Erst jenseits der Kastanien ist die Welt.
Paul Celan
Mansour Shaki (1919–2000)
Mansour Shaki, a wide-ranging scholar of Middle Persian, died 26 years ago on this day. Born in 1919, he shifted from the sciences to linguistics in 1954 after a period of ill health. In 1963, he published his study The Zurvanits and the Dahrits: The first materialistic schools of philosophy in Iran, marking the start…
This is a bitter Norouz!
Today we celebrate renewal. We welcome a new season, we hope for joy, we reaffirm friendships, we eat together, we celebrate love and life. This year, as we face war and destruction, we also reflect on the bombs that fall, the bullets that fly, and the lives that are senselessly lost. We hear the last…
Whose is Zoroastrianism?
As scholars studying Zoroastrianism, we must ask this question more often: What is the subject of our academic gaze, and whose is the subject of our study? We must ask, not to confront, but to challenge ourselves and our enquiries. We must ask and debate, lest our tools become blunt and rusty. Brought up in…