Author: Arash Zeini

  • Mantiq al-tayr ‘The Speech of the Birds’

    Among the recently digitised Persian manuscripts of the British Library is the manuscript BL Add. 7735, an illustrated copy of Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār’s Manṭiq al-ṭayr ‘The Speech of the Birds’. The Asian and African studies blog of the British Library discusses this manuscript and the Manṭiq al-ṭayr in a multi-part blog, featuring superb miniatures. To…

  • EAGLE 2014 International Conference

    International Conference on Information Technologies for Epigraphy and Digital Cultural Heritage in the Ancient World 29 September–1 October 2014, Paris, France Organised by EAGLE with the support of Collège de France Chaire Religion, institutions et société de la Rome antique and École Normale Supérieure. For more information, see here.

  • A goddess or a queen?

    Shenkar, Michael. 2013. A goddess or a queen? On the interpretation of the female figure on the relief of Narseh at Naqš-e Rostam (in Russian). In Scripta Antiqua, vol. 3: Edward Rtveladze felicitation volume. Moscow. Read there article here. Abstract: The article offers a reassessment of the identity of the female figure found on the…

  • Introduction to TEI and oXygen

    As part of our group’s ongoing engagement with the Yasna, I will be leading a one day workshop on TEI and oXygen. This is an internal meeting with the aim of introducing the participants of the Yasna project to the ideas behind encoding texts and exploring features offered by the oXygen XML editor. This is…

  • پرده نقش‌دار زرتشتیان

    متن نسخه‌ی فارسی مصاحبه من با دکتر ستوارت درباره‌ی نمایشگاه شعله‌ی جاویدان را اینجا بخوانید.

  • Sasanian elites and kinship ties

    I found Prof. Macuch’s lecture at the FAMES, entitled Kinship Ties and Fictive Alliances in Sasanian Law, very engaging. The lecture was in two parts. First, she gave an overview of the  Sasanian interpretation of kinship and discussed wealth, property management and inheritance. In the clearly structured introduction she defined the various models of matrimony such…

  • The Everlasting Flame

    The study of Zoroastrianism is nothing new to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. A number of formative figures in Iranian Studies have taught at SOAS: W. Henning, M. Boyce, D. N. MacKenzie, J. Hinnells, N. Sims-Williams, F. de Blois. And it houses the only endowed chair in Zoroastrian studies…

  • Kinship ties and Sasanian law

    Professor Maria Macuch to speak on Kinship Ties and Fictive Alliances in Sasanian Law at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA on Friday 13 December at 5.30pm.

  • CoAv 2.0: Day One

    In 2011, when we met for CoAv 1.0, a lot of time and attention were dedicated to organisational matters. Groups were formed, members expressed their interest in texts and types of activities, etc. We have come a long way, and CoAv 2.0 is dedicated to questions pertaining to the study of Zoroastrian manuscripts. The first…

  • Corpus Avesticum 2.0

    The second meeting of the European research network Corpus Avesticum 2.0 (CoAv) will take place in Salamanca. Between 28 and 30 November researchers from Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK will meet at Europe’s third oldest university to discuss various projects in preparation of a new edition of the Avesta. CoAv 1.0, where the research…

  • Further engaging the paradigm of Late Antiquity

    Pourshariati, Parvaneh. 2013. Introduction: Further engaging the paradigm of Late Antiquity. Journal of Persianate Studies 6. 1–14. In her excellent introduction to the latest volume of Journal of Persianate Studies, a special issue, Pourshariati discusses the problem of periodisation in the study of Iranian history. Read the article here.

  • Conference on Digital Islamic Humanities

    The Asian and African studies blog of the British Library has a very useful summary of the recent conference, The Digital Humanities + Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, which was organised and hosted by the Middle Eastern Studies Department of Brown University. The overview has links to some of the papers, slides and project websites.…

  • Zoroastrians – Washingtonpost.com

    Washingtonpost.com has a multimedia-like feature on Zoroastrians in Iran. A quick scan of the first page does not reveal any date for the feature, but I think it could be from the year 2000 or so. It is available in an HTML and a flash version. Enjoy it: Among the Zoroastrians – Washingtonpost.com

  • Ted Rall & Zoroastrianism

    Small in numbers, big in history, these days Zoroastrians live a quite life without attracting much publicity. Ted Rall’s choice to use Zoroastrianism as the theme of one of his cartoons is surprising.

  • Review: Die Schiiten

    Vor etwa zehn Tagen habe ich beim Stöbern in der VUB “Die Schiiten” von Professor Heinz Halm entdeckt. Das Buch ist im Jahre 2005 in der Reihe WISSEN bei C. H. Beck erschienen. Bereits beim ersten Durchblättern fiel mir die klare Gliederung des Buches auf. Und das Inhaltsverzeichnis lockte mit Kapitelüberschriften wie: “Die Basis der…