Auch Gedanken fallen manchmal unreif vom Baum.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
  • Two Memoirs

    I am reposting this from Bibliographia Iranica. 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

    Read more


  • Hölderlin

    Wer bloß an meiner Pflanze riecht, der kennt sie nicht, und wer sie pflückt, bloß, um daran zu lernen, kennt sie auch nicht.

    Read more


  • ‘Aliss at the Fire’

    In November 2023, shortly after Jon Fosse had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, I read A Shining, a 48-page story. I expected a contemplative experience, but found the repetitive language lifeless and without character. It tested my patience, and the religiosity on display felt crude, irrelevant and simplistic. The 48 pages turned out

    Read more


  • Book Pahlavi typeface

    Amir Mahdi Moslehi speaks to Khatt Chronicles about designing Iranian typefaces, including a font for Middle Persian, on which I had the pleasure of advising him. If you listen to the conversation, I am happy to announce that we seem to be really close to an encoding of Pahlavi in Unicode, mostly due to the

    Read more


  • Non-Mainstream Religion in the Middle East

    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

    Read more


  • TISS-Parzor Academic Programme

    ‘Parzor is delighted to announce its long awaited TISS-Parzor Online Academic Programme on Culture & Heritage Studies’. As part of this programme, you can ‘learn, gain credits, explore exciting issues of environment and sociology, craft, art, literature, theatre, cuisine as well as business and philanthropy’. For admissions and programme details, visit the TISS Website.

    Read more