Arash Zeini

Author: Arash Zeini

  • The Covenant that Binds

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    Arash Zeini
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    I have two articles in the newly published Festschrift for Dieter Weber, a volume I edited with Maria Macuch. In the first article, I investigate the collocation bun ud bar, known primarily from Zoroastrian legal texts, and show how the Zand’s insertion of it in Pahlavi Yasna 37.1 (Yasna Haptaŋhāiti) ultimately connects to the idea…

  • Deciphering the Illegible

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    Arash Zeini
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    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…

  • Two Memoirs

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    Arash Zeini
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    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…

  • ‘Aliss at the Fire’

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    Arash Zeini
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    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…

  • Book Pahlavi typeface

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    Arash Zeini
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    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…

  • Past Imperfect 9.12.24

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    Arash Zeini
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    Lovely to find out about ‘Stolen Fragments’ by Roberta Mazza, and that Emily Wilson now has a substack. In its first post, Wilson examines four translations of the Odyssey’s opening. Years ago, I read a Guardian article doing something similar and found Wilson’s translation the most convincing.

  • ‘Prophet Song’

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    Arash Zeini
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    I must mention ‘Prophet Song’ once more. Paul Lynch constructs a dark, threatening world that gradually builds to a crescendo of unbearable bleakness. Having lived as a child of revolution, war, and migration, I find his beautiful writing captures a pain that feels deeply relatable. This one left me speechless.

  • A nasty bird

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    Arash Zeini
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    I used to think that the politics of a certain site’s owner didn’t matter. I have changed my mind. Would you join that other man’s Truth Social? I wouldn’t. So, why stay here? Since I don’t know the answer, I decided to delete my bird profile in due course. Where I will be? I don’t…

  • A Dream of White Horses

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    Arash Zeini
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    I have been waiting for ‘A Dream of White Horses’ by @underagreysky. From what I have read, although fiction, the story is relevant to what is happening in the UK right now. You can pre-order the book directly from the lovely folks at Bluemoose Books.

  • Non-Mainstream Religion in the Middle East

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    Arash Zeini
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    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…

  • TISS-Parzor Academic Programme

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    Arash Zeini
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    ‘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.

  • Yoko Tawada and Paul Celan

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    Arash Zeini
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    Susan Bernofsky’s (@translationista) biography of Robert Walser, ‘Clairvoyant of the Small’, is a true masterpiece. She has also translated Yoko Tawada’s Celan-based novel into English: ‘Paul Celan und der chinesische Engel’. Listen to her talk about her work.

  • Philosophie der Arbeit

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    Arash Zeini
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    Die Debatte um „Die Zukunft der Arbeit“ ist ein guter Anlass dieses wunderbare Bändchen, „Philosophie der Arbeit“, herausgegeben von Suhrkamp Verlag noch einmal ins Visier zu nehmen, vor allem die Beiträge über den Müßiggang. Es seien erwähnt „Das Recht auf Faulheit“ von Paul Lafargue, oder „Lob des Müßiggangs“ von Bertrand Russell.

  • Beauty of languages

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    Arash Zeini
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    I suggest German, not necessarily as a language of poetry, although it does well there too, but as a language of extraordinarily poetic prose. Yes. Nietzsche and Walter Benjamin are two general favourites, of course, and here a couple of epigraphs from Benjamin’s writings: Bedenkt das Dunkel und die große KälteIn diesem Tale, das von…

  • Intergenerational Trauma

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    Arash Zeini
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    ‘It dramatises – literally – the psychic violence and intergenerational trauma that can be wreaked upon a people’. Claire Kilroy on a fundamental truth of life and ‘Beloved’ by the brilliant Toni Morrison, via @GuardianBooks: Claire Kilroy: ‘My moral compass has turned 180 degrees on Lolita’