International Workshop, organized by the Institute of Iranian Studies (IFI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and Vienna Linguistic Society and the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
13.12-15.12.2016, Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences
The first issue of Studia Iranica 45 (2016) has been published. For a table of contents and access to individual articles, see below or visit this page.
| 7 – 15 – | Unité et diversité du rite avestique KELLENS, Jean |
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| 17 – 38 – | Zāwulistān, Kāwulistān and the Land Bosi On the Question of a Sasanian Court-in-Exile in the Southern Hindukush AGOSTINI, Domenico, STARK, Sören |
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| 39 – 52 – | A Unique Pahlavi Papyrus from Vienna (P.Pehl. 562) ZEINI, Arash |
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| 53 – 64 – | A Pamir Cereal Name in Medieval Greek Sources WITCZAK, Krzysztof Tomasz, NOVÁK, L’ubomír |
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| 65 – 88 – | Institutional Metamorphosis or Clerical status quo? New Insights into the Career and Work of Sayyid Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Khātūnābādī MOAZZEN, Maryam |
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| 89 – 126 – | The Authentic Layout of the Main Avenue of Fin Garden in Kashan JAYHANI, Hamidreza, REZAEIPOUR, Maryam |
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| In memoriam | ||
| 129 – 132 – | Malek Iradj Mochiri (1927-2015) GYSELEN, Rika |
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| Comptes rendus | ||
| 135 – 155 – | Comptes rendus | abstract details download pdf |
Moazami, Mahnaz (ed.). 2016. Zoroastrianism: A collection of articles from the Encyclopaedia Iranica (Encyclopaedia Iranica Extracts – EIE), 2 vols. New York: Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation.Zoroastrian theology, cosmology and cosmogony, history of the faith, its rituals and ceremonies, Avestan and Middle Persian texts, festivals such as Nowruz, Mehregan and Sada, and a host of other topics, hitherto dispersed amidst other entries in their alphabetical sequence in the Encyclopædia Iranica, are gathered together here under one cover. The volume enables the readers to chart their way through complex traditions and debates throughout history, and brings into focus the interdependence of these pioneering contributions. As a thought-provoking and authoritative work of reference, it is a testimony to the fine scholarship and remarkable erudition of its contributors, scholars who have been foremost in ensuring that the Encyclopædia Iranica maintains its high reputation for authoritative comprehensiveness and pioneering research.
Volume 1
Volume 2
About the Editor:
Mahnaz Moazami is a Visiting Professor at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies of Yeshiva University. Her research focuses on religion in pre-Islamic Iran, and she has published several articles on different aspects of Zoroastrianism.
Table of contents:
Patricia Crone: “Pre-existence in Iran: “Zoroastrians, ex-Christians Mu‘tazilites, and Jews on the human acquisition of bodies”
Oktor Skjærvø & Yaakov Elman: “Concepts of pollution in late Sasanian Iran. Does pollution need stairs, and dose it fill space?”
Maria Macuch: “The case against Mār Abā, the Catholicos, in the light of Sasanian law”
Sara Kuehn: “The dragon fighter: The influence of Zoroastrian ideas on Judaeo-Christian and Islamic iconography”
Geoffrey Herman: “Like a slave before his master: A Persian gesture of deference in Sasanian, Jewish, and Christian sources”
Michał Gawlikowski: “Zoroastrian echoes in the Mithraeum at Hawarte, Syria”
Vicente Dobroruka: “Zoroastrian apocalyptic and Hellenistic political propaganda”
Dan D.Y. Shapira: “Pahlavi Fire, Bundahishn 18”
Matteo Compareti: “The representation of Zoroastrian divinities in late Sasanian art and their description according to Avestan literature”
Bahman Moradian: “The day of Mihr, the month of Mihr and the ceremony of Mihrized in Yazd”
Ezio Albrile: “Hypnotica Iranica: Zoroastrian ecstasy in the West”
Andrew D. Magnusson: “On the origins of the prophet Muhammad’s charter to the family of Salman Al-Farisi”
Predrag Bukovec: “The soul’s judgement in Mandaeism: Iranian influences on Mandaean afterlife”
Daphna Arbel: “On human’s elevation, hubris, and fall from glory. Traditions of Yima/Jamshid and Enochmetatron – an indirect cultural dialogue?”
Vicente Dobroruka: “The order of metals in Daniel 2 and in Persian apocalyptic”
Myriam Wissa: “Pre-Islamic topos in Dhu’l-Nūn Al-Misrī’s teaching: A re-assessment of the Egyptian roots of the knowledge of the name of god and their interaction with Zoroastrianism in the Achaemenid period ”
David H. Sick: “The choice of Xerxes: A Zoroastrian interpretation of Herodotus 7.12-18”
Cantera, Alberto. 2016. A Substantial Change in the Approach to the Zoroastrian Long Liturgy: About J. Kellens’s Études avestiques et mazdéennes. Indo-Iranian Journal 59(2). 139–185.
To the sources of the Indo-Iranian Liturgies
June 9th and 10th 2016, University of Liege
International conference to be held at the department of “Langues et religions du monde indo-iranien ancien” at the University of Liege. This conference is organized by Philippe Swennen, Céline Redard and Hamid Moein and will take place on June 9th and 10th.
The following monograph does not directly relate to Iranian Studies, but promises to be an important book and will be of interest to scholars of religion and Iranian Studies for its content and methodological approach:
Michaels, Axel. 2015. Homo Ritualis: Hindu ritual and its significance for ritual theory (Oxford Ritual Studies). Oxford University Press.
Drawing on extensive textual studies and fieldwork in Nepal and India, Axel Michaels demonstrates how the characteristic structure of Hindu rituals employs the Brahmanic-Sanskritic sacrifice as a model, and how this structure is one of the distinguishing features of Hinduism more generally. Many religions tend over time to develop less ritualized or more open forms of belief, but Brahmanical Hinduism has internalized ritual behavior to the extent that it has become its most important and distinctive feature, permeating social and personal life alike. The religion can thus be seen as a particular case in the history of religions in which ritual form dominates belief and develops a sweeping autonomy of ritual behavior.
Read more here.
Axel Michaels is Director of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe” and Professor of Classical Indology at the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg.
Cantera, Alberto. 2015. Daēuuas vertreibende Worte: Die Läuterungsrituale in V9–12. In Philippe Swennen (ed.), Démons iraniens: actes du colloque international organisé à la Université de Liège les 5 et 6 février 2009 à l’occasion des 65 ans de Jean Kellens, 77–96. Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège.
Many Avestan texts are considered to have a great protective capacity against the daēuuas, especially the names of the Amәѕa Spәta, their Yašts and the Staota Yesniia (above all the Ahuna Vairiia). They are combined in different forms to provide bāǰ „prayers that accompany the ritual action“ and keep the daēuuas away from the ritual. Most ritual actions are accompanied by three bāǰ: one opening, one closing and one accompanying bāǰ. The use of such bāǰ is especially frequent in the purification rituals. V10 and 11 are examined under this perspective and it is concluded that V10 presents probably the alternative accompanying bāǰ for a baršnum-ceremony and V11 for a purification ritual for different elements.
Antonio Panaino: “Mimesis und Liturgie im mazdayasnischen Ritual: Die Amtseinsetzung der sieben Unterpriester und die symbolische Götter-Verkörperung”
Donnerstag, 16. Juli 2015, Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Iranian Studies.
This lecture proceeds within the framework of the Corpus Avesticum Meeting in Berlin, which was held in 22–23 May 2015 at the Freie Universität Berlin. The lecture will be followed on Friday 17th July 2015 with an internal meeting of the members of the Corpus Avesticum settled in Berlin.
Donaldson, Bess. 2015. The wild rue of Persia: Magic, myth and folklore in Iran. London: I. B. Tauris.
The Wild Rue is a unique study of myth and magic in Iran. Bess Donaldson spent thirty years in Iran as both missionary and teacher and in this classic work she records the beliefs and superstitions of country at a time when they were increasingly under threat from the tremendous changes brought about by the Shah’s program of modernization. This earlier way of life, with its belief in angels and the evil eye, and with its age-old rituals surrounding childbirth and burial, is recounted in an informed yet highly readable text. A unique study of magic, myth and folklore with chapters on cosmology, names and numbers, snakes, dreams, talismans and signs, childbirth, angels, the evil eye, and the calendar. A classic work, long unavailable but now back in print.
A preview of the book is available here.
About the author:
Bess Allen Donaldson was an American Presbyterian missionary and teacher. She began teaching at the Iran Bethel Girl’s School in 1910, eventually becoming its principal. Bess Donaldson spent thirty years in Iran, during which time she gathered the material for The Wild Rue.