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The Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges between East and West

Rong, Xinjiang. 2023. The Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges between East and West (East and West, 14). Translated by Sally K. Church, et al. Edited by Sally K. Church and Imre Galambos. Leiden: Brill.

This first and only English translation of Rong Xinjiang’s The Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges Between East and West is a collection of 28 papers on the history of the Silk Road and the interactions among the peoples and cultures of East and Central Asia, including the so-called Western Regions in modern-day Xinjiang. Each paper is a masterly study that combines information obtained from historical records with excavated materials, such as manuscripts, inscriptions and artefacts. The new materials primarily come from north-western China, including sites in the regions of Dunhuang, Turfan, Kucha, and Khotan. The book contains a wealth of original insights into nearly every aspect of the complex history of this region.

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A New Translation of al-Balādhurī’s Futūh al-Buldān

Kennedy, Hugh (ed.). 2022. History of the Arab Invasions: The Conquest of the Lands -A New Translation of al-Balādhurī’s Futūh al-Buldān. London: Bloomsbury.

Ahmad bin Yahuya al-Baladhuri’s History of the Arab Invasions is perhaps the most important single source for the history of the great Arab conquests of the Middle East in the sixth and early seventh centuries. The author, who died in 892, was a historian working at court of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad. He had access to a wide variety of earlier writings on the conquests and has preserved accounts that are not found anywhere else. But the book is much more than a series of accounts of battles. Baladhuri was very interested in the origins of the Islamic state and its institutions. His work contains a wealth of information about government, land-holding and economic developments. It is, in short, a key text for anyone interested in the formation of the Islamic world.

In this new modern translation, fully annotated with a scholarly apparatus and commentary on the places, events and individuals mentioned, a key source on the Arab conquests is made available in English. It will be essential reading for scholars and students of Islamic Studies and Middle East history.

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Learn Persian

Alam, Mahmood. 2023. Learn Persian: Grammar and Workbook for Elementary and Intermediate Levels. London: Routledge.

Learn Persian has a step-by-step organized and structured framework of modern Persian words; grammar, short syntactical phrases and idiomatic expressions. Persian has a lot of common words and sounds from Arabic and Urdu; this work highlights vowels and consonants that are covered in the formation of words and sounds with apt precision. The special feature of this book is its simplicity, yet meaningful and comprehensiveness for the study of the language. This should be a good source book for new learners, as well as for those who want to explore the harmony and flair of Persian.

It would undoubtedly open doors to a Persian heritage as much as it slowly trains the eager learner in spoken Persian as well. Learn Persian will interest both learners and experts, and an excellent experience of coming across Persian as an interesting living language.

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The Parallel Lives of Ardashir I and Constantine the Great

O’Farrell, Matthew. 2023. Legendary Patterns in Late Antique Biography: The Parallel Lives of Ardashir I and Constantine the Great (Iran Studies, 23). Leiden: Brill.

A Memorial in the World offers a new appraisal of the reception and role of Constantine the Great and Ardashir I (the founder of the Sasanian Empire c.224-651), in their respective cultural spheres. Concentrating on marked parallels in the legendary material attached to both men it argues that the memories of both were reshaped by processes referencing the same deep literary heritage.

What is more, as “founders” of imperial systems that identified with a particular religious community, the literature that developed around these late antique figures applied these ancient tropes in a startlingly parallel direction. This parallel offers a new angle on the Kārnāmag tradition, an originally Middle Persian biographical tradition of Ardashir I.

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The Persian Wars: A Historical Commentary

Greatrex, Geoffrey. 2022. Procopius of Caesarea: The Persian Wars – A Historical Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Procopius was the major historian of the reign of Justinian and one of the most important historians of Late Antiquity. This is the first extensive commentary on his Persian Wars since the nineteenth century. The work is among the most varied of the author, incorporating the history and geography not only of Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, but also of southern Arabia and Ethiopia, Iran and Central Asia, and Constantinople itself. Each major section is introduced by a section on the history of the events concerned and on the treatment of these events by Procopius and other sources. The volume is equipped with an introduction, three appendices, and numerous maps and plans. All sections of the work that are commented on are translated. The book will therefore be of use to specialists and the general reader alike.

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Procopius of Caesarea: The Persian Wars

Greatrex, Geoffrey (ed.). 2022. Procopius of Caesarea: The Persian Wars: Translation, with Introduction and Notes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Procopius was the major historian of the reign of Justinian and one of the most important historians of Late Antiquity. This is the first stand-alone English translation of his work Persian Wars. It offers a new translation, which has at its basis one published fifty years ago by Averil Cameron. The Persian Wars, despite the title, is a wide-ranging work that reports the history and geography not only of Mesopotamia and the Caucasus, but also of southern Arabia and Ethiopia, Iran and Central Asia, and Constantinople itself. This book is equipped with notes, maps and plans, an introduction, and a translation of a further Greek text, that of Nonnosus, which overlaps with Procopius’. It will be of benefit to specialists and the general reader alike.

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Military Diasporas

Christ, G., P. Sänger & M.Carr (Eds.). 2022. Military Diasporas: Building of Empire in the Middle East and Europe (550 BCE-1500 CE). London: Routledge.

Military Diasporas proposes a new research approach to analyse the role of foreign military personnel as composite and partly imagined para-ethnic groups.

Two chapters contribute to ancient Iranian history:

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Études avestiques et mazdéennes vol. 9

Kellens, Jean. 2022. Études avestiques et mazdéennes vol. 9: Complémentarité des deux dernières Gâthâs (Y51 et Y53-54.1) (Persika 24). Leuven: Peeters.

Les principes directeurs qui ont guidé mes articles de 2013 et de 2014 sur la Gâthâ ahunauuaitī, le volume 6 de cette collection sur la Gâthâ uštauuaitī et le volume 7 sur la Gâthâ spentā.mainiiu n’ont pas varié. La Gâthâ toute entière est l’unité textuelle, chacune fait fonction de récitatif liturgique et pratique une combinaison de spectacle et de mobilité du discours qui composent une sorte de dramaturgie.

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The Scythian Empire

Beckwith, Christopher I. 2022. The Scythian Empire: Central Eurasia and the Birth of the Classical Age from Persia to China. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press.

In the late 8th and early 7th centuries BCE, Scythian warriors conquered and unified most of the vast Eurasian continent, creating an innovative empire that would give birth to the age of philosophy and the Classical age across the ancient world—in the West, the Near East, India, and China. Mobile horse herders who lived with their cats in wheeled felt tents, the Scythians made stunning contributions to world civilization—from capital cities and strikingly elegant dress to political organization and the world-changing ideas of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Laotzu—Scythians all. In The Scythian Empire, Christopher I. Beckwith presents a major new history of a fascinating but often forgotten empire that changed the course of history.

At its height, the Scythian Empire stretched west from Mongolia and ancient northeast China to northwest Iran and the Danube River, and in Central Asia reached as far south as the Arabian Sea. The Scythians also ruled Media and Chao, crucial frontier states of ancient Iran and China. By ruling over and marrying the local peoples, the Scythians created new cultures that were creole Scythian in their speech, dress, weaponry, and feudal socio-political structure. As they spread their language, ideas, and culture across the ancient world, the Scythians laid the foundations for the very first Persian, Indian, and Chinese empires.

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The World of the Ancient Silk Road

Liu, Xinru (ed.). 2023. The World of the Ancient Silk Road. London: Routledge.

This volume explores human migration, communication, and cross-cultural exchange on the Silk Road, a complex network of trade routes spanning the Eurasian continent and beyond. It covers thousands of years of human history, from the 3rd millennium BCE to the early 2nd millennium CE.

Consolidating archaeological discoveries, historical analyses, and linguistic studies in one comprehensive volume, The World of the Ancient Silk Road brings to light diverse perspectives from scholars who have lived and worked across this vast region, many of which are published here in English for the first time. It contains extensive references of primary and secondary sources in their original languages and scripts. From Early Bronze Age cultures to the rise of regional Islamic empires, from the Mediterranean to the Yellow River basin, this multidisciplinary volume seeks to offer new insights and expand Silk Road studies to the Anglophone world.

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