"Serial Orthodoxy: State, Faith and Power in Sasanian Empire" by Professor A. F. de Jong (Leiden University)

Department: Center for Persian Studies and Culture

Date and Time: June 7, 2018 | 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Event Location: Humanities Gateway (HG) 1341

Event Details


Please join us on Thursday, June 7, 2018, 2-3 pm in UC Irvine's Humanities Gateway (HG) 1341 (Persian Center Conference Room) for a talk titled "Serial Orthodoxy: State, Faith and Power in Sasanian Empire" by Professor A. F. de Jong (Leiden University).

Prof. Albert de Jong is Lecturer in Religious Studies and teaches courses on the academic study of religion on various levels, as well as courses on the history of religions of the ancient world in Leiden University. The main focus of his research is the religious history of Iran, from the earliest period to the present. De Jong studied Theology and Persian in Utrecht and Old and Middle Iranian languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Utrecht in 1996, with a dissertation on Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin literature (publ. 1997). He was a Golda Meir Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1996-1997) and has been in Leiden since 1997, first as a post-doctoral researcher and from 1998 as lecturer in Religious Studies. His current research project is “The Religious History of the Sasanian Empire (224-642 ce).” This will be the fifth volume in the series A History of Zoroastrianism and will cover not not just the history of Zoroastrianism by itself, but also the interaction between Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, Manichaeans, and Mandaeans in a crucial period of their development. These communities are all served by a considerable body of scholarly literature and by ongoing scholarly attention, but often in regrettable isolation from the wider context. It must be clear that one cannot understand the Babylonian Talmud without knowledge of Sasanian law and institutions any more than one can study the development of Zoroastrianism without taking into account the challenges of Manichaeism and Christianity. In order to do justice to the subject, therefore, two volumes are in preparation: one that follows the history of Zoroastrianism from the rise of Ardashir up to the Arab invasions, and a separate volume that will offer a “profile” of Sasanian Zoroastrianism in the multiple contexts of the Empire.

This event if free and open to the public. No registration is required.

This event is presented by UC Irvine's Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture.