Parvaneh pourshariati biography of michael

Handbook of Oriental Studies / Handbuch der Orientalistik, Section 1: The Near and Middle East, 166, , 2022

Ctesiphon and Its Surroundings, Precursors of Baghdād in Jens Scheiner and Isabel Toral, Baghdad:... more Ctesiphon and Its Surroundings, Precursors of Baghdād in Jens Scheiner and Isabel Toral, Baghdad: From Its Beginnings to the 14th Century with collaboration of Jens Scheiner and Isabel Toral.

Res Orientalis XIX Volumen XIX, Rika GYSELEN edited, SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF SASANIAN AND POST-SASANIAN IRAN Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient Bures-sur-Yvette , 2010

Made available for the first time in its full version, this is a pdf of the major "article" that ... more Made available for the first time in its full version, this is a pdf of the major "article" that the author wrote on Dinawari, commissioned to her dear colleague, Dr. Rika Gyselen.  It was published in 2010.  It is only now, however,  that this work is properly disseminated.  The fault remains with the author.  Meanwhile other colleagues have published work on Dinawari subsequent to this.  I hope all contributions serve  the interested reader.

The work before you is a thoroughly preliminary study of what, to the author’s mind, is one of the most important historical texts of the early medieval period,
the shu‘ūbī treatise of Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad b. Dāwūd al-Dīnawarī, the Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, originally written in Arabic, probably toward the end of the ninth century. Beginning with a general introduction that provides an elementary analysis of the social and historical contexts of the authorship of the Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, and highlights the historical merits of Dīnawarī’s opus, in the second section we proceed to detail the historical-geographical data provided by Dīnawarī on Iran and Mesopotamia. Finally, in the last section, a preliminary schematic analysis of the Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl and a non-critical translation of important parts of the work is provided.

Epic Knowlege and Wisdom, 2024

No revolutionary movement in Iranian Late Antiquity has attracted as much attention as the fasc... more No revolutionary movement in Iranian Late Antiquity has attracted as much attention as the fascinating and enigmatic Mazdakite uprising of the late fifth century. The scholarly consensus about the Mazdakites has it that 1) they engaged in ibāḥat al-nisā, sharing of wives; 2) advocated the sharing of property and 3)  their past time was wine imbibing and merrymaking. I shall argue here that, as Shaki correctly suspected but did not pursue the topic, the description of the Mazdakite in our primary sources (the Letter of Tansar, Ibn Qutayba, Ṭabarī, Dīnkard, Shahrestānī), closely follows the praxis of the ʿayyārs, chivalrous men and women who practiced celibacy, lived together in communes of men and women, usually in underground cities, and drank wine as part of their sacral ritual. The detractors of the Mazdakites heaped on these accusations that distorted their realities, realities that on a populist level, and in times of crisis of the late fifth century might have in fact devolved into a distortion of the praxis of genuine Mithraists as well. That they continued, appropriate to their praxis, in the form of Khurramdīn movements is also part of their story. The Mazdakite movement were launched by the Parthian Mehrānid Dynast  against the Parthian Kārenids. These were suffocating the young Kavād during the last decade of the fifth century is also part of their fascinating history.


This is a preliminary article that puts forth, a new thesis, on the Mazdakites.  It is preliminary in that unfortunately  it does _not_ give a synopsis of previous research, and does not include all that I have to say about the topict.  A fuller version is in the works!

Epic Knowledge and Wisdom https://jmels.um.ac.ir/ Vol. 1, No 1, 2024, 2024

This is a preliminary article that puts forth, a new thesis, on the Mazdakites. It is preliminar... more This is a preliminary article that puts forth, a new thesis, on the Mazdakites.  It is preliminary in that it does _not_ give a synopsis of previous research and not all that i have to say about the topic is included in it.  A fuller version is in the works!

Review of Middle East studies, 2009

Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, ... more Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, when I was affiliated with the Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis (CEMAT) during a preliminary research trip in Tunisia. Jeanne was a critical sounding board. Jeanne was far more than the director of CEMAT to me. She was an honorary grandmother to my children, a relationship that took root when she accompanied me to an ultrasound examination in Tunisia when I was pregnant. From that point onwards, Jeanne had a special relationship with my son and, later, my daughter. Her passing is a profound loss for us, as it is for many others. Jeanne was fortunate to have a wonderful family and, of course, Khaled, Mouna and Ramzi were truly privileged to have such a wonderful person in their lives. She was immensely proud of her children, who brought her endless joy and never ceased to amaze her with their achievements. May they find comfort in the fact that Jeanne lived a rich and rewarding life and touched the lives of so many others. I*

Journal of Persianate Studies, 2013

For close to four decades now, scholars of the late Roman, early Christian, early medieval, and e... more For close to four decades now, scholars of the late Roman, early Christian, early medieval, and early Byzantine worlds have gradually formed the diachronic concept of the “Late Antique” period as an extension of classical studies. The chronological boundaries of the field have been put, roughly in the period between 200 and 800. Its genesis has been, in no small measure, due to the long and sustained tradition of in-depth scholarly investigation of GrecoRoman history and culture. One of the primary locomotives of the debate on “Late Antiquity”, furthermore, has been the question of the continuity of the Greco-Roman heritage in the wake of the gradual growth of Christianity in the classical world. (Browne 1971) Beyond these primary concerns, however, other pertinent queries have gradually come to engage the scholars in the field. One of the more pressing of these in recent decades has been whether or not one should or could have a synchronic as well as a spatial view of “Late Antiquity.” Moving beyond the Greco-Roman heritage, the questions asked have become more complex: how far chronologically, and how wide geographically, should scholarship cast the net? Through which prism or prisms, should we study the new social and economic, religious and political trends and institutions of “Late Antiquity,” (Clover and Humphreys 1989; Walker 2002; Morony 2008) trends that ultimately came to construct the heritage of our modern age? In response to these inquiries, the study of the Germanic conquests in the west, the history of the Caucasus, Ethiopia, and Yemen, of Mesopotamian Jewry, Nestorian Christianity and the Slavs, among others, have gradually entered into the debate on “Late Antiquity.” (Ibid.)

Review of Middle East Studies, 2009

Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, ... more Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, when I was affiliated with the Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis (CEMAT) during a preliminary research trip in Tunisia. Jeanne was a critical sounding board. Jeanne was far more than the director of CEMAT to me. She was an honorary grandmother to my children, a relationship that took root when she accompanied me to an ultrasound examination in Tunisia when I was pregnant. From that point onwards, Jeanne had a special relationship with my son and, later, my daughter. Her passing is a profound loss for us, as it is for many others. Jeanne was fortunate to have a wonderful family and, of course, Khaled, Mouna and Ramzi were truly privileged to have such a wonderful person in their lives. She was immensely proud of her children, who brought her endless joy and never ceased to amaze her with their achievements. May they find comfort in the fact that Jeanne lived a rich and rewarding life and touched the lives of so many others. I*

Journal of Persianate Studies, 2013

I argue here that the epic (5 volumes in print) of Samak, which was composed during the Parthi... more I argue here that the epic (5 volumes in print) of Samak, which was composed during the Parthian period and finally written down in archaic New Persian sometime in the Seljuqid  period, is not only a Mithraic epic story, but also and quite possibly the Holy Grail of specialists in Roman Mithraism.  The epic, I argue, replicates the ethics and praxis of Mithraic brotherhoods, brotherhoods whose members in the  Iranian context are called `ayyars.  Parvaneh Pourshariati

Handbook of Oriental Studies / Handbuch der Orientalistik, Section 1: The Near and Middle East, 166, , 2022

Ctesiphon and Its Surroundings, Precursors of Baghdād in Jens Scheiner and Isabel Toral, Baghdad:... more Ctesiphon and Its Surroundings, Precursors of Baghdād in Jens Scheiner and Isabel Toral, Baghdad: From Its Beginnings to the 14th Century with collaboration of Jens Scheiner and Isabel Toral.

Res Orientalis XIX Volumen XIX, Rika GYSELEN edited, SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF SASANIAN AND POST-SASANIAN IRAN Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient Bures-sur-Yvette , 2010

Made available for the first time in its full version, this is a pdf of the major "article" that ... more Made available for the first time in its full version, this is a pdf of the major "article" that the author wrote on Dinawari, commissioned to her dear colleague, Dr. Rika Gyselen.  It was published in 2010.  It is only now, however,  that this work is properly disseminated.  The fault remains with the author.  Meanwhile other colleagues have published work on Dinawari subsequent to this.  I hope all contributions serve  the interested reader.

The work before you is a thoroughly preliminary study of what, to the author’s mind, is one of the most important historical texts of the early medieval period,
the shu‘ūbī treatise of Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad b. Dāwūd al-Dīnawarī, the Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, originally written in Arabic, probably toward the end of the ninth century. Beginning with a general introduction that provides an elementary analysis of the social and historical contexts of the authorship of the Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl, and highlights the historical merits of Dīnawarī’s opus, in the second section we proceed to detail the historical-geographical data provided by Dīnawarī on Iran and Mesopotamia. Finally, in the last section, a preliminary schematic analysis of the Akhbār al-Ṭiwāl and a non-critical translation of important parts of the work is provided.

Epic Knowlege and Wisdom, 2024

No revolutionary movement in Iranian Late Antiquity has attracted as much attention as the fasc... more No revolutionary movement in Iranian Late Antiquity has attracted as much attention as the fascinating and enigmatic Mazdakite uprising of the late fifth century. The scholarly consensus about the Mazdakites has it that 1) they engaged in ibāḥat al-nisā, sharing of wives; 2) advocated the sharing of property and 3)  their past time was wine imbibing and merrymaking. I shall argue here that, as Shaki correctly suspected but did not pursue the topic, the description of the Mazdakite in our primary sources (the Letter of Tansar, Ibn Qutayba, Ṭabarī, Dīnkard, Shahrestānī), closely follows the praxis of the ʿayyārs, chivalrous men and women who practiced celibacy, lived together in communes of men and women, usually in underground cities, and drank wine as part of their sacral ritual. The detractors of the Mazdakites heaped on these accusations that distorted their realities, realities that on a populist level, and in times of crisis of the late fifth century might have in fact devolved into a distortion of the praxis of genuine Mithraists as well. That they continued, appropriate to their praxis, in the form of Khurramdīn movements is also part of their story. The Mazdakite movement were launched by the Parthian Mehrānid Dynast  against the Parthian Kārenids. These were suffocating the young Kavād during the last decade of the fifth century is also part of their fascinating history.


This is a preliminary article that puts forth, a new thesis, on the Mazdakites.  It is preliminary in that unfortunately  it does _not_ give a synopsis of previous research, and does not include all that I have to say about the topict.  A fuller version is in the works!

Epic Knowledge and Wisdom https://jmels.um.ac.ir/ Vol. 1, No 1, 2024, 2024

This is a preliminary article that puts forth, a new thesis, on the Mazdakites. It is preliminar... more This is a preliminary article that puts forth, a new thesis, on the Mazdakites.  It is preliminary in that it does _not_ give a synopsis of previous research and not all that i have to say about the topic is included in it.  A fuller version is in the works!

Review of Middle East studies, 2009

Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, ... more Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, when I was affiliated with the Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis (CEMAT) during a preliminary research trip in Tunisia. Jeanne was a critical sounding board. Jeanne was far more than the director of CEMAT to me. She was an honorary grandmother to my children, a relationship that took root when she accompanied me to an ultrasound examination in Tunisia when I was pregnant. From that point onwards, Jeanne had a special relationship with my son and, later, my daughter. Her passing is a profound loss for us, as it is for many others. Jeanne was fortunate to have a wonderful family and, of course, Khaled, Mouna and Ramzi were truly privileged to have such a wonderful person in their lives. She was immensely proud of her children, who brought her endless joy and never ceased to amaze her with their achievements. May they find comfort in the fact that Jeanne lived a rich and rewarding life and touched the lives of so many others. I*

Journal of Persianate Studies, 2013

For close to four decades now, scholars of the late Roman, early Christian, early medieval, and e... more For close to four decades now, scholars of the late Roman, early Christian, early medieval, and early Byzantine worlds have gradually formed the diachronic concept of the “Late Antique” period as an extension of classical studies. The chronological boundaries of the field have been put, roughly in the period between 200 and 800. Its genesis has been, in no small measure, due to the long and sustained tradition of in-depth scholarly investigation of GrecoRoman history and culture. One of the primary locomotives of the debate on “Late Antiquity”, furthermore, has been the question of the continuity of the Greco-Roman heritage in the wake of the gradual growth of Christianity in the classical world. (Browne 1971) Beyond these primary concerns, however, other pertinent queries have gradually come to engage the scholars in the field. One of the more pressing of these in recent decades has been whether or not one should or could have a synchronic as well as a spatial view of “Late Antiquity.” Moving beyond the Greco-Roman heritage, the questions asked have become more complex: how far chronologically, and how wide geographically, should scholarship cast the net? Through which prism or prisms, should we study the new social and economic, religious and political trends and institutions of “Late Antiquity,” (Clover and Humphreys 1989; Walker 2002; Morony 2008) trends that ultimately came to construct the heritage of our modern age? In response to these inquiries, the study of the Germanic conquests in the west, the history of the Caucasus, Ethiopia, and Yemen, of Mesopotamian Jewry, Nestorian Christianity and the Slavs, among others, have gradually entered into the debate on “Late Antiquity.” (Ibid.)

Review of Middle East Studies, 2009

Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, ... more Jeanne also shaped my own personal and professional development. I first met her in spring 1998, when I was affiliated with the Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis (CEMAT) during a preliminary research trip in Tunisia. Jeanne was a critical sounding board. Jeanne was far more than the director of CEMAT to me. She was an honorary grandmother to my children, a relationship that took root when she accompanied me to an ultrasound examination in Tunisia when I was pregnant. From that point onwards, Jeanne had a special relationship with my son and, later, my daughter. Her passing is a profound loss for us, as it is for many others. Jeanne was fortunate to have a wonderful family and, of course, Khaled, Mouna and Ramzi were truly privileged to have such a wonderful person in their lives. She was immensely proud of her children, who brought her endless joy and never ceased to amaze her with their achievements. May they find comfort in the fact that Jeanne lived a rich and rewarding life and touched the lives of so many others. I*

Journal of Persianate Studies, 2013

I argue here that the epic (5 volumes in print) of Samak, which was composed during the Parthi... more I argue here that the epic (5 volumes in print) of Samak, which was composed during the Parthian period and finally written down in archaic New Persian sometime in the Seljuqid  period, is not only a Mithraic epic story, but also and quite possibly the Holy Grail of specialists in Roman Mithraism.  The epic, I argue, replicates the ethics and praxis of Mithraic brotherhoods, brotherhoods whose members in the  Iranian context are called `ayyars.  Parvaneh Pourshariati