Libmonster ID: SE-376
Author(s) of the publication: O. I. ZHIGALINA

Scientific life. Congresses, conferences, and symposia

From October 6 to 11, 2003, the next conference of the Society of Iranian Scholars of Europe, which is held every four years, was held in Ravenna, Italy*. The conference venue was not chosen by chance. Ravenna is the largest cultural center in Italy, where outstanding cultural monuments of the Roman and Byzantine Empires are preserved.

Italian Iranian studies as a traditional branch of Oriental studies has reached a fairly high level. The study of Iran is carried out in several scientific and educational centers: at the University "La Sapienza" in Rome, at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", at the University of Venice, at the University of Bologna (founded in 1088) and at the Faculty of Cultural Heritage in Ravenna. In the latter, students are taught in such areas as ancient history of the East, archeology, philology and paleontology of Iran and archeology of India, history of religion of Iran and the Iranian world. Among the lecturers are Professors A. Panainho, P. Calleri, M. Totzi, M. Vidale and others.

The branch has a rich library. Its collections include books from the personal libraries of prominent scientists. Books on the study of Byzantium were transferred from the collection of A. Pertuzi and T. Vertele. And after the death of the famous researcher I. Gershevich in 2001, the books belonging to him (10 thousand volumes) were replenished with the funds of the library of the mentioned faculty of Ravenna. Asmussen (10 thousand volumes) were also transferred to the foundation.

Ravenna is also home to the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient, which functions as part of the Faculty of Cultural Heritage. It was formed in 1995 as a result of the merger of the Italian Institute for the Near and Far East, founded in 1924 by J. Gentile, and the Italian-African Institute, headed by J. Gentile. Gnoli. The Institute of Africa and the East is patronized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and carries out cultural and scientific contacts with Asian and African countries. The tasks of this department are to deepen knowledge in the field of history, languages, art, culture, religion and other aspects of the study of Asian and African civilizations in the best traditions of the Italian Oriental school.

Italian research and training centers successfully combine deep research traditions with new technologies for processing factual material. For example, the Faculty of Cultural Heritage in Ravenna is involved in the so-called "Melammu Project", whose main goal is to study the societies of ancient Assyria and Babylon, their transformation and the spread of Mesopotamian culture in the ancient world starting from the 2nd millennium BC and ending with the beginning of the Islamic period. To implement this project, an electronic database is being created and annual symposia are being held on various aspects of the cultural development and evolution of the ancient world.

The V conference of the Society of Iranists of Europe was opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Heritage in Ravenna A. Panainho. Leaders of the universities of Bologna and Rome, the Iranian Ambassador to Italy, as well as a representative of the local administration addressed the conference participants with greetings. Then the sessions began in the following sections: "Antiquity", "Middle Ages", "Classical Period "and"Modernity".

At the conference, Italian Iranists demonstrated their experience in successfully applying new methods of processing factual material. So, specialists of the University of Venice showed their skills in the field of computer processing of some samples of Persian poetry. In this regard, we should mention the reports of R. Tsipoli "Comparison of the lexical composition of ghazals of Persian authors", D. Menezhini "Persian lyrical hypertext: a method for studying the Persian Ghazal" and V. Tsanoll "Electronic edition of Sanai Ghazals".

Many interesting reports on various aspects of the history, philology and culture of Iran were presented at the conference, which can be grouped into several main areas.

Source studies and historiography were presented at the conference with a number of interesting developments. The Iranian scholar Y. Karamati proposed the topic " Review of the sources of al-Ab-


* For more information, see: Oriens. 2000. N 1. pp. 166-167.

page 163


niyah and Hagaed al-Abniyah", and the Italian M. Bernardini - "Notes on Persian historiography in Anatolia on the example of Agsarai". The Englishman N. Sims-Williams presented the paper "Bactrian letters of the Sasanian and Hephthalite periods", and J. Azerpe from the University of California - "The Pahlavi-sealed manuscript in Berkeley: methods and materials".

M. de Van of Leiden University (Netherlands), B. Mekarska of Cracow University (Poland), and N. Nagavi of Firdowsi University (Mashhad, Iran) devoted their reports to the study of the Avesta as a historical source. We should also mention the report of G. Varahram (Iran)" Italian missionaries and travelers in Iran", which confirms Italy's long-standing ties with Iran.

These, as well as many other reports in this section, show a serious and thorough approach of European and Iranian researchers to the analysis of historical sources that shed light on the unknown facets of ancient and medieval history and philology of Iran.

The topic of social relations is reflected in a number of posts. Among them are reports on nomads and the history of individual tribes: A. Pistor-Hattam (Germany) "From nomadism to civilization", A. Akhondi (Iran) "Fortifications of the Bakhtiar Khans", etc. The ethnic aspect was touched upon in connection with the analysis of the Baloch language (A. Korn, Great Britain), religious texts of the Gurans (A. Goyturi, Iran), etc.

Another group may include reports on the role of women in Iranian society, for example: F. Majidi (Iran) "The role of women in resolving the debate about Iranian nomadism", A. Rahnema (France) "The Iranian Woman: Past and Present", H. Alimohammadi (Iran) "A Woman in a unique Iranian village", etc. etc.

A significant part of this section consists of reports devoted to the study of the Iranian city. Thus, H. Karimian (Great Britain) proposed the report "Space and society of the Iranian city on the example of Bam", F. Kermani (Iran) "Notes on the history of the city of Kerman", V. I. Yurtaev (Russia) "Cultural and historical traditions of urban administration in Iran from ancient times to the present day", O. Sorokina (Russia) "Louti, role and place in the Iranian urban culture of the XIX century", Z . Fanny (Iran) "Changing the Iranian City after the Islamic Revolution in Iran", B. Hurkad (France) "Tehran: new signs of a Metropolis" , etc.

In general, the reports of this subsection indicate a high level of theoretical generalization of specialists in this field, who study Iranian society from various points of view and over a wide time frame.

Foreign scientists pay great attention to the study of Iranian religion and philosophy. Thus, Zoroastrianism is reflected in the reports of M. Vitalone (Italy), K. H. Antia (USA), Mazdeism - in the report of V. Colombo (USA), Ismaili community - in the report of S. Andreev (USA), Yezidism - in the speech of V. Voskanyan (Armenia). It is interesting to note that there were no special messages devoted to Islamic dogma in the program. At the same time, some authors referred to the influence of Islam on the development of Iranian culture. This is indicated, in particular, by the report of A. Nemat Gorgani (Iran) on Islamic features in Iranian architecture.

Several reports were devoted to the analysis of the concepts of some prominent Iranian thinkers. Thus, V. T. Todd (Canada) prepared a report on F. Kashani.

The conference participants paid special attention to the discussion of the problems of philology and culture of Iran. Eurasian and Iranian scholars have shown great interest in analyzing various aspects of Iranian linguistics and literature. In this section, both Iranian, European, and Russian specialists showed a high level of readiness. Some reports, for example, the report of the Iranian scholar B. Mahmuda - Bakhtiari (Tehran) on lexicology, caused a wide discussion of the audience. Famous English linguist D. N. McKenzie took part in the discussion.

Russian scientists V. B. Ivanov, L. Dodikhudoeva, M. Reisner, J. Dorry and others have successfully addressed the problems of Iranian philology. In addition, we should mention the report of A. Kermenshekan (Great Britain), dedicated to the problems of contemporary Iranian art. He paid much attention to the comparative analysis of the confrontation between traditionalism and innovations in Iranian painting of the 60s and 90s of the XX century. This post was accompanied by interesting color slides. It raised a lot of questions and was met with interest by the audience.

Among the new directions announced in the conference program are the study of Iranian-Central Asian contacts, Iranian-Russian relations in the early 20th century, and socio-political aspects of the history of post-revolutionary Iran.

page 164


Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the topic of Iran-Central Asian contacts was monopolized by Soviet Central Asian scientists. Now European specialists have the opportunity to study this issue in more detail using field materials. For example, several reports were devoted to the study of the Kafir-Kala ancient settlement, located in Tajikistan, whose excavations were started in the middle of the XX century by Tajik archaeologists. Italian experts K. Tsereti (Rome) and S. Cazzoli(Bologna) made reports on the seals of Kafir-Kala.

The changing geopolitical situation in Central Asia has had a positive impact on the scientific research of American researchers. The situation in Afghanistan has obviously served as an incentive to increase the attention of American and European scholars to the problems of Iran-Central Asian linguistic, cultural and historical ties with Afghanistan and Tajikistan, on the one hand, and on the other - Iran with various regions and peoples of Central Asia. In this regard, the reports of D. Roth (University of Venice) "Relations between Safavid Persia and Kalmyks (1600-1725)", L. Paul (Germany) "Iranian, Persian, Tajik: Iranian ethnonyms in historical aspect", etc. are interesting.

The fate of Russians in Central Asia, which was clearly outlined after the collapse of the USSR, served as an incentive for some European and American researchers to address the problem of Russian colonialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Iran. It should be noted that this aspect of Iranian studies was not until recently the subject of close study by European (not British) authors, since most of the materials related to this topic are located in the collections of Russian state archives, access to which was difficult for foreigners in Soviet times. E. Andreeva (USA) presented the theses of the report " Russian settlements in northern Iran at the beginning of the XX century: different types of Imperial colonization?". She tried to prove that the Russian settlements in the Caspian region at the beginning of the last century had a strategic goal - the annexation of the northern part of Persia. Specialist from Germany F. Schwartz presented the report "Petitions from the Bukhara Emirate and colonial Samarkand".

A number of reports were devoted to various aspects of the modern history of Iran. Among them are reports by M. Smurcinski of Jagiellonian University (Poland) on the postmodern novel in post-revolutionary Iran and F. Mardani (Italy) on translations into Italian of Persian literature of the last quarter of the 20th century.

The socio-political theme is reflected in the reports of E. P. Rakel (Netherlands) on the possibilities and difficulties of changing the political elite in post-Khomeini Iran, as well as O. I. Zhigalina (Russia) on the correlation of traditions and innovations in the Iranian constitutions of 1906 and 1979.

The conference featured many bright and memorable presentations by prominent European scientists, such as B. Fragner (Austria), A. Panainho and P. Ognebene (both from Italy), K. Petersen (the Netherlands), A. Krasnowolska (Poland), as well as young researchers, for example, Y. Rubinovich from Israel. The absence of the venerable Russian Iranists O. F. Akimushkin, B. Ya. Stavissky, and Yu. A. Rubinchik was made up for by the participation of prominent Moscow and St. Petersburg scientists-I. M. Steblin-Kamensky, V. A. Lifshits, E. E. Kuzmina, N. I. Prigarina, and others.

At the general meeting of members of the Society of Iranists of Europe, held on October 9, the report for the four-year period, the financial report were heard, and a new presidium was elected, which included seven members of the society. At the meeting, it was proposed to hold the next conference in Vienna in 2007. In addition, B. Hurkad (France) presented the published reports of the previous conference in three volumes.

The next day, the Faculty of History and Methods of Cultural Heritage Preservation held a round table on the development of European Iranian studies.

In general, the conference of the Society of Iranian Scholars of Europe demonstrated the diversity not only of aspects of studying the past and present of Iran, but also the level of use of new technologies in the scientific field. This international non-governmental organization is a coordinating center for Iranian studies, bringing together not only European Iranists, but also attracting specialists from Canada, Japan, Israel and some other countries to discuss various problems of Iran. The high professional level of foreign Iranian scientists makes Russian scientists think about improving their work and the need to attract talented young people who know modern technologies to scientific creativity.


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O. I. ZHIGALINA, V CONFERENCE OF THE SOCIETY OF IRANIAN SCHOLARS OF EUROPE // Stockholm: Swedish Digital Library (LIBRARY.SE). Updated: 26.06.2024. URL: https://library.se/m/articles/view/V-CONFERENCE-OF-THE-SOCIETY-OF-IRANIAN-SCHOLARS-OF-EUROPE (date of access: 08.11.2024).

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