokht from the Āzar Kayvān School (235–254).
  • Manichaean Liturgical Texts and Practices

    Manichaean Liturgical Texts and Practices

    Gardner, Iain, Majella Franzmann & Gunner B. Mikkelsen (eds.). 2026. Manichaean Liturgical Texts and Practices. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.

    The study of Manichaeism has advanced rapidly over the last century with the recovery of remarkable new texts and a great expansion in the known spread and influence of the religion. This volume has two major themes: A focus on liturgy and communal practice rather than doctrine; a holistic study from the Mediterranean world of late antiquity to early modern China. Contributors utilise the latest discoveries and their papers include original work on previously unedited texts and also entirely new material. The volume is a product of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project awarded in 2019.

    Table of Contents

    • Jason BeDuhn: Manichaean Funerary Rites: Evidence for Ritualization of the Passage through Death
    • Mattias Brand : Liturgy and Magic: Discourse and Materiality of Non-Normative Ritual Action
    • Iain Gardner: What Do We Know About the Earliest Manichaean Communities?
    • Zsuzsanna Gulácsi: Artistic Depictions of Rituals during the Uygur and Southern Chinese Eras of Manichaean History
    • Jae Hee Han: The Central Role of Mani’s Books in the Manichaean Bema Festival
    • Manfred Hutter: The Middle Persian Hymn M31 II as an Installation Ritual for a Bishop
    • Eduard Iricinschi: “I Weep for the Lord’s Day” (Homilies, 18.14): Ritualization and Religious Criticism in the Sermon on the Great War
    • Gábor Kósa: Chinese Manichaean Confessional Texts and the Xuāstvānīft
    • Samuel N.C. Lieu: From Parthian into Chinese (II): Some Observations on the Chinese Manichaean Hymnscroll
    • Enrico Morano and Nicholas Sims-Williams: Sogdian Confessional Texts in Manichaean Script
    • Nils Arne Pedersen and Gunner Mikkelsen:_ The Soul, Its Suffering and Salvation in Manichaean Hymns: Shared Imagery in the Coptic Psalm-book and Chinese Hymn-scroll
  • Orthography of the Avestan Manuscripts

    Orthography of the Avestan Manuscripts

    Martínez Porro, Jaime. 2026. Orthography of the Avestan Manuscripts (Corpus Avesticum / Handbuch Der Orientalistik 32–7). Leiden: Brill.

    Avestan manuscripts show enormous orthographic variation, which has caused headaches for experts in Avestan philology and editors of Avestan texts. This book provides an in-depth structured analysis of it, with the aim of bringing order to the chaos present in the manuscripts. In addition, it seeks the origin of this variation, primarily in the recitation of the texts.
    Based on this analysis, it also provides a geographical and temporal classification of the manuscripts according to the main orthographic characteristics of each group or subgroup. A fundamental tool for every scholar interested in Avestan philology and Avestan text criticism.

  • NABU 2026-3

    The latest issue of NABU (2026/3) includes several papers addressing various aspects of ancient Iranian studies:

    • Keetman, J., « Warum der Name Elam nicht die Erfindung sumerischer Schreiber ist », p. 163-165
    • Alibaigi, S., « Dance or Game? A Re-examination of the Motif Depicted on a Cylinder Seal from the Surkh Dum-i Luri Sanctuary, Luristan-Iran », p. 212-214
    • Enteshari Najafabadi, A., « The Term for “Milk” in PF 417: An Iranian Loanword? », p. 229-230
    • Rezaei, I., « In Search of the Land of Gold in the Heart of Distant Medes », p. 230-232
    • Alizadeh, K., « The Royal Cities of the King of Elam (I): Dīn-Sunki », p. 235-239
  • A New Edition of the Liturgies of the Khorde-Avesta

    A New Edition of the Liturgies of the Khorde-Avesta

    König, Götz. 2026. Vorarbeiten zu einer Neuedition der Liturgien des Kurzen Avesta (Iranica 35). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

    Since the first (European) exploration of texts regarded by the Parsis—the Zoroastrians of the Indian communities—as texts of the (Zand-)Avesta by Anquetil-Duperron in the 1760s, these texts have been presented as belonging to two major liturgical units: the long priestly liturgies and the short liturgies, some of which also formed part of the recitation programme of laypeople. In the nineteenth century, however, the latter were increasingly marginalised, primarily through editorial decisions but also through evaluative judgements, and excluded from historical and systematic reconstructions as well as from the interpretations based on them.

    Following a critical account of this process, which continued into the late twentieth century, Götz König undertakes a redefinition of the field of the short liturgies. He does so, first, on the basis of a modular analysis of the texts that reveals the compositional unity underlying their structure; and second, through an analysis of the (very numerous) written representations of these liturgies—the manuscripts of the Xorde Avesta (“Short Avesta”)—according to manuscript groups and layers. Finally, a historical and systematic account describes the principal liturgical domains conceptualised in the Xorde Avesta, together with their interrelationships and functions. The Vorarbeiten thus provide readers with a fundamental reference work for understanding and using the liturgies of the Short Avesta in the comprehensive Berlin edition of the Avestan liturgies (Corpus Avesticum Berolinense), which has been under development since 2018.

  • The Final Frontier

    The Final Frontier

    Rezania, Kianoosh, Neda Mohtashami & Yusef Saadat (eds.). 2026. The final frontier: Unveiling the ancient Iranian language of eschatology (Dynamics in the History of Religions 18). Leiden: Brill.

    The Final Frontier examines the language employed in Zoroastrian and Manichaean textual, ritual, and iconographic traditions to articulate eschatological notions. Bringing together twelve original contributions by leading scholars, the volume investigates how Iranian religious sources conceptualize death, the afterlife, and communication with the transcendent world, while also engaging in comparative dialogue with Christian traditions. A central focus of the volume is metaphorical language. By combining Conceptual Metaphor Theory with close philological analysis of Avestan and Middle Persian sources, the studies investigate how metaphors structured around notions such as journey, chariot race, kingship, light, darkness, fragrance, royal architecture, and spatial ascent function as primary cognitive frameworks through which the ineffable is rendered conceptually accessible. The integration of cognitive approaches, historical linguistics and the study of Iranian religions offers a new perspective on the analysis of the language of eschatology and the conceptual foundations of religious thought.

    Abstract
  • The Zoroastrians in British Columbia

    The Zoroastrians in British Columbia

    Mehri, Rastin. 2026. The Zoroastrians in British Columbia. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    The Zoroastrians in British Columbia begins with a consideration of the formation of the Zoroastrian Society of British Columbia in 1968 within the context of provincial and national immigration policies. It then moves to examine various controversial attempts in the 1980s to found the first Zoroastrian house of worship in Vancouver. Rastin Mehri explores the ways in which members of this community defined themselves ethnically and spiritually before settling in the province, and how they have done so since, revealing the demands of navigating the incongruities between Parsi/Zartoshty discourses of exclusion and the Canadian conception of multiculturalism.

    This unique study convincingly demonstrates that twenty-first-century experiences of exclusion and racialization have had a transformative impact on traditional patterns of belief and behaviour, including religious worship, personal relationships, and identity within the Zoroastrian community, particularly among its youth.

  • Persia and Byzantium: Interactions Across the Centuries

    Michele Bernardini and Alessandro Taddei have edited Persia and Byzantium: Interactions Across the Centuries, published as a special issue of Eurasian Studies. The issue includes the following articles:

    • Introduction
      Michele Bernardini and Alessandro Taddei
    • Dynamic Middle Grounds: Byzantium and the Muslim East in Comparative Perspective
      Rustam Shukurov
    • The Role of Rome in Zoroastrian Apocalyptic Literature
      Domenico Agostini
    • An Empire in Peril: The Political Crisis of Sasanian Persia (573) reconsidered
      Martin Hurbanič
    • “Thus Spake the Fire”: The Persistent Roots of a Zoroastrian Motif Between Socrates Scholasticus and Niẓām al-Mulk
      Alberto Bernard and Stefano Pellò
    • Conversion et attentes eschatologiques à l’époque de Timur : Jean de Sultaniyya et les Arméniens
      Irene Bueno
  • Giovanni di Epifania, ›Storie‹

    Giovanni di Epifania, ›Storie‹

    Bernard, Alberto. 2026. Giovanni di Epifania, ›Storie‹. Introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento. Brill: De Gruyter.

    John of Epiphania, secretary to Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch, witnessed the end of the 572-591 Roman-Persian war, with the flight of the Sasanian King of Kings Khusro II in Syria and his subsequent restoration to the throne by Emperor Maurice. His Histories, later used by Theophylact Simocatta, have been lost. Only the first pages survive, preserved in a Vatican manuscript (Vat. gr. 1065).

    This volume offers the first comprehensive study on John. Based on careful re-examination of the manuscript tradition, it presents a critical text that improves on C. B. Hase’s (1812). John’s chronology, biography, and ties with Gregory, are reassessed. Situating the Histories within the “classicizing” tradition, the study analyzes its method, perspective, and style, and traces its reception through the works of Evagrius, Theophylact, and Anna Comnena. Alongside exegetical and linguistic annotations, the commentary integrates evidence from a wide range of sources, offering critical insights into the diplomacy, prosopography, and military history of the war under Justin II and Tiberius.