This blog connects the reader with the rich past and present of Eurasia. The aim is to promote interest in and discussion of history, philology, archaeology and anthropology without forcing the subject to be viewed through the prevalent prisms of Orientalism, Hellenocentrism, and Islamocentrism
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article surveys the major symbolic worlds through which Persian lyric poetry moves, including the tavern and wine-feast, the garden, the hunt, the beloved as awaited guest, and provides organized word lists for each, alongside entries for recurring images, epithets and …
Continue reading The Symbolic World of Persian Lyric Poetry: A Guide
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. The present article delves into historic commercial and religious contacts between West Asia and the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago from the 9th to the 18th centuries AD. While one might anticipate a significant presence of Arabic loanwords in Malay related to maritime activities …
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article explores the history and etymology of the Sogdian term "Afšīn" as a derivative of Old East Iranian *xšaēwan in contrast to an untenable etymology that has been proposed from Avestan "Pisinah." (1) Wall painting of the Zoroastrian yazata, …
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article surveys the Manichaean religion (Āyin-e Māni), which was founded in Sasanian Iran in the 3rd century A.D. but quickly expanded into the Roman Empire, Inner Asia and China, with a pocket surviving in Fujian into modern times The only …
Continue reading Manichaeism: An Early Universalist Religion
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article provides a brief history of the Zoroastrian (Mazdean) religion and the Ādur Gušnasp fire temple located at Taḵt-e Solaymān (Shīz), Iran, which served an important role in the religious and political framework of the Sasanian Persian Empire (1-5) …
Continue reading Eternal Fires of Ancient Iran–On the Sasanian-era Ādur Gušnasp Zoroastrian Temple
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. After a brief orientation to the historical development of Persian, this article draws attention to a number of everyday words whose Indo-European ancestry remains readily recognizable when set beside their English cognates. These words are a reminder of the shared …
Continue reading Hidden in Plain Sight: Illuminating Indo-European Cognates in Persian
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. The goal of this article is to explore the origins of Moroccan Darija through the lens of local sedentary and Bedouin dialects, and to examine historic contacts with autochthonous Berber languages and foreign languages such as Spanish and Persian. The …
Continue reading Moroccan Darija (Casablancan Koiné): A Historical Approach
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. The goal of this article is to familiarize the reader with the Iranian origins, history, and language of the Hui community of China. The author (right) and companion observe the Eid al-fitr proceedings at Ox Street Mosque (牛街礼拜寺 Niú jiē …
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. The goal of this article is to introduce the reader to the history of Khorezm located in modern-day Uzbekistan, as well as its historic Iranian and modern Turkic vernaculars. The western gate (Ata-Darvaza) to the Ichan Qal'a complex, Khiva, Khorezm province, …
Continue reading Khwārazm: Examining the Past and Present of the “Lowlands” and its Idioms
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article aims to illuminate an ancestral relationship between Pashto and Old Avestan, and explores areal Eastern Iranian features in Pashto as well as the prolonged and intimate contacts with Indic. Pashtun children in the village of Khost, Afghanistan BackgroundThe ancestor …