My talk on the history & historiography of post-Sasanian Caspian region. I’ll talk abt the importance of the Pahlavi Archive of Tabarestan in understanding the narratives of al-Tabari & Ibn-Isfandiyar. Thanks to Prof. Tavakoli-Targhi for the kind invite. iranianstudies.utoronto.ca/event/rethin...
Presented a keynote lecture, “Iran and China in the Ancient World: On and Off the Silk Road(s)” in a wonderful conference on Iranian-Chinese relations at RU Groningen organised by William Figueroa & Peyman Eshaghi. Great experience, although I might have alienated the entire medieval China field!
My new agate stamp! I ain’t signing anything anymore! Anything that is not stamped is not authentic.
Parsa is the name of the region where the Achaemenids came from (modern Fars in Iran). The name seems to based on an ethnonym (Pars-) which designated the group which had settled there. The capital is called Persepolis (we have no local name) as “the City of the Persians”.
Hahah. Barely. I work on 1000 yrs later. But I can try. No. The Achaemenids never used the name Parsa to refer to their entire territory. That’s the Greeks. As far as we know, the Achaemenids had no name for the empire. Even Greeks didn’t call it “Persia”. They called it the Empire of the Persians.
This great volume, Brill’s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires, edited by the inimitable John Hyland & me (mostly John though!) will be out next month. Cannot wait to see it. It has some great articles from the leading scholars of ancient Iranian history. brill.com/display/titl...
"Brill’s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires" published on 31 Oct 2024 by Brill.
Lololol. Legit legit.
Getting worryingly too many “keynote” talk invitations. Are they trying to tell me something?
Comme moi meme! :))
