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Articles

Talking with god

Cantera, Alberto. 2013. Talking with god: The Zoroastrian ham.paršti or intercalation ceremonies. Journal Asiatique 301(1). 85–138.

Read the article here or here. Abstract:

Among the different variants of the Zoroastrian long liturgy attested in the manuscripts we find two in which a coherent text in Young Avestan is divided into sections that are intercalated between the central part of this ceremony, the recitation of the Old Avestan texts. They are the Widēwdād and Wištāsp Yašt ceremonies. Usually they are considered late compositions in which the long liturgy has been extended artificially through the intercalation of of already exiting Young Avestan texts without any relationship to the Old Avestan texts they accompany. Actually, these intercalation ceremonies reflect a ritual that is as old as the version of the long liturgy we know. The journey of the sacrifiants to the hereafter during the recitation of the Old Avestan texts made possible an encounter and an interview with god. The questions and, above all, Ahura Mazdā’s answers are reproduced live in the sacrifice. Thus, all Young Avestan texts belonging to the frašna-genre that is consisting of Zaraθuštra’s questions and Ahura Mazdā’s answers have been composed probably for being intercalated between the Old Avestan texts in the Zoroastrian long liturgy.

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Articles

The verbal particle BE in Middle Persian

Jügel, Thomas. 2013. The verbal particle BE in Middle Persian. Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 67(1). 29–56.

Read the article here. Abstract:

The verbal particle BE in Middle Persian can be linked to three Old Iranian inputs: an adverb and an emphatic particle, both inherited from Proto-Indo-European, and an Old Iranian adverbial compound. After a short overview of previous studies, the use of various forms of BE in Middle Persian will be exemplified and the semantic and functional development will be discussed.

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Articles

Ostraca from Old Nisa

Morano, Enrico. 2013. On some recently found ostraca from Old Nisa. In Sergei Tokhtasev & Pavel Lurje (eds.), Commentationes Iranicae. Vladimiro f. Aaron Livschits nonagenario donum natalicium, 111–117. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Historia.

Read the article here.

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Articles

Iranian in Wusun?

de la Vaissière, Etienne. 2013. Iranian in Wusun? A tentative reinterpretation of the Kultobe inscriptions. In Sergei Tokhtasev & Pavel Lurje (eds.), Commentationes Iranicae. Vladimiro f. Aaron Livschits nonagenario donum natalicium, 320–325. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Historia.

Read the article here.

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Articles

سندیت تاریخی شاهنامه

دریایی، تورج. ۱۳۹۲. سندیت تاریخی شاهنامه. در تورج دریایی، ناگفته‌های امپراتوری ساسانیان (هزاره‌های دنیای باستان ۲)، ۹۱–۱۰۹. تهران.

مقاله را اینجا بخوانید.

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Articles

Historiography in late antique Iran

Daryaee, Touraj. 2013. Historiography in late antique Iran. In Ali Ansari (ed.), Perceptions of Iran: History, myths and nationalism from medieval Persia to the Islamic Republic, 65–76. London: I.B. Tauris.

Read the article here.

Categories
Books

The Iranian Talmud

Secunda, Shai. 2013. The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in its Sasanian context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

For the book, see here. Short abstract:

Although the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, has been a text central and vital to the Jewish canon since the Middle Ages, the context in which it was produced has been poorly understood. Delving deep into Sasanian material culture and literary remains, Shai Secunda pieces together the dynamic world of late antique Iran, providing an unprecedented and accessible overview of the world that shaped the Bavli.

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Books

Perceptions of Iran

Ansari, Ali (ed.). 2013. Perceptions of Iran: History, myths and nationalism from medieval Persia to the Islamic Republic. London: I.B. Tauris.
For the book, see here. Abstract:
From the Sasanian to the Safavid Empire, and from Qajar Iran to the current Islamic Republic, the history of Iran is one which has been colored by a rich tradition of myths and narratives and shaped by its wealth of philosophers, cultural theorists and political thinkers. Perceptions of Iran dissects the construction of Iranian identity, to reveal how nationalism has been continually re-formulated and how self-perceptions have been carried by Iran’s literary past, in particular the mystical love poetry of Rumi, Sa’adi and Hafez. It traces a long history of encounters with the Western world and tracks Iranian thought from Herodotus’ representation of Cyrus to the Constitutional Movement of the early twentieth century. This book ties together the diverse threads of Iranian intellectual activity that have underpinned social and political movements, spanning Kermani’s writing on ancient Persian history and liberal nationalism, through to the strident anti-Westernism of figures such as Sayed Jamal Al-Afghani and Ayatollah Khomeini.
Categories
Articles

The fractious eye

Secunda, Shai. 2014. The fractious eye: On the evil eye of menstruants in Zoroastrian tradition. Numen 61(1). 83–108.

Read the article here. Abstract:

Like all religions, Zoroastrianism evolved, and its rich textual record provides us with the material to trace some of its developments across the centuries. This article attempts to reconstruct an ancient Iranian myth preserved in Zoroastrian tradition about the dangerous powers of the gaze of menstruating women, and traces its development as it grows out of the Avesta and interacts with Western philosophical traditions in the Middle Persian writings of late antiquity and the early middle ages.

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Events

Patterns of argumentation in late antique and early Islamic interreligious debates

A workshop taking place on 21–22 February 2014 at King’s College London.

Visit the workshop website. The programme is available here.

The workshop ‘Patterns of Argumentation in Late Antique and Early Islamic Interreligious Debates’ brings together a group of experts on late antique and early Islamic religious texts to reflect on this type of literature. We will discuss how religious ideas in the Eastern Mediterranean world (6th-8th c. CE) were shaped by the challenges of rival religious groups, and especially what patterns of argumentation were employed within the genre of religious disputation in order to formulate answers to critical questions from inside and outside the community.