The Sultanate Period and the Early Mughal Empire
3rd and 4th September, 2015 – Conference
University of Delhi, India
Author: Arash Zeini
Third Perso-Indica Conference
Masters of Persian calligraphy
Congratulations to Hamidreza Ghelichkhani, who curated and annotated this delightful anthology in collaboration with Kambiz GhaneaBassiri.This anthology invites audiences to interact with select works of Iranian masters of calligraphy from the tenth to the twentieth century. These works were carefully chosen to represent the artistic canon that has shaped the world of calligraphy in contemporary Iran. Their influence has in many cases exceeded the national boundaries of modern Iran, and the earlier works helped spread Persianate culture throughout West Asia in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern era.
Call for papers
We are now accepting notes and reviews for the next issues of DABIR. Please contact us, if you would like to contribute a paper.The journal accepts submissions on art history, archaeology, history, linguistics, literature, manuscript studies, numismatics, philology and religion, from Jaxartes to the Mediterranean and from the Sumerian period through to the Safavid era (3500 BCE–1500 CE). Work dealing with later periods can be considered on request.
Before submitting your contribution, please read our submission guidelines. Contributions can be sent as an attachment to out e-mail.
Die Arier
An interesting ZDF documentary about racist ideologies in Germany. 35 minutes into the documentary Josef Wiesehöfer is interviewed about the term ‘Arier’ followed by interviews with people in Abyaneh, presumably because they are believed to be Zoroastrians! The journey to Iran ends with a few shots at Naqš-e Rostam.
Unfortunately, the video is no longer available on YouTube.
Panini, Sanskrit and software development
BBC Radio 4 is currently exploring aspects of Indian history based on biographies of 50 important Indian historical figures: Incarnations: India in 50 Lives. Yesterday’s programme happened to be on the Indian grammarian Panini, whose grammar—according to this programme—played a pivotal role in making Sanskrit the lingua franca of South Asia for more than a millennium.
(more…)The family tree of Iranian
Dr Agnes Korn (University of Frankfurt) will be addressing the Indo-European Seminar on the subject
The family tree of Iranian and its problems
At 4.30 pm on Wed. June 17, Room 1.11, Faculty of Classics, Sidgwick Site Cambridge (CB3 9DA)
Tea will be served from 4.15A new bibliographic blog!
As was planned, I have now moved this blog to a new location at Bibliographia Iranica. While purpose and scope remain largely the same, the new blog will be maintained by Sajad Amiri, Shervin Farridnejad, Yazdan Safaee and myself (Arash Zeini). I hope that we will be able to post more frequently on the new blog. On Facebook, the posts will be available on a dedicated page called Bibliographia Iranica. A Twitter account and Google+ page are forthcoming. Please do send us information about events and publications that you would like to see on the blog.
Thank you very much to all friends and colleagues who liked the idea of this bibliographic blog, encouraging me to widen its scope. And many thanks to Sajad, Shervin and Yazdan for agreeing to collaborate on the new site.
On orality and textuality
Rubanovich, Julia (ed.). 2015. Orality and textuality in the Iranian world: Patterns of interaction across the centuries (Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture 19). Brill.
(more…)Carpets in ancient Central Asia
He, Zhang. 2015. The terminology for carpets in ancient Central Asia. Sino-Platonic Papers 257. 1–35.
This study seeks to gather and clarify the terminology for carpets used by peoples of Central Asia from about 300 BCE to 1000 CE time, including terms in Kharoṣṭhi, Khotanese, Sanskrit and its relatives, plus Persian, Sogdian, Chinese, and Turkic.
Mani in Dublin
Richter, Siegfried, Charles Horton & Klaus Ohlhafer (eds.). 2015. Mani in Dublin: Selected papers from the seventh international conference of the International Association of Manichaean Studies in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 8–12 September 2009 (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 88). Brill.
(more…)The chronology of early Islam
Wright Lecture Series, Easter Term 2015
The Chronology of Early Islam
Prof. François de Blois
The calendar and the system of timekeeping in Central Arabia at the beginning of Islamic history are discussed extensively in Arabic religious and scientific literature. My paper is an attempt, on the one hand, to confront these data with contemporaneous epigraphic and historic material and, on the other, to assess the arithmetical and astronomical plausibility of the data. This in turn sheds light on the problem of the chronology of early Islam and the reliability or otherwise of the sīra and maghāzī literature.
Digital humanities and text re-use
The concept of text re-use in early Islamic historiography was first brought to my attention by François de Blois, whose courses were always so much more than just an introduction to a language such as Middle Persian. Recently, it has been Sarah Savant, who has drawn attention to text re-use and its application in the study of early Islamic literature. And now there is this very exciting Hackathon taking place in Göttingen in July 2015:
(more…)Persian language, literature and culture
Talattof, Kamran. 2015. Persian language, literature and culture: New leaves, fresh looks. Routledge.Critical approaches to the study of topics related to Persian literature and Iranian culture have evolved in recent decades. The essays included in this volume collectively demonstrate the most recent creative approaches to the study of the Persian language, literature, and culture, and the way these methodologies have progressed academic debate.
[…] In dealing with these seminal subjects, contributors acknowledge and contemplate the works of Ahmad Karimi Hakkak and other pioneering critics, analysing how these works have influenced the field of literary and cultural studies.
Zoroastrianism in India
Parsi Mumbai: The legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s urban babric, published by the Ajam Media Collective, is a nicely written piece on Parsis in India, documented with many photos. Although Cafe Mondegar is not mentioned, the publication of the article coincides with the news that Mondegar might face eviction.The reign of Shah ‘Abbas
Ghereghlou, Kioumars (ed.). 2015. A chronicle of the reign of Shah ‘Abbas: Fazli Beg Khuzani Isfahani. Gibb Memorial Trust.
(more…)
Congratulations to Hamidreza Ghelichkhani, who curated and annotated this delightful anthology in collaboration with 
We are now accepting notes and reviews for the next issues of DABIR. Please contact us, if you would like to contribute a paper.
Talattof, Kamran. 2015. 
Parsi Mumbai: The legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s urban babric