Erst jenseits der Kastanien ist die Welt.
Paul Celan
Technical vocabulary in Zoroastrian exegesis
The Institute of Iranian Studies invites you to the International Conference 5–6 June “The Sources of the Polemical Treatise Škand Gumānīg Wizār” Škand Gumānīg Wizār (The Doubt-Breaking Explanation) is the only surviving Zoroastrian polemical treatise. It was written in Middle Persian in the 9th or 10th century AD, under the Abbasid dynasty, in Iran. While the…
Young Zarathushti Leaders
I had the pleasure of attending the third World Zoroastrian Youth Leaders Forum to speak about the legends of the life of Zardušt to a group of young Zoroastrians, but I ended up gaining far more than I gave. Set in the most beautiful and serene of locations, this was a transformative experience for me…
Mansour Shaki (1919–2000)
Mansour Shaki, a wide-ranging scholar of Middle Persian, died 26 years ago on this day. Born in 1919, he shifted from the sciences to linguistics in 1954 after a period of ill health. In 1963, he published his study The Zurvanits and the Dahrits: The first materialistic schools of philosophy in Iran, marking the start…