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"Inscriptions, Persian"
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Epigraphy and Islamic Culture
Architectural inscriptions are a fascinating aspect of Islamic cultural heritage because of their rich and diverse historical contents and artistic merits. These inscriptions help us understand the advent of Islam and its gradual diffusion in Bengal, which eventually resulted in a Muslim majority region, making the Bengali Muslims the second largest linguistic group in the Islamic world.
This book is an interpretive study of the Arabic and Persian epigraphic texts of Bengal in the wider context of a rich epigraphic tradition in the Islamic world. While focusing on previously untapped sources, it takes a fresh look into the Islamic inscriptions of Bengal and examines the inner dynamics of the social, intellectual and religious transformations of this eastern region of South Asia. It explores many new inscriptions including Persian epigraphs that appeared immediately after the Muslim conquest of Bengal indicating an early introduction of Persian language in the region through a cultural interaction with Khurasan and Central Asia. In addition to deciphering and editing the epigraphic texts, the information derived from them has been analyzed to construct the political, administrative, social, religious and cultural scenario of the period.
The first survey of the Muslim inscriptions in India ever to be attempted on this scale, the book reveals the significance of epigraphy as a source for Islamic history and culture. As such, it will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian Studies, Asian History and Islamic Studies.
Introduction: Epigraphy of Muslim Bengal 1. Epigraphy as an Important Source for Islamic History and Civilization 2. The Diffusion of Islam in Bengal and the Articulation of a New Order 3. Nature, Aesthetic Perception and Mysticism: Spiritual Dimensions of Islamic Inscriptions in Bengal 4. Worldly Authority and Paradisiacal Ambition: Diversity of Titles in the Islamic Inscriptions of Bengal 5. Early Islamic Inscriptions 6. Inscriptions of the Sultanate Period
Mohammad Yusuf Siddiq is President of Bangladesh Association for Needy People’s Improvement. He has written extensively on the history, civilization and culture of Muslim Bengal, including a dozen entries in the Encyclopaedia of Islam.
eBook
The ritual landscape at Persepolis : glyptic imagery from the Persepolis Fortification and Treasury archives
There are, perhaps, no more contentious issues within the study of Achaemenid Persia than those surrounding its religion(s) and religious iconography. Owing to the role that fire plays in Zoroastrian beliefs in later periods in Iran, almost any discussion of the subject of Achaemenid religion will eventually turn to the identification of sacred fire, fire temples, fire worship, and fire altars in the archaeological, epigraphic, and literary records. The focus of this book is a corpus of glyptic imagery preserved as impressions on two large archives of administrative tablets from Persepolis, the Persepolis Fortification archive (509-493 BC) and the Persepolis Treasury archive (492-457 BC). The glyptic imagery here published concerns representations of what have been traditionally termed \"fire altars\" and/or \"fire temples.\" Most of this glyptic evidence has never been published; many of the structures and the scenes in which they occur are strikingly original. The goals of this study are to introduce a new corpus of visual imagery concerning religious ritual in the Achaemenid period and to explore the significance of this visual language for our understanding of ritual traditions emerging within the heart of the empire at its most critical formative period, the reign of Darius I. This study seeks also to use the Persepolitan glyptic evidence as a springboard to re-visit the most famous \"fire altar\" depicted in Achaemenid art, that on the tomb relief of Darius I at Naqs-e Rostam.
Book
An Epigraphical Journey through Bengal
The study of the architectural inscriptions of the Bengal Sultanate provides us with a new opportunity to look into the rich cultural history of this hinterland of South Asia. Most of the early Islamic monuments in the region had calligraphic works on them, as inscriptions were considered a powerful medium to convey visual, cultural, and spiritual messages to people. These inscriptions were rendered in various styles such as Kūfī, Thuluth, Naskh, Riqa', Rayḥānī, Muḥaqqaq, Ṭughrā', and Bihārī. This article focuses on some interesting inscriptions discovered in various parts of Bengal. Special attention is given to the analysis of information derived from them in their historical contexts, such as the names of the contemporary rulers, local administrative officers, religious figures, military commanders, and their titles. These findings help us understand the contemporary political, administrative, social, religious, and cultural aspects of the region.
Journal Article
Iconographic and Linguistic Interpretations of the Sasanian Clay Bullae in the Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum, Mumbai
This article presents the first comprehensive study of six unprovenanced Sasanian clay bullae from Iran, held at the Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum in Mumbai. Bearing impressions from personal, official, and administrative seals, the seal impressions are here analysed for their iconography, stylistic characteristics, and Middle Persian inscriptions. The study proposes a chronological framework for the seals that produced their impressions on the bullae and situates the visual motifs within broader Sasanian artistic and symbolic traditions. It explains how these seal impressions reflect the intersection of visual culture, administrative function, and personal identity in Sasanian society, highlighting the complexity of interpreting sigillographic material where artistic convention and institutional roles converge. The inscriptions have been deciphered and enhance our knowledge of administrative practices in the Sasanian Empire. In particular, the study revisits the much debated term ⟨mgwh⟩ within the context of Sasanian administrative epigraphy.
Journal Article
The Shape of Stories
The volume provides a methodological toolbox for the study of cuneiform narratives--including literary, historical, and religious texts from the ancient Near East--with each chapter illustrating a different approach to narrative analysis through a series of compelling case studies.
eBook
Anything new under the sun?! Exploring further avenues for writing another commentary on Chronicles
Over the past two decades, there has been an explosion of new commentaries on Chronicles. Scholars may justifiably ask whether there is anything new under the sun to investigate in another commentary on this book. Having been contracted to produce a commentary for the Old Testament Library series (as follow-up to Japhet's majestic commentary), I am investigating some new avenues for this endeavour. Three potential areas are discussed: utilizing Achaemenid royal inscriptions and written records for the interpretation of Chronicles; revisiting theories on the composition of Chronicles, and bringing Chronicles and Pentateuchal studies into conversation with one another.
Journal Article
The value /me/ of the sign in Achaemenid Elamite
The aim of this article is to show that in Achaemenid Elamite the sign had a secondary phonetic value /me/. The evidence collected in support of this claim consists mainly in Elamite transcriptions of Iranian words in the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions and in the Persepolis administrative texts, which are impossible or very difficult to account for only contemplating the usual value /man/.
Journal Article
“By the Favour of Ahuramazda I Am King”: On the Promulgation of a Persian Propaganda Text among Babylonians and Judaeans
Abstract The aim of this article is to explore how the Achaemenid kings disseminated their official ideology among their subjects—including Judaeans outside of and within the Persian province of Yehud—in the Achaemenid period. The main text that the article focuses on is King Darius I’s Bisitun inscription (DB) and the remains of it that have been found in Babylon (DB Bab) and within the context of the Judaean community on the Elephantine Island in Upper Egypt (DB Aram). The author discusses the contents of the Persian propaganda text and how it was disseminated among and possibly received by the Judaeans.
Journal Article
A City from the Dawn of History
The city of Erbil, which now claims to be one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, lies on the rich alluvial plains at the foot of the piedmont of the Zagros mountains in a strategic position which from the earliest times made it a natural gateway between Iran and Mesopotamia. Within the context of ancient Mesopotamian civilisation there can be no doubt that it will have been one of the most important urban centres. Yet while the citadel of Erbil is without question a site of exceptional interest, archaeologically the mound has until recently remained virtually untouched. On the other hand rich documentation allows us to understand the context in which the city grew and flourished. This work is dedicated to the cuneiform sources. Together these include hundreds of documents stretching from the late third millennium to the mid first millennium BC. The very first references, in administrative documents from the archives of the royal palace at Ebla, date to ca. 2300 BC. In the eras that follow texts written in Sumerian and then Akkadian attest to the city's periods of independence alternating with its incorporation in the Ur III, Assyrian and Babylonian empires. From the Achaemenid period, while the Elamite texts from Persepolis are mostly unpublished, Erbil does appear both in the famous inscription of Darius I at Behistun and in the celebrated Passport of Nehtihur, an Aramaic document from Elephantine in Egypt. The sources include a wide variety of administrative texts, royal inscriptions, grants, chronicles, letters, votive dedications and oracular pronouncements which together give a unique insight into the history and society of this exceptional city.
eBook