Publications & Conferences

In recent years academia.edu has received increasingly more negative attention. So, for instance, from Guy Geltner in Upon Leaving Academia.edu, published in Mittelalter. Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Rezeptionsgeschichte, 7. After academia.edu’s recent move towards a more commercial business model, I decided to move my publication list to my own site. I also maintain a copy on my profile at orcid.org/0000-0002-3020-2776.

Books

1. Macuch, Maria & Arash Zeini (eds.). 2024. Deciphering the illegible: Festschrift in honour of Dieter Weber (Iranica 33). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
2. Benkato, Adam & Arash Zeini (eds.). 2021. The roar of silence: A Festschrift in honour of François de Blois. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 31(3).
3. Zeini, Arash. 2020. Zoroastrian scholasticism in late antiquity: The Pahlavi version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia). Edinburgh University Press.
   • Sep. 2022, winner of the inaugural AIS Book Prize for Ancient Iranian Studies.
   • König, Götz. 2022. Zur Bedeutung der Pahlavi-Übersetzung des Avesta für die Zoroastrismusforschung. Notizen zu Arash Zeinis Studie über das Pahlavi Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. Sasanian Studies: Late Antique Iranian World / Sasanidische Studien: Spätantike iranische Welt 1. 157–179.
   • Peschl, Benedikt. 2021. «Arash Zeini. Zoroastrian scholasticism in Late Antiquity. The Pahlavi version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti». Abstracta Iranica 42-43 (5).
   • Josephson, Judith. 2021. Review of: Arash Zeini: Zoroastrian Scholasticism in Late Antiquity: The Pahlavi Version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. BSOAS 84(1). 172–174.
   • Shahin, Tino. 2021. Review of: Arash Zeini: Zoroastrian Scholasticism in Late Antiquity. The Pahlavi Version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. PLEKOS 23. 161–166. PDF

Articles

• Zeini, Arash. 2024. The covenant that binds: Ownership of life in late antique Zoroastrianism. In Maria Macuch & Arash Zeini (eds.), Deciphering the illegible: Festschrift in honour of Dieter Weber (Iranica 33), 461–480. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Farridnejad, Shervin & Arash Zeini. 2024. “Who will protect the cattle”? On dogs and the sin of meat consumption in Zoroastrianism. In Maria Macuch & Arash Zeini (eds.), Deciphering the illegible: Festschrift in honour of Dieter Weber (Iranica 33), 97–109. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Doroodi, Mojtaba, Mohammad Javad Owladhoseyn & Arash Zeini. 2023. A newly discovered Middle Persian funerary inscription from Mount Zaneh. Berkeley Working Papers in Middle Iranian Philology 1(1). 1–14.
• Zeini, Arash. 2023. Towards a manifesto for Middle Iranian philology. Berkeley Working Papers in Middle Iranian Philology 1(0). 1–12.
• Zeini, Arash. 2022. Multiple translation activities: Translation in Iranian cultures. In Sonja Brentjes (ed.), Routledge handbook on the sciences in Islamicate societies: Practices from the 2nd/8th to the 13th/19th centuries. Routledge.
• Zeini, Arash. 2021. Ritual and ritual text in the Zoroastrian tradition: The extent of Yasna 41. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 31(3). 637–646.
• Zeini, Arash. 2018. The king in the mirror of the Zand: Secrecy in Sasanian Iran. In Touraj Daryaee (ed.), Sasanian Iran in the context of late antiquity: The Bahari lecture series at the University of Oxford (Ancient Iran Series 6), 149–162. Jordan Center for Persian Studies.
• Zeini, Arash. 2018. Various entries. In Oliver Nicholson (ed.), The Oxford dictionary of late antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  (Adurbad-i Mahraspand, Arday Wiraz Namag, Bundahishn, Letter of Tansar, Matigan-i Hazar Datastan, Vendidad, Xwaday Namag, Andarzbad, Astodan, Bahram VI, Beth, Bozorgmihr, Hazarbad, Hormizd II, Hormizd IV, Marzban, Peroz, Qobad II, Spahbad)
• Zeini, Arash. 2018. Middle Persian papyri, ostraca and parchments: An introduction. Sasanika Papyrological Studies , No. 1.
• Zeini, Arash. 2016. A Unique Pahlavi Papyrus from Vienna (P.Pehl. 562). With an introductory note by Dieter Weber. Studia Iranica 45(1). 39–52.
• Zeini, Arash. 2015. Preliminary Remarks on Middle Persian <nc> in the Pahlavi Documents. In Anna Krasnowolska & Renata Rusek-Kowalska (eds.), Studies on the Iranian World I: Before Islam, 67–73. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press.
• Zeini, Arash. 2015. Preliminary observations on word order correspondence in the Zand. DABIR 1(1). 31–35.
• Zeini, Arash. 2013. ‘The Everlasting Zoroastrian Flame’: An interview with Dr Sarah Stewart. Published at IranWire.com.
• Zeini, Arash (ed.). 2012. The Avestan Manuscript Pt4_400 (Iranian Pahlavi Yasna) of the Bodleian Library (Avestan Digital Archive Series 39). Digital Publication.
• Zeini, Arash. 2010. Review of Hinnells, John & Alan Williams (eds.): Parsis in India and the Diaspora. Numen 57(2). 258–263.
• Zeini, Arash. 2008. Review of Alberto Cantera: Studien zur Pahlavi-Übersetzung des Avesta. Bibliotheca Orientalis 65(5–6). 785–790.

Lectures & Conferences

• 2024 “Revisiting the transmission narratives of the Dēnkard: A theological dialogue with Zādspram”, ‘A Spark of the Glimmer of the Original Light’: A Workshop on the Dēnkard as Literature, Theology, and Scholasticism, University of Oxford, 17–18 October 2024.
• 2024 “Normative vs. lived Zoroastrianism II: On bun, xwēdōdah and women in the Pahlavi Documents”, The 2nd Berkeley Workshop on Middle Persian Documents and Sealings, Organised by Adam Benkato (UC Berkeley) and Arash Zeini (University of Oxford), 10–11 October 2024.
• 2024 “The covenant that binds: On death and the ownership of life in late antique Zoroastrianism”, The Final Frontier: Unveiling the Language of Eschatology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 12 June 2024.
• 2024 “Mapping the Avestan rituals with TEI”, Digital Scholarship Coffee Morning, Weston Library, University of Oxford, 27 February 2024.
• 2024 “The Pahlavi documents: The bigger picture”, Study of Middle Persian documents from late Sasanian and early Islamic Iran: A description of the discovery, content, and history of documents from Egypt, Hastijan, and Tabaristan, Faculty of Linguistics of Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (Tehran), 14 February 2024.
• 2024 “Forgetting and over-remembering Iran”, ISME Lecture Series: Memory and Forgetting (in) the Middle East and Beyond, Freie Universität Berlin, 8 January 2024.
• 2023 “Can an identity discourse be read into the Zand?”, Group formation and maintenance in the Abbasid period among Zoroastrians, Manichees and polytheists, Queen Mary, University of London, 13 October 2023.
• 2023 “On Middle Persian documents”, Research Conversations, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, 11 October 2023.
• 2023 “Ritual, text and exegesis in Zoroastrianism: Revisiting the manuscripts of the Pahlavi Yasna”, ECIS10, Leiden University, 22 August 2023.
• 2023 “Logophilia or the art of the Middle Persian letter”, Persian/Iranian Studies Research in Progress Conversations, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, 16 June 2023.
• 2023 with Yuhan S-D Vevaina “Epistolary traditions in the margins of the caliphate: The case of two Zoroastrian brothers”, Responsa and Communal Letters Working Group, Princeton University, 18 April 2023.
• 2023 “The birth of the abestāg from the spirit of philology”, Pourdavoud Center Lecture Series, 11 January 2023.
• 2022 “The digital corpus of the Invisible East”, Experts workshop focused on the future development of the Open Islamicate Texts Initiative (OpenITI), University of Maryland, 29 September 2022.
• 2022 “The birth of the abestāg from the spirit of philology”, WZO’s Annual Seminar: Zoroastrian Iran soon after the arrival of Islam, WZO, 5 June 2022.
• 2022 “Ownership of body and soul in late antique Zoroastrian exegesis/philology”, Philology /in/ Persian, Symposium at UC Berkeley, 15–16 April 2022.
• 2021 “Is there a Middle Persian epistolary tradition? A survey”, Islamicate Manuscripts & Texts Colloquium (IMaT) 2021: Letters, Invisible East, The Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, 30 November 2021.
• 2020 “From Yasna to Yazišn: On the (in)significance of the ritual in late antique Zoroastrianism”, NES 160: Religions of Ancient Iran, University of California, Berkeley, 19 November 2020.
• 2019 “From Yasna to Yazišn: On the (in)significance of the ritual in late antique Zoroastrianism”, ECIS9, Freie Universität Berlin, 11 September 2019.
• 2019 “Mapping the ritual!”, Berlin Ediert!, Freie Universität Berlin, 26 April 2019.
• 2017 “Middle Persian Philology and Digital Humanities”, PaDiCo Workshop, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 09 November 2017.
• 2017 “Editing the Pahlavi Yasna”, Editing Avestan Texts in the 21st Centtury: Problems and Perspectives, Freie Universität Berlin, 24 March 2017.
• 2016 “Capital and Yield: Sasanian Legal Terminology in Religious Context”, Freie Universität Berlin, 16 June 2016.
• 2014 “Aspects of Zoroastrian Exegesis in the Late Antique Era”, WZO Seminar on Zoroastrian Religion, History and Culture, The World Zoroastrian Organisation, 8 June 2014.
• 2014 “Secrecy and Canonisation in Sasanian Iran: A Scholastic Reading of the Zand”. Bahari Lecture Series: “Sasanian Iran in the Context of Late Antiquity”, Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity, University of Oxford, 20 May 2014.
• 2014 Vortragsgsreihe: “Kingship in Ancient Iran”, School of Classics, School of History and Institute of Iranian Studies, University of St Andrews.
  • “The Return of the Avesta”. 14 May 2014.
  • “The Sasanian Empire and Religious Authority: The Case of Zoroastrianism”. 07 May 2014.
  • “Mythical Kings, Empire and Multiculturalism: The Case of the Achaemenids”. 30 April 2014.

In Press / Preparation

• Zeini, Arash. Review of Sarah Savant: The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory, and Conversion. For DABIR.
• Review of A.C.S. Peacock & D.G. Tor: Medieval Central Asia and the Persianate World: Iranian Tradition and Islamic Civilization. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
• Review of Juano Ferrer-Losilla: Final –y in Non-Manichaean Parthian and the Proto-Parthian ‘Rhythmic Law’. Journal of the American Oriental Society.
• Entries for Encyclopædia Iranica: Niyāyišn, Saddar Nasr, Saddar Bondahešn
• Review of Louise Marlow. 2016. Counsel for kings: Wisdom and politics in tenth-century Iran, vol. I & II. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
• Review of Reza Zia-Ebrahimi. 2016. The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism: Race and the Politics of Dislocation. DABIR.

Workshops Organised

• 2024 “2nd Berkeley Workshop on Middle Persian Documents & Sealings”, 10–11 October 2024, organised with Adam Benkato. University of California, Berkeley, and University of Oxford.
• 2022 “Introduction to TEI/XML and oXygen”: Several introductory workshops and training for the staff of the Invisible East project. University of Oxford.
• 2019 “Ninth European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS 9)”. Freie Universität Berlin, 9–13 September 2019.
• 2014 “Kingship in Ancient Iran: An Interdisciplinary Workshop”. University of St Andrews, June 12–13, 2014.
• 2014 “Introduction to TEI and oXygen”: An introductory workshop, discussing text encoding and the oXygen XML editor. The Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge, 25 January 2014.

Relevant Experiences

• 2015 TEI Simple workshop: Working with TEI Simple and its processing model. University of Oxford, 27 May, 2015.
• 2015 Founded “Bibliographia Iranica”, a bibliographic blog.
• 2014 Editor at DABIR Online Journal.
• 2014 Assistant Editor at De Gruyter Open in Theology and Religious Studies.
• 2012 Participated in the ‘Fourth Summer School on Pahlavi Papyrology. On the Threshold of Islam: Documents in the Pahlavi Cursive Script’. Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Iranistik, September 24–28, 2012.
• 2012 Conceptualised and collaborated on a pilot project (SOAS) to investigate the pathway from text encoding to the printing of a critical edition, May–June, 2012.
• 2010 Participated in the ‘2nd Summer School on Pahlavi Papyrology’. Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO), Rome, September 06–09, 2010.
• 2010 Participated in the Summer School ‘New Western Iranian and Early Judaeo-Persian Dialectology’. University of Hamburg, Department of Iranian Studies, August 16–27, 2010.
• 2009 Participated in the first ‘International Summer School in Pahlavi Papyrology’. Austrian National Library, Vienna, September 20–26, 2009.