ACES Conference this weekend

The Association of Central Eurasian Students is holding their annual conference at Indiana University. If you're near Bloomington, check it out!
I designed the program covers. 

Click HERE for the schedule of panels. 

Picturing Shi'ism

Now that I have finally finished a very busy semester, I can start blogging again! Don't worry-- I haven't stopped immersing myself in all things Persian :) As a final project for a class about Shi'ism, I recently wrote a paper about popular devotional art from Iran and Iraq. I came into this class with a basic knowledge about Shi'ism but as I began collecting images of religious posters, banners, and internet imagery I started to understand the significant emotional dimensions of Shi'ism and how visualization stands at the very core of it. Contrary to popular belief that Muslims don't "like" figural imagery, Shi'ism has always embraced it and has popularized it to such an extent that it has become its own visual vocabulary. Every Shi'ite knows the iconic face of Imam Hussein-- his determined expression and piercing eyes in portraiture or his arrow-riddled body in combat-illustration. He was the hero-martyr in what was the most defining moment in Shi'ism-- the Battle of Karbala in the deserts of Iraq where the Prophet Muhammad's descendants were brutally murdered by the army of Yazid or taken captive. The Day of Ashura commemorates this event and people often carry posters of Hussein, Imam Ali (the cousin of the Prophet), or the 12 Imams in processions. South Asia has also had a rich tradition of Shi'ite devotional art-- depicting Hussein's horse Zoljaneh and the hand of Fatima (the daughter of the Prophet). Posters like these are very instrumental as they help create a collective memory and identity for Shi'ites as well as capture the idealized personas of the Holy family to inspire emulation among devotees. I know I was totally captivated!  

An old painting of the Battle of Karbala from Qajar Iran 

(left) Portrait of Imam Ali and his sword, (middle) Imam Hussein, Abbas, Zayneb and Ali Asghar the martyred infant, (right) Imam Hussein

Two posters of Imam Hussein in the Battle of Karbala

Imam Hussein, Imam Ali, and Abbas with the 12 Imams below including the Mahdi (the Imam in occultation) at the far left with a ray of light as his face--yet to be seen.

Two posters of Zoljaneh (Imam Hussein's white stallion), another illustration of the 12 Imams, and a photo of boys in Iraq holding a poster with Hussein and Ali

(clockwise) poster of Imam Ali in Iraq, a poster from India of a young boy and girl reading the Quran, the Battle of Karbala--its martyrs are depicted as roses, and Buraq (the Prophet Muhammad's holy steed that flies to heaven) 

A collage of Imam Ali portraits from the Internet

Islamic talisman from South Asia with the names of Ali, Fatima, Hassan, and Hussein in the stars.The hand in the middle has the names of the 12 Imams written in its palm. 

New Translation of Hafez

Dick Davis was recently featured on the PBS NewsHour Weekly Poem Series to discuss his new publication: Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz. Below is the link to the full article and its videos, as well as a few quotes from the accomplished translator:

"People say that Bach sort of gathered together everything that had gone before him in music and brought it into a new kind of stage. Hafez did the same with the conventions of lyric poetry." 

"One of the great things in Hafez's poetry is that it's extremely ambiguous often and that it can be read in different ways. His poetry can read in a secular way or in a religious ... that's the great problem with translating Hafez that you have this constant ambiguity and ambiguity is very difficult to transfer from one language to another."

"Different cultures put their energies into different arts at different times ... For example, you can think, painting in Italy or music in Germany, that kind of thing, but in the medieval period, the artistic energies of Iran went largely into poetry. And poetry has become part of the Persian cultural identity in a way that is true of very few other cultures."

PBS LINK:

A Poetic Odyssey: Dick Davis translates Hafez in "Faces of Love," his new installment in a life dedicated to medieval Persian literature

On Amazon:

http://amzn.com/0143107283

Textbooks for Ancient Iranian Languages

One of the most challenging aspects of studying any ancient language is the shortage of teaching materials, textbooks, and dictionaries for students to use. Older forms of Persian (like Pahlavi) certainly has this issue and if you're not familiar with reading linguistic descriptions of grammar, you may be desperate for more simple explanations as to how this language works. As much I loved studying Pahlavi, I struggled with it-- spending up to 5 or 7 hours on 15 lines of text only to come to class with a third or more of it totally wrong. What tripped me up was deciphering the letters. It wasn't until the end of last semester did I discover the textbooks of Prods Oktor Skjærvø-- a Norwegian-born linguist and scholar of Iranian languages at Harvard University (NELC dept). He has written learning materials for Avestan (young and old), Old Persian cuneiform, Middle Persian, and Manichaean Sogdian. All of these publications are free and available for download on his website. The Pahlavi Primer can be downloaded here. Thanks to Dr. Skjærvø for sharing his work with the online community! Here is a short interview with him by Pars Times:

Zoroastrianism: Change and Continuity

Last week the School of Oriental and African Studies in London held the Inaugural Lecture of Zartoshty Professor Almut Hintze, an eminent scholar of the Zoroastrian religion and Indo-Iranian languages. Below is her video-- I suggest starting at 12:30. It's a about an hour long and a good survey of the religion. My favorite part is her discussion of how and why the word 'daeva' became a negative term to describe a class of demons in Zoroastrianism that chose to follow Angra Mainya. The synopsis (at the end of the lecture) was also a nice addition.

New Year...New Semester

After taking a month off to finish final exams and celebrate the holidays--I'm back at IU and back to blogging! One of my favorite classes this semester is a directed readings course with Dr. Choksy who is an expert of Ancient Iranian Studies and Zoroastrianism. The topic for the course is Pre-Islamic archaeology and the theme of sacral kingship. Here is an article that he wrote for the The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies about this exact topic: Sacral Kingship in Sasanian Iran. This week I'm reading a detailed archaeological survey of Iran written as a travel guide by Sylvia Matheson in the early 1970s. She travels to each province of the country highlighting the most impressive sites (of the supposed 250,000) and adds several notes about hotels, chaikhanas (tea houses), and transportation. I feel like I'm touring the country with her...but at the same time, I'm reminded how difficult it would be to recreate her path of travel nowadays. Paths of travel, especially disrupted ones, is a theme of another course I'm taking on Nomadic Pastoralism of Eurasia with Dr. Shahrani. Many of the migration patterns of Euraisan nomads as well as Iranian nomads were disrupted with forced settlement for taxation, and pressures to urbanize and modernize. Ideology, perhaps more than anything else, has brought nomadism to an end. Yet connections are forged as scholarship, literature, and art--whether ancient or contemporary, can speak to us across these limitations of space and time. The intense documentation of Matheson's work was perhaps intentional--foreshadowing the rise of the Islamic revolution and the future of Iran's relationship to the West. As I work towards the end of my first year as a PhD student, I appreciate documentation more and more, and nothing seems as esoteric. Happy new year to my blog readers and wishing you many moments worth capturing!

S. Matheson in Iran

Latest Reads

The fall semester is more than half way over and I can't believe how much I've read since starting classes in August. When people ask me what I've been up to, my usual answers are either 'translating' or 'reading'. Aside from a couple of Zoroastrian texts, most of my readings are Middle Eastern/Central Asian ethnographies or about Islam. Here's the full list! :

Orientalism (Said)

The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics (Hirschkind)

Arab Women in the Field: Studying your own Society (ed. Altorki)

Islam in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: The Morality of Experience (Rasanayagam)

Everyday Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia (Louw)

Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden (ed. Euben)

Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Barfield)

Bartered Brides: Politics, Gender and Marriage in an Afghan Tribal Society (Tapper)

Before Taliban : Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad (Edwards)

Local Politics in Afghanistan: A Century of Intervention in Social Order (ed. Schetter)

The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia (Khalid)

The New Woman in Uzbekistan: Islam, Modernity, and Unveiling Under Communism (Kamp)

Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia (Northrop)

Living Islam: Women, Religion, and the Politicization of Culture in Turkey (Saktanber)

The New Crusade: Constructing the Muslim Enemy (ed. Qureshi)

Select Counsels of the Ancient Sages, also known as 'The Book of Counsel of Zartosht' (Middle Persian)

The Bundahishn ("Creation"), or Knowledge from the Zand (Middle Persian)

Portrait of a Painter: 15th century, 'Persian Painting on Facebook'

I think one of the tricks to keep your self motivated in graduate school is finding inspiration --things that get you excited and make you feel connected to the field. I always find inspiration in art and art history, so here are a couple of my favorite sites:

Facebook: Persian Painting (great collection of miniatures)...thanks to my mom for finding this one!

https://www.facebook.com/persian.paintings?fref=ts

Facebook: Cult of the Ancient Gods (lots of ancient Persian art from Fars Province)

https://www.facebook.com/cultoftheancientGods?fref=ts

Tumblr: That Bohemian Girl (a beautiful style/fashion blog with Orientalist flare) 

http://thatbohemiangirl.tumblr.com/

Homa Delvaray (graphic designer from Iran)

http://www.homadelvaray.com/

Qajar Tile from 'Persian Painting on Facebook'

Central Eurasian Studies & CEUS Pride

Since I've started graduate school at IUB, many people have asked me-- "why did you pick Indiana?" and "what's Central Asia?". I'd like to share some information regarding my department's program and highlight the unique opportunities at Indiana University when compared to other academic programs in the United States:

The Central Eurasian Studies Department, abbreviated as CEUS at Indiana University-Bloomington, is the premier program for the study of Central Asia in the United States. It is the only department that offers specialized M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Central Asian Studies in the U.S. and offers training in a number of less-commonly taught languages that are not taught anywhere else in the country. For example, this fall semester includes: Persian, Middle Persian/Pahlavi, Pashto, Dari, Turkish, Old Turkic, Tibetan, Old Tibetan, Mongolian, Classical Mongolian, Uzbek, Uyghur, Kazakh, Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian.
Since a number of these languages suffer from a lack of textbooks, the CeLCAR (Center for Languages for the Central Asian Languages) at IU develops their own. For example, CeLCAR has written textbooks for Pashto, Dari, Uzbek, Uyghur, and Tajik.

While there are other departments in the US and in Europe which offer classes on "Central Asia" and a select number of Eurasian/Near Eastern languages, Indiana University's program is premier because of its consistency to offer multiple levels of less commonly taught languages regardless of enrollment size. At many universities "Central Asia" does not warrant its own department as "Near Eastern Studies","East Asian Studies", and "South Asian Studies" so often does in the U.S..

As far as I can tell, IU is the only American university currently teaching Pahlavi/Middle Persian alongside the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Additionally, CEUS balances rigorous language training with requiring their students to to become specialists in regional history, literature, and politics. Graduates from CEUS are well-equipped to continue in academia or pursue careers in government and consulting.

To become a specialist in Iranian/Afghan Studies takes years of training and I'm proud to be a student at IU. While CEUS is a small department, our mission is huge-- which is to maintain scholastic inquiry and to contribute to improving cross-cultural understanding of a region too often neglected.

Tribute to Annemarie Schimmel

When I first discovered the works of Dr. Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003), I was amazed by her prolific list of publications and lectures on Islamic India and Persian mysticism. It was obvious that after reading only a little of her writings that Schimmel had a special love for her research and tirelessly worked to highlight the rich achievements of the Islamic world in Western academia.
Schimmel's biography reads one of a prodigy:
Born on April 7, 1922, in Erfurt, Germany,  she finished high school at 15 and earned a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic studies at 19. She had a nearly photographic memory. For years she was a consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she was legendary for her ability to identify scraps of ancient text.  After earning her second doctorate, in comparative religion, Ms. Schimmel began teaching Persian and Arabic poetry at the University of Marburg in Germany. For several years she taught theology at the University of Ankara in Turkey, the first woman and the first non-Muslim to do so. In 1967 she inaugurated the Indo-Muslim studies program at Harvard, and remained on the faculty for the next quarter-century. She was proficient in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Pashto. She was also a much sought-after lecturer, and her style of delivery was famous: she would clasp her purse with both hands, shut her eyes, and speak for exactly the amount of time allotted to her.
She was much loved in Pakistan and even a boulevard was named after her in Lahore:

One of Schimmel last projects was a book titled: The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture (2006).  It's a highly readable survey of the Mughal Empire and includes fascinating information about women at the court and the imperial household. In the coming years, I hope to travel to Lucknow, India to study Mughal Persian through the American Institute of Indian Studies. With Schimmel on my desk, I don't need to look far for inspiration :)

Humanities & Foreign Policy

This is a short lecture presented by IU professor, Jamsheed Choksy, who specializes in Iranian Studies, Indian subcontinental studies, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Manichaeism. He also writes about Middle Eastern politics for the Huffington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and FP.  I had the pleasure of taking his course--Iranian Civilization: Poets, Prophets, and Kings during my first semester at IU.  His presentation to the National Humanities Alliance (Sep. 2011) highlights the importance of funding the humanities as academic scholarship can contribute to improving American foreign policy and national security.