An Entangled Empire: Dress, Reciprocal Construction, and the Experience of Kingship at Persepolis In reliefs across Persepolis, the Achaemenid administrative center, depictions of mediated bodies offer insight into an imperial ideology that generates inclusion through categorical and material slippages. The crown of the king parallels the crenellations of the architecture that surround him even as...
The Collapse of Empire: Gordion’s Transition from the Achaemenid to the Hellenistic World This talk will highlight the huge changes that characterized Gordion’s transition from the Achaemenid to the Hellenistic periods. Gordion, ancient capital of Phrygia, was a large and thriving city of secondary importance during the period of the Achaemenid Persian empire (ca 550–333...
How Zoroastrians Argued with Muslims in the Early Islamic Period This lecture will explore the early conflict between Zoroastrians and Muslims by examining the most important polemical treatise in the Zoroastrian tradition, the Škand Gumānīg-Wizār (“The Doubt-Dispelling Disquisition”), written by the ninth/tenth century theologian and philosopher Mardānfarrox son of Ohrmazddād. A sophisticated work of rationalist theology,...
Consolidation of Law, Legal Order, and the Question of Constitutionalizing Processes in the Achaemenid Empire The Old Persian inscriptions of Darius I deal with a range of legal, particularly constitutional questions. The famous grave inscription from Naqsh-i Rustam (DNb) constitutes the conceptional center of a thematical text corpus, exemplified in specific details and different legal...
Due to recent events on campus resulting in the cancellations of classes at UCLA today, Professor Robert Rollinger's lecture has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvienence and thank you for your understanding. We look forward to hosting you at one of our upcoming events soon. The “Persian Wars”: An Alternative Perspective? The “Persian...
Pourdavoud Institute Fall 2024 Welcome Reception Wednesday, October 9, 2024 4:00 – 6:00 pm Royce Hall 306 Registration Required The Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World invites you to join us for a fall reception. In the company of our supporters, colleagues, academic affiliates, students, and esteemed guests, we shall be introducing...
Byzantium Within a Medieval Eurafricasian Literary Polysystem: Historiography, Fictional Tales, and the Practices of Narrative Representation Byzantium and its literature has been excluded from the national canons of European literatures. While there are some obvious reasons for this exclusion in the 18th–19th century, it is worth noting that also Byzantinists supported this exclusion by...
“Nezāmi and the Iranian World” is a two-day conference (November 21–22, 2024) that brings together specialists of Persian literature, junior faculty, and graduate students to facilitate in-depth conversations on Nezāmi in a stimulating intellectual environment at UCLA.
Between and Beyond Empires: From the Seleucids to the Sasanians (2nd c. BC – 7th c. AD) Wrocław/Breslau, December 3–6, 2024 Organized by Robert Rollinger, Krzysztof Nawotka, Agnieszka Wojciechowska and Florian Schwarz As a follow-up of the conference in Obergurgl (The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East, 7th – 2nd...
The Rise of Persian: Understanding the Evolution of Writing in the Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods This talk explores the evolution of writing during the Sasanian and early Islamic periods, shedding light on the long-term process that led to Persian becoming the lingua franca in Western and Central Asia from Iran to the borders of...
