Iran and the Ancient World
Under the directorship of Professor M. Rahim Shayegan, the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World at UCLA has established a series, Iran and the Ancient World (IAW), as a leading publication venue for innovative research on pre-Islamic Iranian history, literature, and religion.
In coordination with UC Press, Iran and the Ancient World will occupy a singular place in the current publishing landscape in its representation of both specialized monographs in Iranology and research that integrates the field into the broader study of the pre-modern period. IAW will address the need to support innovative work within the traditional parameters of pre-Islamic Iranian studies, and its will encompass specialist studies of ancient Persian history, literature, archaeology, and religion. But the series will also promote a second objective: the integration of ancient Iran into the historiographic mainstream of the pre-modern world. Accordingly, it will foreground the Iranian plateau’s connected history with adjacent regions of antiquity, fostering comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives on questions of broad import to the humanities and social sciences. Iran and the Ancient World is well positioned to capitalize on recent developments across the entire chronological range of the field, from the first millennium BCE to the first millennium CE.