Die Debatte um „Die Zukunft der Arbeit“ ist ein guter Anlass dieses wunderbare Bändchen, „Philosophie der Arbeit“, herausgegeben von Suhrkamp Verlag noch einmal ins Visier zu nehmen, vor allem die Beiträge über den Müßiggang. Es seien erwähnt „Das Recht auf Faulheit“ von Paul Lafargue, oder „Lob des Müßiggangs“ von Bertrand Russell.
I suggest German, not necessarily as a language of poetry, although it does well there too, but as a language of extraordinarily poetic prose. Yes. Nietzsche and Walter Benjamin are two general favourites, of course, and here a couple of epigraphs from Benjamin’s writings:
Bedenkt das Dunkel und die große Kälte
Bertolt Brecht, Die Dreigroschenoper
In diesem Tale, das von Jammer schallt.
Mein Flügel ist zum Schwung bereit
Gershom Scholem, Gruß von Angelus
ich kehrte gern zurück
denn blieb’ ich auch lebendige Zeit
ich hätte wenig Glück.
I’ve the 20 vol. of Kraus’s collected writings just because of this one:
… und den Geräuschen des Tages zu lauschen, als wären es die Akkorde der Ewigkeit.
-Karl Kraus-
And I submit the roughly 600 pages of Paul Celan‘s poetry as evidence for German as beautiful language for poetry. Here one example:
Wie sich die Zeit verzweigt,
Paul Celan
das weiß die Welt nicht mehr.
Wo sie den Sommer geigt,
vereist ein Meer.
Woraus die Herzen sind,
weiß die Vergessenheit.
In Truhe, Schrein und Spind
wächst wahr die Zeit.
Sie wirkt ein schönes Wort
von großer Kümmernis.
An dem und jenem Ort
ists dir gewiß.
آخرین بار در بوخوم دیدمش. با اینکه ناخوش بود، لطف کرد و اومد برای سخنرانی‌ام. بعدش هم برای پروژه کتاب بعدیش پیشنهاد همکاری داد. حیف که دیگر فرصت گفت‌وگویی نخواهیم داشت. دانشمند قهاری بود و دانش زیادی داشت که خیلی زود با خودش برد. جایش خالی خواهد بود.
دو هفته پیش پسر همسایه اجازه گرفت و چند تا گیلاس از درخت ما چید. امروز برام گوجه آورد که از پارک کنده بود. قرار شد وقتی انجیرهای درخت ما رسیدند دوباره با نردبونش برگرده.
I love dogs and often meditate on this photo. Something in those eyes, in the captured moment that seems so human. This one is the embodiment of the rōnin, but not because this is a Japanese stray. It’s in the eyes, in that gaze. It encapsulates survival, suffering, pain, courage and compassion all at the same time. Daidō Moriyama is a master.
Mir scheint es, die Zeiten haben sich geändert. In ihrem Buch, ‘Im Dickicht der Zeichen’, beschreibt Aleida Assmann ihr Studium in den 60er Jahren:
1966 war das Jahr, in dem ich Abitur gemacht habe und mein Studium begann. Die Studienjahre in Heidelberg und Tübingen fielen in die bewegte Zeit der K-Gruppen und Vollversammlungen, der Marx-Lektüre in kleinen Gruppen sowie der Protestaktionen, Transparente und Demonstrationen auf Straßen und öffentlichen Plätzen. Man rebellierte gegen den Staat, den man als faschistisch erkannte, und demaskierte die braunen Biographien der Eltern und Professoren.
Im Dickicht der Zeichen
Last month, we celebrated the publication of Yuhan’s books at a launch event at Wolfson College (@WolfsonCollege), wonderfully organised and convened by Christian Sahner (@ccsahner). I really enjoyed doing this with Elizabeth Tucker and Christian. It seemed to us that Yuhan enjoyed it, which is perhaps the main point.
Die Aufgabe einer Kritik der Gewalt läßt sich als die Darstellung ihres Verhältnisses zu Recht und Gerechtigkeit umschreiben.
Walter Benjamin
Yesterday, I chanced upon the English translation of Stefan Zweig’s memoirs, The World of Yesterday. Looking through the book, I found Shakespeare’s brilliant words in the epigraph: »Let’s withdraw, and meet the time as it seeks us.« Anyone familiar with Stefan Zweig’s decision to end his life together with his wife will read »let’s withdraw« with a sense of foreboding. However, the German original, at least in the recent printed editions that I know, quote this line from act 4, scene 3 of Cymbeline differently: »Begegnen wir der Zeit, wie sie uns sucht.« What a difference »let’s withdraw« makes here.
I don’t know The Collector, having only recently been alerted to it by Google, but their article entitled Rise of the Sasanian Empire: The Persians (205-310 CE) looks interesting. I have not had a chance to read the article in detail, but it looks generally good and offers photos to illustrate the art and archaeology of the empire.
The site brings you ‘Daily Articles on Ancient History, Philosophy, Art & Artists by Leading Authors. Trusted by Scholars, Classrooms & Enthusiasts’. They have articles on the Achaemenid kings, Cyrus The Great, the Parthians , Zoroastrianism and even on The “Communists” of Ancient Iran: Mazdak and the Khurramites.
A short report with some photos in India Times on The Lost Parsi Fire Temple Of Kolkata’s Ezra Street.
The Parsi community’s connection with Kolkata dates back to more than 240 years. Relying on the written records, in 1767, Dadabhai Behramji became the first Parsi who settled in Kolkata. He was friends with John Cartier, who was appointed as the Governor of Bengal back then.
From the article
This blog first appeared on the website of the Invisible East Programme.
Historical documents, as opposed to narrative and religious primary source material, are an invaluable resource for the historical study of daily life and ordinary people. Micro-historical research, thus moves away from panoptic imperial historiography and often focuses on the history of smaller states, economies and even private lives. In general, and if enough documentary material exists, the micro-histories offer a more singular but perhaps more precise view. Documentary materials abound in some cultures and languages allowing in-depth examinations of various kinds, whereas in some other regions they can be a rarity. Ginzburg (2013), for instance, drew in his classic micro-historical study of the miller Menocchio’s cosmogony on the protocols of the inquisition trials in the sixteenth century Italy1. Ginzburg’s study provides rare insights into the beliefs and the intellectual life of ordinary people. Rose (2021), in another widely recognised examination of ordinary life, queries a vast array of documentary material to understand and approach the intellectual life of the British working classes of the early twentieth century2. Despite the differences in academic discipline—one is a historical study while the other is sociological— both authors draw on material other than narrative, religious or royal sources3. Unfortunately, not every discipline can rely on documentary material that sheds light on to daily life.
(more…)As of today, I continue my work at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, as a senior ‘Bahari Research Fellow’. I resume work on my usual research topics: Zoroastrianism in late antiquity and epistolary traditions within the Iranian world. I’m grateful to Yuhan Vevaina for the friendship, opportunity & the exceptionally fruitful collaboration.
Adam Benkato and I have finally launched our journal, Berkeley Working Papers in Middle Iranian Philology, where we intend to publish short and longer articles or research reports on the philology and epigraphy of the Middle Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Parthian, Bactrian, Sogdian, Chorasmian, Khotanese).
We start the Working Papers with issue 0, Towards a Manifesto for Middle Iranian Philology. As the title suggests, this issue of the journal serves as a manifesto where I show a possible direction for the journal by discussing Nietzsche’s views on philology.
We warmly invite our colleagues to contribute to the journal.
I am delighted to be giving a lecture as part of the Pourdavoud Center Lecture Series on 11 January 2023. I will talk about the role of the Sasanians and philology in the creation and transmission of the abestāg, which is my preferred term for the collection of the texts we have come to know as the Avesta.
You can register for the lecture here.
Scholars have often discussed Zoroastrianism as an ancient Iranian religion that reaches back thousands of years into the middle of the second millennium BCE. For a long time, the idea of monolithic continuity has dominated the scholarly discourse in the study of this religion. While Boyce preferred a theological continuity, a view mostly rejected today, others have ardently, but to my mind unconvincingly, argued for ritual continuity. Both camps have at some point associated all pre-Islamic empires, but particularly the Achaemenid and Sasanian eras, with the religious system of Zoroastrianism. After a brief examination of these views, I will lay out some methodological concerns as a challenge to the discipline, before turning my attention to the reception of an antique Iranian heritage in the Sasanian era (224–651 CE). I will argue that the late antique response played a major role in forming the heritage it was claiming as its own.