In the first article, I investigate the collocation bun ud bar, known primarily from Zoroastrian legal texts, and show how the Zand’s insertion of it in Pahlavi Yasna 37.1 (Yasna Haptaŋhāiti) ultimately connects to the idea of martyrdom in Zoroastrianism. I briefly touch on the collocation’s theological implications, something I intend to explore further in forthcoming publications.
In the second article, co-written with my friend Shervin Farridnejad, we examine the position of dogs and its possible relationship with issues related to the consumption of meat in Zoroastrian Middle Persian texts.
Farridnejad, Shervin & Arash Zeini. 2024. “Who will protect the cattle”? On dogs and the sin of meat consumption in Zoroastrianism. In Maria Macuch & Arash Zeini (eds.), Deciphering the illegible: Festschrift in honour of Dieter Weber (Iranica 33). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Deciphering the Illegible, a Festschrift in honour of Dieter Weber, has now been published, celebrating his profound and life-long contributions to the study of Middle Persian documents.
On Monday, 21 October 2024, Maria and I drove to Dieter’s house to present him with the Festschrift in anticipation of his 83rd birthday the next day. Dieter lives with his wife in a rural setting near the town of Göttingen. I decided to drive from the UK to Köln on Sunday, to meet Maria and Claudius on Monday in the village. Maria had already involved Dieter’s wife earlier in 2024. To our surprise, the Festschrift had remained a secret, and Dieter was genuinely delighted to see the volume. I will never forget his “Ach, nein!” when he saw the title of the book. It was an emotional moment to finally gift him the volume after four years. We spent nearly three hours with him, his wife, and daughter, having coffee, lunch, and a birthday cake. It was a pleasant visit, laced with reminiscences, and lovely to see Dieter after such a long time.
When I approached Maria Macuch in early 2020 about a Festschrift for Dieter Weber, I had no way of foreseeing the impending crisis. Maria and I initiated work on this project in March 2020, at a time of global uncertainty and anxiety. Despite the challenges, over the next four years the collaborative efforts of our respected and patient colleagues came together to explore Weber’s research and contributions in new and illuminating ways. Each contribution in the Festschrift provides insights that resonate with Weber’s dedication to philology and the decipherment of the elusive script of the Middle Persian documents, contributing meaningfully to ongoing inquiries in the field. The completion of this work honours Weber’s legacy but also symbolises a shared resilience and commitment to advancing knowledge, even in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
The commemorative publication Deciphering the Illegible is dedicated to Dieter Weber, one of the most important scholars in the field of Iranian Studies, who is best known for his work on deciphering original documents in the extremely ambiguous Pahlavi cursive script, which was long considered ‘illegible’. In addition to an appreciation of his research and a bibliography of his publications, the volume contains twenty-eight contributions by renowned experts, reflecting the broad spectrum of the dedicatee’s academic interests and research work. The articles cover a wide range of topics and offer many new insights and original perspectives on religious, linguistic and historical problems, including several editions of previously unpublished texts.
Summary
With 28 contributions and 524 pages, this volume delves into complex topics at the heart of Weber’s research, including philology, epigraphy, and the intricate analysis of documentary material.
The team at Harrassowitz Verlag demonstrated exceptional professionalism, dedication, and support throughout the publishing process. Our sincere thanks to all involved.
Finally, I owe personal gratitude to Maria Macuch for her tireless and skilful navigation through each stage of this project. Working alongside her was both a privilege and an exhilarating experience.
Iranian Studies, the subject matter of this bibliographic blog, is not an easily defined field. It seems to me that we often mean the study of Zoroastrianism or ancient Iran, when we post about Iranian Studies. But even if we limit the scope of our work to what we might intellectually call the study of pre-Islamic Iran—due to the historical break in the transmission of Iranian religions—a workable definition still eludes us, as a vast number of pre-Islamic Iranian texts and concepts are only known to us through their Islamic garb. It becomes even more complex to define the field of our activities when we include neighbouring fields. I am painfully aware that it becomes still more complicated, if we consider publications that fall slightly outside of the academic genre. However, my approach was from the start a pragmatic one, as I wanted to be able to continue our work for as long as we could and without too much pressure. I know that we often miss publications by our colleagues from neighbouring disciplines; so, here I want to address one shortcoming that is close to my own interests and heart: two memoirs by eminent scholars of the other late antiquity (bold and provocative claim). One by the well-known Peter Brown (Princeton University), whom I have not had the pleasure to meet, and one by the equally well-known and wonderful Averil Cameron (University of Oxford), whom I have.
The end of the ancient world was long regarded by historians as a time of decadence, decline, and fall. In his career-long engagement with this era, the widely acclaimed and pathbreaking historian Peter Brown has shown, however, that the “neglected half-millennium” now known as late antiquity was in fact crucial to the development of modern Europe and the Middle East. In Journeys of the Mind, Brown recounts his life and work, describing his efforts to recapture the spirit of an age. As he and other scholars opened up the history of the classical world in its last centuries to the wider world of Eurasia and northern Africa, they discovered previously overlooked areas of religious and cultural creativity as well as foundational institution-building. A respect for diversity and outreach to the non-European world, relatively recent concerns in other fields, have been a matter of course for decades among the leading scholars of late antiquity.
The transitions of the title are those in the life and intellectual development of one of the leading historians of late antiquity and Byzantium. Averil Cameron recounts her working-class origins in North Staffordshire and how she came to read Classics at Oxford and start her research at Glasgow University before moving to London and teaching at King’s College London. Later she was the head of Keble College Oxford at a time of change in the University and its colleges. She played a leading role in projects and organisations even as the flow of books and articles continued, in an array of publications that have been fundamental in shaping the disciplines of late antiquity and Byzantine studies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
I have been waiting for ‘A Dream of White Horses’ by @underagreysky. From what I have read, although fiction, the story is relevant to what is happening in the UK right now. You can pre-order the book directly from the lovely folks at Bluemoose Books.
Good morning.
If you can help, that would be grand.
_A Dream of White Horses_ by Paul Scraton @underagreysky publ. on 24th October.
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.
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.
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.
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 and honoured to be the recipient of the inaugural AIS Book Prize for Ancient Iranian Studies for my book, Zoroastrian Scholasticism in Late Antiquity: The Pahlavi version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. The prize was announced at the 13th Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, which took place in Salamanca, Spain. As I have said before, I am grateful to the Edinburgh University Press for their support, Prof. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, the series editor, for giving this book a home early on, and to all publishing staff for putting up with my XeLaTeX shenanigans so patiently. I look forward to my forthcoming projects with the EUP.
با کمال خوشحالی به اطلاع دوستان میرسانم که کتابم، با عنوان “اسکولاستیک زرتشتی در دوره پساباستان”، در سیزدهمین کنفرانس دوسالانهی ایران شناسی در سالامانکای اسپانیا موفق به دریافت اولین «جایزه کتاب AIS برای مطالعات ایران باستان» گردید. از حمایتهای انتشارات دانشگاه ادینبورگ و ویراستار محترم، پروفسور لوید لولین جونز برای پذیریش زودهنگام کتاب و دیگر همکاران انتشارات بهسبب تحمل شیطنتهای XeLaTeX من قدردانی می کنم و مشتاقانه منتظر پروژه های بعدی خود با EUP هستم.
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.
Today we had Kristina Richardson, @krisrich, speak to us at the @invisible_east. She delivered a fascinating lecture based on her recent book, which has opened my eyes to a large set of theoretical questions to be asked in the study of ancient and late antique history of any geography.
Maybe it's time for a thread on medieval Romani history? The last major monograph on the topic was De Goeje's 1903 "Mémoire sur les migrations des tsiganes à travers l'Asie." Since then, medieval Asian Roma have been largely lost as historical subjects. https://t.co/ZsrZvAIptHhttps://t.co/wPQzEXnaLz
Part II contains the newly established text of the Pahlavi YH (in transcription) together with an English translation. The text-critical edition (in transliteration) and apparatus are included in an appendix. This edition of the Pahlavi YH must be considered the new reference point for any future work involving the text.
From the review, par. 4
Since the discussions refer to a wide range of related passages in the wider realm of Pahlavi literature, the book will be essential to consult not only for those working on other parts of the Zand, but also those engaged with Pahlavi literature in general.
I have a new article in a volume I edited with Adam Benkato for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. More details on the volume will follow soon, but my article is already available on the Journal’s FirstView:
This article examines the extent of the concluding section (Y 41) of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti in light of the manuscript evidence and the section’s divergent reception in a Middle Persian text known as the “Supplementary Texts to the Šāyest nē Šāyest” (Suppl.ŠnŠ). This investigation will entertain the possibility of an alternative ritual being described in the Suppl.ŠnŠ. Moreover, it argues that the manuscripts transmit the ritual text along with certain variations and repetitions while the descriptions of the extent of each section preserve the necessary boundaries of the text as a textual composition or unit.
