Remember those Philosophy papers from the 1950s and 60s, where people just said what they had been thinking hard about, with few references or footnotes? If AI takes over literature-based research then maybe humans need to go back to the old ways. I, for one, would much welcome that.

A fantastic two year postdoctoral opportunity in Persian Literature here at UC Davis. Come join us and share widely with folks in MLA and Middle East studies! mesana.org/resources-an...

The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology Catanzariti, Antonietta & Touraj Daryaee (eds.). 2026. The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology. Washington, D.C.: SmithsonianScholarly Press. Between the third and seventh centuries CE, the Sasanian Empire became one of the…

The Letters of Mani Gardner, Iain. 2026. The Letters of Mani. A Lost Scripture of the Late Antique World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Includes new English translations of all the available texts concerning Mani's Letters Utilizes the latest research to recover all that can be known about one…

A Palace Built into a Mountain Maghsoudlou, Arvin. 2025. A Palace Built into a Mountain: Exploring the Modes of Audience Interaction and Reception at the Great Ayvan of Taq-e Bustan in Late Antiquity. Ancient West & East 24: 43-67. This study revisits the structure, imagery and scale of the Great…

Pünktlich zum 100. Geburtstag liegen jetzt alle 4 Bände von Sexualität und Wahrheit, alle 13 Bände der bahnbrechenden Vorlesungen am College de France und das große Nachlassbuch zum Diskurs der Philosophie in der stw vor! 22.6.!

Proofs have arrived of: Light Across the Plains by @sharonduggal.bsky.social Publishing this October. @bookcornerhx.bsky.social @toppingsbath.bsky.social @drakebookshop.bsky.social @forumbooks.bsky.social

It's true! Villanova is hiring a tenure-track position in Eastern Christianity! Please share far and wide. aarsbl.org/job/tenure-t...

I’m allergic, but loving this 🐝 in Latin lit essay: “bees were regarded as divine messengers, capable of ferrying information in & out of the afterlife. Thus, they are able to undertake the archetypical descent into the underworld (katabasis)—reserved only for gods and heroes—that defines the epic”

East and West (vol. 65) The latest volume of East and West contains several interesting articles, some of which deal with aspects of (ancient) Iran. F. Grenet, F. Ory, A Preliminary Note on a Painting from Kuh-e Khwāja in the New Delhi National Museum E. Matin, Reaching the Persian Gulf from the…

Two unpublished Bactrian documents Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2026. Two unpublished Bactrian documents in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Bulletin of SOAS FirstView. 1–8. Bactrian, the principal written language of pre-Islamic Afghanistan, was little known until the early 1990s, when more than 150…

Heindio Uesugi has done it again. Under the supervisory editorship of Adam Alvah Catt, Uesugi has now published an addendum to the second part of his Old Avestan dictionary: a translation and glossed version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti.

The _Impact of Empire_ conference is still one of the gold standard series. I remember being in Heidelberg for an iteration in 2007 & being blown away by Lenski, Eck, et al. The new vol., “Expressions of Opposition to the Roman Empire” is open access and out now. We do love a resistance story! ⚔️

Sovereignty in Iran Holliday, Shabnam J. (ed.). 2026. Sovereignty in Iran: Challenges to Eurocentrism from Ancient Iran to the Islamic Republic. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. This book is a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary collaborative project examining sovereignties as a plural…

More information on the conference here 👉 wp.stolaf.edu/kierkegaard/...

📕"The Original Age of Anxiety: Essays on Kierkegaard and His Contemporaries": brill.com/display/titl... 📕"Poul Martin Møller’s 'Thoughts on the Possibility of Proofs of Human Immortality' and Other Texts": brill.com/display/titl...

Stop by the 10th International Kierkegaard Conference at St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN) from June 15–19, 2026 and check out a small selection of our books 👀📚 ⬇️ Links to the books below

Heindio Uesugi has done it again. Under the supervisory editorship of Adam Alvah Catt, Uesugi has now published an addendum to the second part of his Old Avestan dictionary: a translation and glossed version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti.

I've mentioned this before, but the name for a robin is ابو الحنّاء which can't be translated verbatim but basically means "henna daddy" or "henna dude".

No idea what the context of these references to bibliographic tools is, but every scholar should be aware of Zotero and ideally Bib(La)TeX or similar. Wonderful tools that allow you to build a database over time. You will use them a lifetime.

My book “Before World Literature” about the Maqamat of al-Hariri is on sale. Hardcover book for about $30 until June 12 w the promo code. Also all Penn press books 📚 🤓

Oh my giddy aunt. Finished copies of Post - it Notes from Underground by Simon Crump Have arrived at Moose Towers. ‘Weird, warm and beautiful.’ @waterstones.bsky.social @thebookseller.com

Die altäthiopische Sprache Gəʿəz wurde nach der Christianisierung Kirchensprache und blieb bis ins 19. Jh. zentrales Schriftmedium. Weningers Grammatik behandelt u.a. Schrift, Phonologie und Morphologie mit Beispielen, Transkriptionen, Indices & Paradigmen. www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/isbn_9783447...

Two unpublished Bactrian documents Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2026. Two unpublished Bactrian documents in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Bulletin of SOAS FirstView. 1–8. Bactrian, the principal written language of pre-Islamic Afghanistan, was little known until the early 1990s, when more than 150…

East and West (vol. 65) The latest volume of East and West contains several interesting articles, some of which deal with aspects of (ancient) Iran. F. Grenet, F. Ory, A Preliminary Note on a Painting from Kuh-e Khwāja in the New Delhi National Museum E. Matin, Reaching the Persian Gulf from the…

Just up now! History of Philosophy in China, episode 55: More Gain, Less Pain: the Legalists on Human Nature tinyurl.com/455xzx5f Did the fa-thinkers recognize that human beings natural have moral capacities or dispositions? How did they try to manipulate human nature? #philsky #podcasts

Sasanians and the Silk Road Pashootanizadeh, Azadeh. 2026. The Sasanian Silk Road: Socioeconomic structures of the Zoroastrian silk trade. TEXTILE. 1–14. This study examines the cultural economy of silk during the Sasanian period and its influence on the cultural landscape of fire temples. The…

What a loss! With her work, Marjane Satrapi reached deep into our souls and guts. May her ruwān find the rest she didn't find here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjane...

Studia Iranica (53/1) The first issue of Studia Iranica 53 is out. Here is the table of contents: BELELLI, Sara: Laki Nominal Morphology in Historical and Comparative Perspective BORJIAN, Habib: Southern Kurdish in the Anti-Alborz: A Case of Language Isolation PREUD'HOMME, Nicolas: The Fall of…

The Chronological Boundaries of the Persepolis Fortification Archive Stolper, Matthew W. 2025. The Chronological Boundaries of the Persepolis Fortification Archive. In Petra Goedegebuure & Joost Hazenbos (eds.), Ḫattannaš: A Festschrift in Honor of Theo van den Hout, 387-415. Chicago: The…

Books about Zoroastrianism I recently took part in a Five Books interview on books about Zoroastrianism. Five Books is an impressively productive platform, covering a remarkable range of topics, genres, and disciplines. Reading its interviews can quickly become addictive. The website's mission is…

Ask your library to order /The Pearlsong/ (4T 1), and with it they'll get an enchanted & enchanting story, lots of languages & scripts, lovely paper, and some bonus song references!

Lahore After Modernism by Chris Moffat is a pioneering study of architecture and the politics of construction, destruction and conservation in urban Pakistan. https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/lahore-after-modernism #ReadUP

The Institute of Iranian Studies invites you to the International Conference 5–6 June "The Sources of the Polemical Treatise Škand Gumānīg Wizār"

I will be presenting at this workshop on technical vocabulary in Zoroastrian exegesis: 'The Institute of Iranian Studies invites you to the International Conference 5–6 June "The Sources of the Polemical Treatise Škand Gumānīg Wizār"' Flyer linked below www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/iranistik/...

Have to check some of these out.

'Keeping the Zoroastrian flame alive' Zoroastrianism is showcased as part of 'Stories of Harrow' at Headstone Manor and Museum in Harrow. The exhibition is on until the end of August 2026. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Idea of “India” and “Gandāra” in the Earliest Iranian and Greek Sources King, Rhyne & Alice Collett. 2026. The Idea of “India” and “Gandāra” in the Earliest Iranian and Greek Sources. Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia 146 (2): 241-262. Hinduš, the Old Persian name for a…

Parthica (vol. 27) Volume 27 of the journal Parthica (2025) contains several contributions of relevance to Iranian Studies and beyond: R. DAN: An Urartian or Orontid foundation? A reassessment of the archaeological data related to the establishment of the fortified complex at Yervandashat, Armenia…

Young Zarathushti Leaders I had the pleasure of attending the third World Zoroastrian Youth Leaders Forum to speak about the legends of the life of Zardušt to a group of young Zoroastrians, but I ended up gaining far more than I gave. Set in the most beautiful and serene of locations, this was a…

I am feeling the need to read Invisible Cities, again.

Doing this interview with @fivebooks.com was great fun, and I really enjoyed the process. Thank you Tuva!

Young Zarathushti Leaders I had the pleasure of attending the third World Zoroastrian Youth Leaders Forum to speak about the legends of the life of Zardušt to a group of young Zoroastrians, but I ended up gaining far more than I gave. Set in the most beautiful and serene of locations, this was a…

Christians in Middle Eastern History Ghobrial, John-Paul, Michael Reynolds, Christian C. Sahner & Jack Tannous (eds.). 2026. Christians in Middle Eastern history: Strangers no more (Edinburgh Studies in Middle Eastern Christianity). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. The dazzling array of…

Christians in Middle Eastern History Ghobrial, John-Paul, Michael Reynolds, Christian C. Sahner & Jack Tannous (eds.). 2026. Christians in Middle Eastern history: Strangers no more (Edinburgh Studies in Middle Eastern Christianity). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. The dazzling array of…

A sweeping new account of ancient Greek culture and its remarkable diversity. Jennifer T. Roberts' Out of One, Many is now available in #paperback! Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb... #AncientHistory #History #AncientWorld

It’s the last Pasts Imperfect before a break! ☀️ The amazing @taramulder.bsky.social discusses her new book on Roman childbirth. Then, Qin era beer, ancient infants wrapped in Tyrian purple; attacks on faculty free speech; new ancient world journals from @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social; & much more.

On Achaemenid-era metalworkers based on the Persepolis tablets Zehbari, Zohreh. 2025. The men who wrought the metals: On Achaemenid-era metalworkers based on the Persepolis tablets. Iran, 1–18. While varied attempts have been made to study Achaemenid metal artefacts, we still know little about the…

Anna Kardos: «Lesen ist die einzige kulturelle Tätigkeit, bei der man das Tempo ganz und gar selber bestimmen kann.» Das 386. Fragebogeninterview, heute mit Anna Kardos, Kulturredaktorin der «NZZ am Sonntag». www.matthiaszehnder.ch/menschenmedi... #Medien #Journalismus #Digitalisierung

Language and script in Achaemenid and Hellenistic Central Asia Mairs, Rachel. 2026. Language and script in Achaemenid and Hellenistic Central Asia (Elements in Writing in the Ancient World). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This Element examines – for the first time in a single volume – the…