Nicholas Sims Williams Livres

The 3rd European Conference of Iranian Studies, at which more than 130 papers were presented, was held in Cambridge in 1995. A selection of the best contributions will be published in two volumes, of which the second will be concerned with Iranian culture in the Islamic period. This first volume, which is illustrated with 17 plates, contains 18 important and thought-provoking papers - 15 in English and 3 in French - on Old and Middle Iranian. The papers, grouped thematically under the headings „Religions and Culture of ancient Iran“ and „Texts and languages“, cover a diversity of themes relating to Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Mithraism; Sasanian history, glyptic and numismatics; and Iranian philology, linguistics, and dialectology.

Many works of Syriac literature were translated into Sogdian, a Middle Iranian language spoken along the “Silk Road.” This Christian Sogdian literature, encompassing biblical, liturgical, ascetic, and hagiographic texts, is primarily known from manuscripts found in 1905 at the Bulayïq monastery in the Turfan oasis. It is significant for Syriac studies, as Sogdian translations often derive from earlier recensions than those surviving in Syriac, with some texts no longer extant in the original language. Additionally, it is vital for Sogdian and Middle Iranian studies, as identifiable Syriac originals offer insights into the Sogdian language. The material in Syriac script, featuring a complex system of vocalic points, uniquely informs Sogdian pronunciation. The Dictionary aims to be accessible to both Iranists and Syriacists, regardless of their familiarity with the other language. It consists of two main sections and a comprehensive English index. Part 1 lists Sogdian lemmata, detailing all words in published Christian Sogdian texts, including variant spellings and their Syriac equivalents. Part 2 organizes the same material by Syriac lemmata. Together, they facilitate understanding of the relationship between Sogdian and Syriac, serving as a guide for reading Christian Sogdian texts, assisting future editors, and contributing to the study of literary transmission between the two languages.

The manuscripts brought from Chinese Turkistan to Germany by the Turfan expeditions of 1902–1914 include many Christian texts, none of which have previously been catalogued. This catalogue covers all the Sogdian and New Persian manuscripts in Syriac script, in total nearly 500 folios and fragments, which are presented in a systematic sequence, beginning with biblical and liturgical texts and ending with miscellaneous and secular material. It is shown that in some cases a large number of fragments belong to a single manuscript, and that many pieces can be joined together. Since most of the texts are translated from Syriac, the Syriac originals are identified wherever possible. In the case of fragments which have been wholly or partially published, full bibliographical details are given; inaccurate readings found in published sources are systematically corrected. The catalogue ends with indexes and concordances, including a complete index of names of people and places.