Auch Gedanken fallen manchmal unreif vom Baum.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Forgotten origins of modern humanities
From the book’s webpage: ‘The humanities today face a crisis of relevance, if not of meaning and purpose. Understanding their common origins—and what they still share—has never been more urgent’. Turner, James. 2014. Philology: The forgotten origins of the modern humanities. Princeton University Press. Many today do not recognize the word, but “philology” was for […]
The early Islamic world
This very interesting volume has an article by Jairus Banaji On the Identity of Shahrālānyōzān in the Greek and Middle Persian Papyri from Egypt: Schubert, Alexander & Petra Sijpesteijn (eds.). 2014. Documents and the history of the early Islamic world. Leiden: Brill. Historians have long lamented the lack of contemporary documentary sources for the Islamic middle […]
Biographical notices
BL’s Asian and African studies blog has a nice piece on George Percy Churchill’s biographical notices of Persian statesmen and notables.
Middle Persian and Parthian hymns in the Turfan Collection
Durkin-Meisterernst, Desmond (ed.). 2014. Miscellaneous hymns: Middle Persian and Parthian hymns in the Turfan Collection (Berliner Turfantexte 31). Brepols Publishers. This is an edition of a large number of fragments of Middle Persian and Parthian Manichaean hymns in the Berlin Turfan Collection. M. Boyce in the register of her 1960 Catalogue of the Iranian Manuscripts […]
Review: Sasanian coins
Heidemann, Stefan. 2013. Review of Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, M. Elahé Askari & Elizabeth J. Pendleton: Sasanian Coins: A sylloge of the Sasanian coins in the National Museum of Iran (Muzeh Melli Iran), vol. 1 & 2. London: Royal Numismatic Society in assoc. with the British Institute of Persian Studies. JOSA 45. 117–123. Read the review […]
Middle East Medievalists
‘Middle East Medievalists is an international professional association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Islamic world’. The association’s website and online journal, Al-`Usur al-Wusta, are hosted by the Islamic History Commons. MEM also have a page on Facebook.