Amir Mahdi Moslehi speaks to Khatt Chronicles about designing Iranian typefaces, including a font for Middle Persian, on which I had the pleasure of advising him.
If you listen to the conversation, I am happy to announce that we seem to be really close to an encoding of Pahlavi in Unicode, mostly due to the work of people like Roozbeh Pournader and Anshuman Pandey.
This forthcoming series published by Brill, entitled ‘Non-Mainstream Religion in the Middle East’, is great news. It’s about time we have more studies on contemporary, lived and living religions.
The peer-reviewed series Non-Mainstream Religion in the Middle East aims to bring out scholarly monographs, handbooks, and edited volumes on historical, social, comparative, textual, and cultural aspects of the study of groups that are often described as “religious minorities,” in and from the Middle East. The term “non-mainstream” is intended to cover both non-orthodox, self-confessed Muslim traditions (e.g. Ismaili groups from Syria to Tajikistan, Syrian Alawites, and Shiʿite groups in Afghanistan; the Rawshaniya movement among Pashtuns); those whose status as Islamic groups is disputed either by themselves or by the outside world (such as the Yaresan or Ahl-e Ḥaqq of Iran and Iraq, and the Alevis from Turkey); and those who live in mainly Islamic societies without belonging to the mainstream by any definition (e.g. Zoroastrians, Yezidis, Druzes, Mandaeans, Jews outside Israel, and Christian minorities). The diaspora communities of the traditions in question, as well as critical editions and translations of their religious texts, are intended to be part of the remit of the Series.
‘Parzor is delighted to announce its long awaited TISS-Parzor Online Academic Programme on Culture & Heritage Studies’. As part of this programme, you can ‘learn, gain credits, explore exciting issues of environment and sociology, craft, art, literature, theatre, cuisine as well as business and philanthropy’.
For admissions and programme details, visit the TISS Website.
Susan Bernofsky’s (@translationista) biography of Robert Walser, ‘Clairvoyant of the Small’, is a true masterpiece. She has also translated Yoko Tawada’s Celan-based novel into English: ‘Paul Celan und der chinesische Engel’. Listen to her talk about her work.
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