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.
Macuch, Maria & Arash Zeini (eds.). 2024. Deciphering the illegible: Festschrift in honour of Dieter Weber (Iranica 33). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
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.
Alongside our wonderful colleagues, several individuals and institutions played a crucial role in ensuring the success of this scholarly effort. The early and generous pledge of support from the Bahari Fund at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, provided the momentum needed to bring this volume to life, for which I am particularly indebted to Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina. Additional funding came from the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum; Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l’Oriente (ISMEO); and the Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair of Iranian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. For the latter, I owe special thanks to Adam Benkato. We are also grateful to the Institute of Iranian Studies at Freie Universität Berlin for accepting this volume into the Iranica Series, beautifully typeset and formatted by Kian Kahrom.
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.
