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. Part of this narrative stems from the author's visits to Armenia and the Tehrani Armenian community between 2014-5. The goal of this article is to familiarize the reader with the Christian Armenian community of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with a focus …
Continue reading On “Parskahayeren”, or the Language of Iranian Armenians
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. The goal of this article is to present the Tocharian narrative in a broad linguistic framework, with a focus on affinities to earlier Proto-Indo-European. Europoid-type "Tarim Mummies" discovered in Xinjiang, China, circa ~1800 BC. The Tocharians are described as having full beards, red or …
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article surveys medieval church forms in historical Armenia and examines the role of Trdat the Architect in appropriating vocabulary from Armenia's own remote past. The church of the Holy Cross (Sourb Khach Yekeghetsi) on Aghtamar Island, Lake Van, Turkey. Aghtamar …
Continue reading Trdat’s Legacy: The Revival of 7th Century Church Forms in Medieval Armenia
Written by Afsheen Sharifzadeh, a graduate of Tufts University focusing on Iran and the Caucasus. This article surveys the Iranian presence in pre-Islamic Arabia and the medieval Islamic world and addresses Classical Arabic loans in Modern Persian. It features an exclusive English-language appendix of 200 Middle Iranian loans into Classical Arabic and their etymologies, compiled by …
Continue reading The Iranian Presence in Classical Arabic and Medieval Islamic Learning