Kevin van Bladel
Yale University, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Faculty Member
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Languages and Linguistics, Religion, Historical Linguistics, Languages, Zoroastrianism, Study of Religions, and 38 moreJean Kellens, Late Antiquity, Political History, History of Religions, Iranian Studies, Iranian Languages, Arabic, Arabic Philosophy, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Arabic/Persian Manuscripts, codicology, Islamic philosophy, early Islamic history and thoughts, Bactrian, Middle Persian literature and language, Syriac Studies, Mandaic, Aramaic, China Tang~Song Dynasties, Ancient Greek History, Sasanian Archaeology, Sasanian art, Sasanian Iran, Graeco-Arabic translation movement, Philology, Medieval Islam, Coptic Studies, Old and Middle Iranian Languages, Post-Sasanian Studies, Manichaeism, Turfan Texts, Dunhuang manuscripts, Neo-Aramaic, Hermes Trismegistus and Hermetica, History of Astrology, Assyriology, Avestan (Languages And Linguistics), Ancient Indo-European Languages, Sogdian, Khotanese, and Pidgins & Creoles edit
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Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University (2017-) Research areas: The Near East 200-120... moreProfessor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University (2017-)
Research areas:
The Near East 200-1200
Ancient Iran
Early Arabic scholarship
Historical sociolinguistics
Previous Academic Positions:
Associate Professor and Department Chair of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, The Ohio State University (2013-2017)
Associate Professor of Classics, University of Southern California (2010-2013)
Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Southern California (2004-2010)
Education:
PhD Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University (2004)
MPhil Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University (2001)
AM Classics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1996)
BA History, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1994) edit
The URL link included here will direct you to the Google Books preview of this book. This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted.... more
The URL link included here will direct you to the Google Books preview of this book.
This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted. It analyzes primary sources in Syriac, Mandaic, and Arabic to clarify the early history of Mandaeism. This religion, along with several other, shorter-lived new faiths, such as Kentaeism, began in a period of state-sponsored persecution of Babylonian paganism. The Mandaeans would survive to become one of many groups known as Ṣābians by their Muslim neighbors. Rather than seeking to elucidate the history of Mandaeism in terms of other religions to which it can be related, this study approaches the religion through the history of its social contexts.
A review that fairly summarizes my arguments in this book is found here:
http://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2017/11/13/book-note-from-sasanian-mandaeans-to-bians-of-the-marshes
This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted. It analyzes primary sources in Syriac, Mandaic, and Arabic to clarify the early history of Mandaeism. This religion, along with several other, shorter-lived new faiths, such as Kentaeism, began in a period of state-sponsored persecution of Babylonian paganism. The Mandaeans would survive to become one of many groups known as Ṣābians by their Muslim neighbors. Rather than seeking to elucidate the history of Mandaeism in terms of other religions to which it can be related, this study approaches the religion through the history of its social contexts.
A review that fairly summarizes my arguments in this book is found here:
http://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2017/11/13/book-note-from-sasanian-mandaeans-to-bians-of-the-marshes
Research Interests:
The URL link included here will take you to the Google Books preview of this book. This is the first major study devoted to the early Arabic reception and adaption of the figure of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Egyptian sage to whom... more
The URL link included here will take you to the Google Books preview of this book.
This is the first major study devoted to the early Arabic reception and adaption of the figure of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Egyptian sage to whom were ascribed numerous works on astrology, alchemy, talismans, medicine, and philosophy. Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing for seven hundred years. The legendary Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus was renowned in Roman antiquity as an ancient sage whose teachings were represented in books of philosophy and occult science. The works in his name, written in Greek by Egyptians living under Roman rule, subsequently circulated in many languages and regions of the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. After the rise of Arabic as a prestigious language of scholarship in the eighth century, accounts of Hermes identity and Hermetic texts were translated into Arabic along with the hundreds of other works translated from Greek, Middle Persian, and other literary languages of antiquity. Hermetica were in fact among the earliest translations into Arabic, appearing already in the eighth century. This book explains the origins of the Arabic myth of Hermes Trismegistus, its sources, the reasons for its peculiar character, and its varied significance for the traditions of Hermetica in Asia and northern Africa as well as Europe. It shows who pre-modern Arabic scholars thought Hermes was and how they came to that view.
This is the first major study devoted to the early Arabic reception and adaption of the figure of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Egyptian sage to whom were ascribed numerous works on astrology, alchemy, talismans, medicine, and philosophy. Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing for seven hundred years. The legendary Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus was renowned in Roman antiquity as an ancient sage whose teachings were represented in books of philosophy and occult science. The works in his name, written in Greek by Egyptians living under Roman rule, subsequently circulated in many languages and regions of the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. After the rise of Arabic as a prestigious language of scholarship in the eighth century, accounts of Hermes identity and Hermetic texts were translated into Arabic along with the hundreds of other works translated from Greek, Middle Persian, and other literary languages of antiquity. Hermetica were in fact among the earliest translations into Arabic, appearing already in the eighth century. This book explains the origins of the Arabic myth of Hermes Trismegistus, its sources, the reasons for its peculiar character, and its varied significance for the traditions of Hermetica in Asia and northern Africa as well as Europe. It shows who pre-modern Arabic scholars thought Hermes was and how they came to that view.
Research Interests:
Medieval Philosophy, Arabic Literature, Neoplatonism and late antique philosophy, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, and 11 moreAstrology, Alchemy, History of Astrology, Late Antiquity, Islamic Studies, Arabic Philosophy, Syriac Studies, Sasanian History, Hermeticism, Middle Persian literature and language, and Hermetic Corpus
ТОЛЬКО ОЗНАКОМИТЕЛЬНЫЙ ФРАГМЕНТ, электронная версия не распространяется. Кевин ван Бладел. Арабский Гермес: от языческого мудреца до пророка науки / Пер. с англ. и араб. В. А. Розова и М. М. Хасанова; науч. ред. В. А. Розова; науч.... more
ТОЛЬКО ОЗНАКОМИТЕЛЬНЫЙ ФРАГМЕНТ, электронная версия не распространяется.
Кевин ван Бладел. Арабский Гермес: от языческого мудреца до пророка науки / Пер. с англ. и араб. В. А. Розова и М. М. Хасанова; науч. ред. В. А. Розова; науч. ред., вст. ст. и коммент. Б. К. Двинянинова; под общ. ред. Б. К. Двинянинова. — СПб.: Издательство «Академия исследований культуры», 2022. — 548 с.: ил. — (Герметицизм с древности до наших дней, вып. 5). ISBN 978-5-94396-239-4
Kevin van Bladel. The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage To Prophet Of Science / Translation from English and Arabic V. A. Rozov and M. M. Khasanov; ed. V. A. Rozov and B. K. Dvinyaninov. St. Petersburg: Academy of Cultural’s Research, 2022. (Russian Edition)
Это первое крупное исследование, посвящённое раннему арабскому восприятию и адаптации фигуры Гермеса Трисмегиста, легендарного египетского мудреца, которому были приписаны многочисленные труды по астрологии, алхимии, талисманам, медицине и философии. До более известного принятия древнегреческой Герметики в эпоху Возрождения, арабское предание о Гермесе и труды под его именем активно развивались и процветали на протяжении семи столетий.
Трактаты, подписанные именем Гермеса Трисмегиста и его учеников, были написаны на греческом языке в период поздней Античности, по всей видимости, в Александрии Египетской, впоследствии циркулировали на разных языках и в регионах Римской и Сасанидской персидской империй. После расцвета арабского как престижного научного языка в VIII веке, рассказы о личности Гермеса и герметические тексты были переведены, наряду с сотнями других работ, с греческого, среднеперсидского и с других литературных языков Античности. Более того Герметика была среди самых ранних переводов на арабский язык. Немало можно сказать о корнях арабского мифа о Гермесе Трисмегисте, его источниках, причинах его своеобразного характера и о его многообразной ценности для герметицизма в Азии и Северной Африке, а также в Европе.
Настоящее русскоязычное издание дополнено глоссарием и приложением, включающем впервые изданные переводы герметических текстов с арабского языка: «Изумрудная скрижаль» — три древних версии, глава о городе Гермеса из Гайят аль-Хаким (Пикатрикс), суфийская молитва Идрису.
Кевин ван Бладел. Арабский Гермес: от языческого мудреца до пророка науки / Пер. с англ. и араб. В. А. Розова и М. М. Хасанова; науч. ред. В. А. Розова; науч. ред., вст. ст. и коммент. Б. К. Двинянинова; под общ. ред. Б. К. Двинянинова. — СПб.: Издательство «Академия исследований культуры», 2022. — 548 с.: ил. — (Герметицизм с древности до наших дней, вып. 5). ISBN 978-5-94396-239-4
Kevin van Bladel. The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage To Prophet Of Science / Translation from English and Arabic V. A. Rozov and M. M. Khasanov; ed. V. A. Rozov and B. K. Dvinyaninov. St. Petersburg: Academy of Cultural’s Research, 2022. (Russian Edition)
Это первое крупное исследование, посвящённое раннему арабскому восприятию и адаптации фигуры Гермеса Трисмегиста, легендарного египетского мудреца, которому были приписаны многочисленные труды по астрологии, алхимии, талисманам, медицине и философии. До более известного принятия древнегреческой Герметики в эпоху Возрождения, арабское предание о Гермесе и труды под его именем активно развивались и процветали на протяжении семи столетий.
Трактаты, подписанные именем Гермеса Трисмегиста и его учеников, были написаны на греческом языке в период поздней Античности, по всей видимости, в Александрии Египетской, впоследствии циркулировали на разных языках и в регионах Римской и Сасанидской персидской империй. После расцвета арабского как престижного научного языка в VIII веке, рассказы о личности Гермеса и герметические тексты были переведены, наряду с сотнями других работ, с греческого, среднеперсидского и с других литературных языков Античности. Более того Герметика была среди самых ранних переводов на арабский язык. Немало можно сказать о корнях арабского мифа о Гермесе Трисмегисте, его источниках, причинах его своеобразного характера и о его многообразной ценности для герметицизма в Азии и Северной Африке, а также в Европе.
Настоящее русскоязычное издание дополнено глоссарием и приложением, включающем впервые изданные переводы герметических текстов с арабского языка: «Изумрудная скрижаль» — три древних версии, глава о городе Гермеса из Гайят аль-Хаким (Пикатрикс), суфийская молитва Идрису.
Research Interests:
Hermes Trismegistus and Hermetica, Arabic Philosophy, Hermetism, History of Hermetic Philosophy, Western Esotericism, and 14 moreHermeticism, Hermetism and Magick, Divinations systems, Hermes, Alchemy and hermetics, alchemy, Hermes Trismegistus, Emerald Tablet, Hermetic gnosis, Corpus Hermeticum, Hermes Trismegistos, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Hermetic Corpus, Arabic Hermetica, History of Hermeticism, Arabic Alchemy, and Arabic Medieval Astrology
This article sketches the early history of Islamic civilization from its genesis in the late nineteenth century to its institutionalization in the twentieth. Key moments include its enshrinement in journals and a monumental encyclopedia... more
This article sketches the early history of Islamic civilization from its genesis in the late nineteenth century to its institutionalization in the twentieth. Key moments include its enshrinement in journals and a monumental encyclopedia and the flight of European Semitists to the United States. Its institutionalization in the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Chicago in 1956 created a successful model for the subsequent dissemination of Islamic civilization. Working in a committee on general education (the core curriculum) in the social sciences at the University of Chicago, Marshall Hodgson inaugurated Islamic civilization as a subject of university study that was not just for specialists but available to American college students as fulfilling a basic requirement in a liberal arts education. Many other universities followed this practice. Since then, Islamic civilization has come to be shared by the educated public. Today it is an internationally accepted and wellfunde...
Research Interests:
This article discusses the language of the Xūz mentioned in Arabic sources, endorsing the view that it is the latest attestation of the Elamite language. Drawing on models from historical sociolinguistics, it also studies the problem of... more
This article discusses the language of the Xūz mentioned in Arabic sources, endorsing the view that it is the latest attestation of the Elamite language. Drawing on models from historical sociolinguistics, it also studies the problem of mutual acculturation between speakers of Elamite and Persian in antiquity.
Research Interests:
This article sketches the early history of Islamic civilization from its genesis in the late nineteenth century to its institutionalization in the twentieth. Key moments include its enshrinement in journals and a monumental encyclopedia... more
This article sketches the early history of Islamic civilization from its genesis in the late nineteenth century to its institutionalization in the twentieth. Key moments include its enshrinement in journals and a monumental encyclopedia and the flight of European Semitists to the United States. Its institutionalization in the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Chicago in 1956 created a successful model for the subsequent dissemination of Islamic civilization. Working in a committee on general education (the core curriculum) in the social sciences at the University of Chicago, Marshall Hodgson inaugurated Islamic civilization as a subject of university study that was not just for specialists but available to American college students as fulfilling a basic requirement in a liberal arts education. Many other universities followed this practice. Since then, Islamic civilization has come to be shared by the educated public. Today it is an internationally accepted and well-funded entity that confers contested social power but still lacks analytical power.
Research Interests:
The following English text (with Dutch translation following) on "Arabicization, Islamization, and the Colonies of the Conquerors" is a full version of a paper I delivered in abbreviated fashion for the Zenobia Foundation on November 14,... more
The following English text (with Dutch translation following) on "Arabicization, Islamization, and the Colonies of the Conquerors" is a full version of a paper I delivered in abbreviated fashion for the Zenobia Foundation on November 14, 2015. The Dutch version has appeared before the English publication. I know that many of my colleagues do not read Dutch, so I am posting the English original final draft along with the published Dutch, which occupies the second part of this pdf file. I have indicated the page numbers of the Dutch version in the English text to facilitate cross-reference; of course, the published Dutch version should be cited, at least until the English version appears in print (expected 2019).
Research Interests:
This is a chapter from a Blackwell "Companions to the Ancient World" volume. Numerous texts survive from Arabia in Late Antiquity. Scholarship has largely focused on three varieties. There are many thousands of inscriptions, mostly... more
This is a chapter from a Blackwell "Companions to the Ancient World" volume.
Numerous texts survive from Arabia in Late Antiquity. Scholarship has largely focused on three varieties. There are many thousands of inscriptions, mostly short, in several different ancient Arabian languages; there are hundreds of poems in early Arabic dating to the sixth and seventh centuries, and perhaps even occasionally to the fifth century; and there is the Qurʾān, the scripture of Islam, thought to originate in the first decades of the seventh century. Each of these three presents problems to specialists in Late Antiquity. This chapter offers a basic introduction.
Numerous texts survive from Arabia in Late Antiquity. Scholarship has largely focused on three varieties. There are many thousands of inscriptions, mostly short, in several different ancient Arabian languages; there are hundreds of poems in early Arabic dating to the sixth and seventh centuries, and perhaps even occasionally to the fifth century; and there is the Qurʾān, the scripture of Islam, thought to originate in the first decades of the seventh century. Each of these three presents problems to specialists in Late Antiquity. This chapter offers a basic introduction.
Research Interests:
This is a chapter from a Blackwell "Companions to the Ancient World" volume. Between the seventh and the tenth centuries, Arabic became the chief language of learning from Spain to Afghanistan. Beginning in the late eighth century and... more
This is a chapter from a Blackwell "Companions to the Ancient World" volume.
Between the seventh and the tenth centuries, Arabic became the chief language of learning from Spain to Afghanistan. Beginning in the late eighth century and for three hundred years, scholars knowledgeable in older literary traditions, including Aramaic, Middle Persian, and above all Greek, translated innumerable works into Arabic. Nothing was translated that was not available in Late Antiquity, and many works extant in Late Antiquity are lost in the original but survive in their Arabic translations. Importantly, the selection of works for translation and preservation in the new Arabic medium was based on different criteria from those used in the Carolingian renovatio, the Renaissance, and the Byzantine scholarly tradition, effecting thereby a different, third major “classical tradition” of reception of ancient works besides those in Greek and Latin.
Between the seventh and the tenth centuries, Arabic became the chief language of learning from Spain to Afghanistan. Beginning in the late eighth century and for three hundred years, scholars knowledgeable in older literary traditions, including Aramaic, Middle Persian, and above all Greek, translated innumerable works into Arabic. Nothing was translated that was not available in Late Antiquity, and many works extant in Late Antiquity are lost in the original but survive in their Arabic translations. Importantly, the selection of works for translation and preservation in the new Arabic medium was based on different criteria from those used in the Carolingian renovatio, the Renaissance, and the Byzantine scholarly tradition, effecting thereby a different, third major “classical tradition” of reception of ancient works besides those in Greek and Latin.
Research Interests:
In Central Asia in the early eleventh century, the Chorasmian scholar Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī recognized that the Arabic works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were inventions of recent centuries falsely written in the name of the ancient... more
In Central Asia in the early eleventh century, the Chorasmian scholar Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī recognized that the Arabic works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were inventions of recent centuries falsely written in the name of the ancient sage of legend. He did, however, accept the existence of a historical Hermes and even attempted to establish his chronology. This article presents al-Bīrūnī's statements about this and contextualizes his view of the Arabic Hermetica as he derived it from Arabic chrono-graphic sources. Al-Bīrūnī's argument is compared with the celebrated seventeenth-century European criticism of the Greek Hermetica by Isaac Casaubon. It documents a hitherto unknown but significant event in the reception history of the Hermetica and helps to illustrate al-Bīrūnī's attitude toward the history of science.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Here above I have included a link to the Google Books sample of this book chapter. The full citation is: Kevin van Bladel, “Zoroaster’s Many Languages,” in Shawkat Toorawa and Joseph Lowry (eds.), Arabic Humanities, Islamic Thought: a... more
Here above I have included a link to the Google Books sample of this book chapter. The full citation is:
Kevin van Bladel, “Zoroaster’s Many Languages,” in Shawkat Toorawa and Joseph Lowry (eds.), Arabic Humanities, Islamic Thought: a Festschrift for Everett K. Rowson, Leiden: Brill, 2017, 190-210.
This essay, dedicated to Everett K. Rowson, studies eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-century Arabic, Syriac, and Zoroastrian Middle Persian accounts of the language or languages imagined to be in the Avesta. These accounts insist, with varying purposes, that the Avesta was composed in a miraculous language beyond human comprehension, or in every human language at once, or in seven or twelve different languages. Authors cited for their views include al-Bīrūnī, Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Masʿūdī, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (whose source I identify as Ādurbād ī Ēmēdān, whom he cites by name), Ādurfarnbag, Ibn Bahlūl, Išoʿdād of Marw, Išoʿ bar ʿAlī, and Theodore bar Konay. I discuss briefly a few obscure references to little-known eastern Iranian languages occurring in the Syriac sources as allegedly part of the Avesta. EDIT: The language named gwrzny' in the Syriac source discussed here is probably Georgian. Therefore the brief speculation I entertain in this article (pp. 205-206) about its identification, following Bénveniste, may be fruitless.
Kevin van Bladel, “Zoroaster’s Many Languages,” in Shawkat Toorawa and Joseph Lowry (eds.), Arabic Humanities, Islamic Thought: a Festschrift for Everett K. Rowson, Leiden: Brill, 2017, 190-210.
This essay, dedicated to Everett K. Rowson, studies eighth-, ninth-, and tenth-century Arabic, Syriac, and Zoroastrian Middle Persian accounts of the language or languages imagined to be in the Avesta. These accounts insist, with varying purposes, that the Avesta was composed in a miraculous language beyond human comprehension, or in every human language at once, or in seven or twelve different languages. Authors cited for their views include al-Bīrūnī, Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Masʿūdī, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (whose source I identify as Ādurbād ī Ēmēdān, whom he cites by name), Ādurfarnbag, Ibn Bahlūl, Išoʿdād of Marw, Išoʿ bar ʿAlī, and Theodore bar Konay. I discuss briefly a few obscure references to little-known eastern Iranian languages occurring in the Syriac sources as allegedly part of the Avesta. EDIT: The language named gwrzny' in the Syriac source discussed here is probably Georgian. Therefore the brief speculation I entertain in this article (pp. 205-206) about its identification, following Bénveniste, may be fruitless.
Research Interests:
This brief paper was my contribution to the conference "Graeco-Arabica: Present State and Future Prospects of an Emerging Field,” held at Yale University, April 27, 2014 It asks not "What must Graeco-Arabic Studies accomplish?" but... more
This brief paper was my contribution to the conference "Graeco-Arabica: Present State and Future Prospects of an Emerging Field,” held at Yale University, April 27, 2014
It asks not "What must Graeco-Arabic Studies accomplish?" but rather "What can a researcher do with Greek and Arabic together?" imagining a broad and inclusive Classical Near Eastern Studies integrating several fields of inquiry usually construed as separate.
It asks not "What must Graeco-Arabic Studies accomplish?" but rather "What can a researcher do with Greek and Arabic together?" imagining a broad and inclusive Classical Near Eastern Studies integrating several fields of inquiry usually construed as separate.
Research Interests:
The argument is that the reception of Indian astronomical methods in Baghdad in the eighth century was conditioned by contact with the Tang court, where astronomers using the same Indian methods were already employed. The explanation... more
The argument is that the reception of Indian astronomical methods in Baghdad in the eighth century was conditioned by contact with the Tang court, where astronomers using the same Indian methods were already employed. The explanation sheds light on the connection between the exportation of Indian astrology and interest in esoteric Buddhism in China, on the one hand, and on the early background to the movement to translate Greek works into Arabic on the other.
Research Interests:
History of Mathematics, Chinese Buddhism, Buddhist Studies, History of Science, Sanskrit language and literature, and 13 moreIranian Studies, Silk Road Studies, Tang Dynasty, Buddhist Sanskrit, History of Astronomy, Islamic Studies, Abbasid History, Abbasid Intellectual History, Esoteric Buddhism, Medieval Astronomy, Graeco-Arabic translation movement, Central Asians/Sogdians in China, and History of Arabic Science
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this article I renewed, revised, and furthered Nöldeke's argument that the Qur'anic story of Dhu l-Qarnayn (Q 18-83-102) is a retelling of a specific Syriac text, which was composed around 630 as a piece of propaganda in favor of the... more
In this article I renewed, revised, and furthered Nöldeke's argument that the Qur'anic story of Dhu l-Qarnayn (Q 18-83-102) is a retelling of a specific Syriac text, which was composed around 630 as a piece of propaganda in favor of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. This is the text known sometimes in modern scholarship as "The Alexander Legend." The qur'anic version retells the story in ways reflecting the interests of Muhammad's community, removing pro-Byzantine components. The paper demonstrates that the Qur'an includes literary retellings not just of biblical and other ancient material but also of a text composed late in Muhammad's life. No Syriac words were adopted from the Syriac source.
Further relevant material is found in my article: “The Syriac Sources of the Early Arabic Narratives of Alexander,” in Memory as History: The Legacy of Alexander in South Asia, ed. Himanshu Prabha Ray and Daniel T. Potts, New Delhi: Aryan International, 2007, pp. 54-75 (see pp. 64-67).
Dr. Tommaso Tesei has published two articles buttressing and elaborating further the argument of this paper.
Further relevant material is found in my article: “The Syriac Sources of the Early Arabic Narratives of Alexander,” in Memory as History: The Legacy of Alexander in South Asia, ed. Himanshu Prabha Ray and Daniel T. Potts, New Delhi: Aryan International, 2007, pp. 54-75 (see pp. 64-67).
Dr. Tommaso Tesei has published two articles buttressing and elaborating further the argument of this paper.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The asbāb mentioned in five passages of the Qur’ān have been interpreted by medieval Muslims and modern scholars to refer generally to various ‘ways’, ‘means’, and ‘connections’. However, the word meant something more specific as part of... more
The asbāb mentioned in five passages of the Qur’ān have been interpreted by medieval Muslims and modern scholars to refer generally to various ‘ways’, ‘means’, and ‘connections’. However, the word meant something more specific as part of a Biblical-Qur’ānic ‘cosmology of the domicile’. The asbāb are heavenly ropes running along or leading up to the top of the sky-roof. This notion of sky-cords is not as unusual as it may seem at first, for various kinds of heavenly cords were part of Western Asian cosmologies in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. According to the Qur’ān, a righteous individual may ascend by means of these cords to heaven, above the dome of the sky, where God resides, only with God’s authorization. The heavenly cords are a feature of Qur’ānic cosmology and part a complex of beliefs by which true prophets ascend to heaven and return bearing signs.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Classical Near East is one of four PhD specializations in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Yale University. Encompassing the first millennium CE, before and after the advent of Islam, it includes the... more
The Classical Near East is one of four PhD specializations in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Yale University.
Encompassing the first millennium CE, before and after the advent of Islam, it includes the history and philology of Sasanian Iran, the early Islamic caliphates, the late Roman and Byzantine Near East, and adjacent areas.
Students in this specialization study classical Arabic and at least two other classical Near Eastern languages, such as Aramaic (including Syriac), Armenian, Greek, Middle Persian, New Persian.
For more details, follow the link in this notice.
https://nelc.yale.edu/academics/graduate-program/classical-near-east
Encompassing the first millennium CE, before and after the advent of Islam, it includes the history and philology of Sasanian Iran, the early Islamic caliphates, the late Roman and Byzantine Near East, and adjacent areas.
Students in this specialization study classical Arabic and at least two other classical Near Eastern languages, such as Aramaic (including Syriac), Armenian, Greek, Middle Persian, New Persian.
For more details, follow the link in this notice.
https://nelc.yale.edu/academics/graduate-program/classical-near-east
Research Interests:
I am offering Intensive Old Persian this spring/early summer to interested students who can arrange to attend. Graduate students attending CIC institutions (listed in the document) may use the Traveling Scholar Program to attend while... more
I am offering Intensive Old Persian this spring/early summer to interested students who can arrange to attend. Graduate students attending CIC institutions (listed in the document) may use the Traveling Scholar Program to attend while covering tuition at their home institution.
Research Interests:
I am offering Intensive Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian this spring/early summer to interested students who can arrange to attend. Graduate students attending CIC institutions (listed in the document) may use the Traveling Scholar... more
I am offering Intensive Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian this spring/early summer to interested students who can arrange to attend. Graduate students attending CIC institutions (listed in the document) may use the Traveling Scholar Program to attend while covering tuition at their home institution.