The Silk Road: a New History with Documents

Ursula Sims-WilliamsBook Notes Leave a Comment

Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History with Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780190208929 I was recently delighted to receive the new edition of Valerie Hansen’s Silk Road: a New History, originally published in 2012. The original edition was already much acclaimed for being eminently readable and accessible — my much-thumbed edition accompanied me faithfully on two visits around China in 2012 and 2013 — as a guide to the Silk Road, based on up to date scholarship using archaeological and historical sources. It was largely …

New to the AIIT

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A Dictionary: Christian Sogdian, Syriac and English A Dictionary: Christian Sogdian, Syriac and English / Nicholas Sims-Williams. Wiesbaden : Reichert Verlag, 2016 17.0 x 24.0 cm, 408 p., cloth 148,00 € ISBN: 9783954901753 Ancient India & Iran Trust Library shelfmark: AIIT.a.1802 This recent publication by our Chairman Nicholas Sims-Williams represents a landmark in the study of Christian Sogdian and at the same time is designed to be accessible both to Iranists, whether or not they know Syriac, and to Syriacists, whether or not they know Sogdian. Many works of Syriac …

Some Recent Acquisitions

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Arts of the Hellenized East : precious metalwork and gems of the pre-Islamic era Arts of the Hellenized East: precious metalwork and gems of the pre-Islamic era / Martha L. Carter ; with contributions by Prudence O. Harper and Pieter Meyers. London: Thames & Hudson, 2015. The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Hardcover | ISBN 9780500970690 | December 2015 424 pages | 350+ colour illustrations | 9 in × 11.2 in × 1.7 in This is the sixth volume in Thames & Hudson’s series exploring the treasures of The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. …

Jal Amrolia’s Gift to the Library

Ursula Sims-WilliamsStories from the Collection Leave a Comment

We were sad to hear last week of the death on 12 May of Jal Amrolia, a long-standing friend of the Ancient India and Iran Trust. Jal Edulji Amrolia was born in Zanzibar on 22nd August 1929 to Tehmina and Edulji Amrolia, one of three siblings with two sisters Khurshed and Sheru. He went to boarding school in Nargol, Gujarat, and then to Technical College in Surat where he met his future wife Banoo (Armin) whom he married in 1955. He returned to Dar-es Salam and got a job in …

‘The Multimedia Yasna’ Research Project Awarded Grant

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Good news for Zoroastrian and Avesta studies! AIIT trustee Almut Hintze, Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism at SOAS University of London, has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant of just under €2.5 million (ca. £2 million) for a project on the Yasna, the core ritual of one of the most ancient and influential living religions, Zoroastrianism. The yazishn-gah (‘place of worship’), where the Yasna ritual will be filmed. Andheri Athornan Institute, Mumbai. Photo: Almut Hintze ‘The Multimedia Yasna’ (MUYA) focusses on the interpretation and ritual of …