Erst jenseits der Kastanien ist die Welt.
Paul Celan
The Scallop
‘The Scallop’ is a sculpture installed on the beach at Aldeburgh, in Suffolk. It is by the local artist Maggi Hambling and dedicated to Benjamin Britten. Onto it, are cut the words: ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’. When you read the words, you see behind each character the endless sky. Cut…
“Zoroastrianism, Esotericism and Race”
On 31 May, a workshop took place at SOAS on Zoroastrianism, Esotericism and Race. Convened by Mariano Errichiello (SOAS) and Afshin Marashi (Oklahoma), this closed-door workshop aimed to explore ideas around esotericism in modernity, which remains an understudied topic within Zoroastrianism. Six papers, arranged across three panels, addressed themes spanning the 19th to the 21st…
Groups in the Abbasid Caliphate
I will be presenting a paper, provisionally entitled Negotiating Zoroastrian Communal Identity in the Early Islamic Era, at the final workshop of the Abbasid Identities research project: Religious, Ethnic and Professional Groups in the Abbasid Caliphate, 750-1000. The ways that ethno-religious minorities relate to majorities is a salient feature of twenty-first century politics. However, the…