Arash Zeini

Category: Blog

  • Beauty of languages

    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
    In diesem Tale, das von Jammer schallt.

    Bertolt Brecht, Die Dreigroschenoper

    Mein Flügel ist zum Schwung bereit
    ich kehrte gern zurück
    denn blieb’ ich auch lebendige Zeit
    ich hätte wenig Glück.

    Gershom Scholem, Gruß von Angelus

    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,
    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.

    Paul Celan

  • Mohsen Zakeri (1954-2024)

    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.

  • گیلاس و انجیر

    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.

  • Stray Dog

    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.

  • Im Dickicht der Zeichen

    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

  • »Zur Kritik der Gewalt«

    Die Aufgabe einer Kritik der Gewalt läßt sich als die Darstellung ihres Verhältnisses zu Recht und Gerechtigkeit umschreiben.

    Walter Benjamin

  • »Die Welt von Gestern«

    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.

  • Rise of the Sasanian Empire

    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 Lost Parsi Fire Temple

    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

  • Interreligious Dialogue in Medieval Bamiyan

    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.

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  • Bahari Research Fellow

    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.

  • Were Sogdians Iranian?

    This question is being discussed on Twitter, and I was tagged to respond. I honestly don’t know how to do it in a meaningful way on Twitter, as embedded responses are often lost and not seen. I stay away from sub-tweets and believe this topic is too hot to be touched on Twitter anyway :) Below is my simple view:

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  • Not on Twitter

    I have been thinking about leaving Twitter for a while now. Not for one, but for many reasons which are not important. I joined Twitter in 2013 and a couple of years later deleted my Facebook account. I have never regretted that decision and feel the time has come to make a soft exit on Twitter. My Twitter app has been under focus mode and timer restrictions, so called digital well-being, for a long time, so that I could reduce my interaction with the platform. I will not delete my account, but have now logged out of the app. I will continue to share the BiblioIranica posts on my profile and might share any post that I write here on my Twitter. But I will not engage with the timeline and will not read direct messages.

    If you like to get in touch, please do so on e-mail. I love to hear from you, but social media are not really for me.

  • Zoroastrian Scholasticism

    The paperback of my book is here! You can order a copy from the Edinburgh University Press. I am grateful to the series editor, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, for giving this book a home and to the editors at the EUP for guiding me through the publication process.

    I list the reviews of my book here, and wrote for the EUP a blog about the content of the book and my approach which you can read here.

    Now, I get ready for my next book.

  • Voice, privilege and writing

    The debate about privilege and representing others in writing fascinates me. Who gets to be whose voice? How do you represent others and what role do publishers play in these debates? Does art need to node to the vagaries of social media? Can art provoke? If so, what are the limits, who defines them and what constitutes privilege and/or racism, othering etc? Following up on the Clanchy controversy, the Guardian has a nuanced piece discussing some of these questions.

    The idea that writers who tackle difficult subjects cannot necessarily rely on their publishers’ backing in a storm clearly alarms some. One literary agent was approached recently by a white writer, asking if it was still acceptable to write a mixed-race character. “I said, ‘Yes, you’re a novelist – of course you can, but what you do have to prove is that you’ve done proper research, that you’re not just objectifying that character,’” she says. “That’s what fiction is for. It’s to do with looking through other people’s eyes.” But in nonfiction, she concedes, a more permanent shift may be under way. “Maybe we’ve too easily thought that we can tell anybody’s story without any deep understanding.”

    The Guardian