Arash Zeini

Tag: Irano-Judaica

  • Interreligious Dialogue in Medieval Bamiyan

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    Arash Zeini
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    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 Historical documents, as opposed to narrative and religious primary source material, are an invaluable resource for the historical study of daily life and ordinary people.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,…

  • Religious transformation between East and West

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    Arash Zeini
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    Herman, Geoffrey. 2014. Religious transformation between East and West: Hanukkah in the Babylonian Talmud and Zoroastrianism. In Wick, Peter & Volker Rabens (eds.), Religions and trade: Religious formation, transformation and cross-cultural exchange between East and West, 261–281. Leiden: Brill. When religious traditions travel they tend to adapt to their new surroundings. Like new products seeking…

  • Iranian Jewry in late antiquity

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    Arash Zeini
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    Pourshariati’s new article appears in Sarshar (2014). I have already  posted the bibliographic note for the volume, but want to highlight this article separately, as it relates to late antiquity: Pourshariati, Parvaneh. 2014. New vistas on the history of Iranian Jewry in late antiquity, Part I: Patterns of Jewish settlement in Iran. In Houman Sarshar…

  • Two reviews

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    Arash Zeini
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    Brody, Robert . 2014. Review of Shai Secunda: The Iranian Talmud. University of Pennsylvania Press. Zion 79(3). 435–437. See also here for another review of Shai’s book. Mokhtarian, Jason. 2014. Review of Shai Secunda & Steven Fine (eds.): Shoshannat Yaakov, Jewish and Iranian studies in honor of Yaakov Elman. Zion 79(3). 438–442.

  • Women in the Hērbedestān

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    Arash Zeini
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    Strauch Schick, Shana. 2014. Women in the Hērbedestān: A re-examination of the Bavli’s Beruriah narratives in light of Middle Persian literature. Zion 79(3). 407–424. The Babylonian Talmud contains a number of dicta which unambiguously exclude women from the study of Torah. Yet the narratives concerning Beruriah, supposedly the daughter of R. Hanina b. Teradyon and…

  • The Babylonian Talmud and the Paikuli inscription

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    Arash Zeini
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    Herman, Geoffrey . 2014. Insurrection in the academy: The Babylonian Talmud and the Paikuli inscription. Zion 79(3). 377–407. In the Sasanian Empire Persian court culture cast its shadow well beyond the palace walls in Ctesiphon. Palatial or imperial custom was ubiquitous and smaller courts, as indeed the Divine Kingdom in heaven, acquired for themselves many…

  • The Jews of Iran

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    Arash Zeini
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    Houman Sarshar (ed.). 2014. The Jews of Iran: The history, religion and culture of a community in the Islamic world. London: I.B.Tauris Living continuously in Iran for over 2700 years, Jews have played an integral role in the history of the country. Frequently understood as a passive minority group, and often marginalized by the Zoroastrian and…

  • To convert a Persian

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    Arash Zeini
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    Kiperwasser, Reuven. 2014. To convert a Persian and to teach him the holy scriptures: A Zoroastrian proselyte in Rabbinic and Syriac Christian narratives. In Geoffrey Herman (ed.), Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians: Religious dynamics in a Sasanian context, 91–127. Gorgias Press. Read the article here.

  • Review: The Iranian Talmud

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    Arash Zeini
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    Hezser, Catherine. 2014. Review of Shai Secunda: The Iranian Talmud. Reading the Bavli in its Sasanian context. Theologische Literaturzeitung 139(7/8). 867–869. Catherine Hezser, SOAS, has reviewed Shai Secunda’s excellent The Iranian Talmud. The last paragraph of the review says it all: This relatively short (the body of text has 146 pages only) but excellent and…

  • Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians

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    Arash Zeini
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    Herman, Geoffrey (ed.). 2014. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians: Religious dynamics in a Sasanian context (Judaism in Context 17). Gorgias Press. For the table of contents and more info, see here.

  • Zoroastrian exegetical parables

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    A thorough examination of the structure of one of the parables in the ŠGW. Sam’s comparison with examples from the Rabbinic literature is illuminating. Thrope, Samuel. 2013. Zoroastrian exegetical parables in the Škand Gumānīg Wizār. Iran and the Caucasus 17. 253-274. Read the article here. Abstract: The parable has received little attention as a form…

  • The Iranian Talmud

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    Arash Zeini
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    Secunda, Shai. 2013. The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in its Sasanian context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. For the book, see here. Short abstract: Although the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, has been a text central and vital to the Jewish canon since the Middle Ages, the context in which it was produced has been…

  • The fractious eye

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    Arash Zeini
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    Secunda, Shai. 2014. The fractious eye: On the evil eye of menstruants in Zoroastrian tradition. Numen 61(1). 83–108. Read the article here. Abstract: Like all religions, Zoroastrianism evolved, and its rich textual record provides us with the material to trace some of its developments across the centuries. This article attempts to reconstruct an ancient Iranian…