Institute for Iranian Studies
banner
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Institute for Iranian Studies
@iranianstudies.bsky.social
Official account for the Institute for Iranian Studies (Iranistik) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Website: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/
Our next @nomaland.bsky.social lecture will be tomorrow on the topic of Preaching, Books, and Community in Ottoman Hungary, by Prof. Tijana Krstić!

Details available here:
www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veransta...
Preaching, Books, and Community in Ottoman Hungary: Browsing Through the Library Collection of Süleyman Efendi, the Vaiz of the Grand Mosque of Buda (c. 1643-1655)
Webinar series "Pre-modern Islamic manuscripts"
www.oeaw.ac.at
November 11, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Our Caucasus research group is organising an October meetup! If you're based around Vienna and working on Caucasus studies of some kind, we'd love to see you there :)
October 9, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Institute for Iranian Studies
Lecture by Dr. Sacha Alsancakli on "The Ottoman reception of the Nuzhat al-Qulūb (c.1340)" at the @nomaland.bsky.social Webinar. Watch it here:
youtube.com/watch?v=MOqk...

@oeaw.bsky.social @fwf-at.bsky.social
@iranianstudies.bsky.social @translapt.bsky.social
@sachaalsancakli.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 7:39 AM
New faces at the IFI for the new academic year!

Ilona Chmilevskia joins us as a pre-doctoral researcher working with Shamil Shikhaliev to study the transformation of Islamic juridical systems in the eastern Caucasus under the Russian Empire. Welcome to Ilona!
September 23, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Institute for Iranian Studies
Apply for this! Ariane's work and the whole project is so exciting AND you get to live in Wien ☕
We have an open position for a pre-doctoral researcher in Dr. Ariane Sadjed's "Persian Jews – History, Community, Memory" team, looking at the Jewish communities of central Asia.

See here for job profile and other details: applications must be in by October 1st.
www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=pp87...
Offene Stellen an der ÖAW
Aktuelle Stellenausschreibungen aus den Instituten und der zentralen Verwaltung der ÖAW
www.oeaw.ac.at
September 13, 2025 at 7:48 PM
We have an open position for a pre-doctoral researcher in Dr. Ariane Sadjed's "Persian Jews – History, Community, Memory" team, looking at the Jewish communities of central Asia.

See here for job profile and other details: applications must be in by October 1st.
www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=pp87...
Offene Stellen an der ÖAW
Aktuelle Stellenausschreibungen aus den Instituten und der zentralen Verwaltung der ÖAW
www.oeaw.ac.at
September 13, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Event coming up in October!

Our next JESHO workshop, convened by Dr. Paolo Sartori and with a keynote by Prof. Cemal Kafadar, is "Was There an Ottoman Decline?"

Details here:
www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veransta...

#Turkey #Ottoman #History #Asia #Economics
Was There an Ottoman Decline?
A JESHO International Workshop
www.oeaw.ac.at
September 9, 2025 at 9:41 AM
In August we were at the biannual Conference of the Association of Persianate Studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan!

Thanks to the hosts and organisers: these vital spaces show the importance of having many and diverse disciplines and scholars building better research on the Persianate world together!
September 1, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Institute for Iranian Studies
Nuevas investigaciones sobre #Mongoles en el #Oeste enteramente en #espanol editado por Antonio García Espada (@uneduniv.bsky.social) y Bruno De Nicola (@oeaw.bsky.social‬). Disponible en noviembre 2025!
Más información:
brill.com/display/titl...
@iranianstudies.bsky.social @fwf-at.bsky.social
Mongoles en el Oeste
"Mongoles en el Oeste" published on 27 Nov 2025 by Brill.
brill.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Iran is facing severe drought. With high temperatures due to climate change, and tensions around water use and river flow, there are a range of potential risks ahead.

An OEAW interview on the subject with our director, Prof. Florian Schwarz (in German):

www.oeaw.ac.at/news/hitzewe...
Hitzewelle und Wassermangel: Wie ist die aktuelle Lage in Iran?
Temperaturen über 50 Grad und ein akuter Wassermangel stellen die Einwohner:innen Irans vor große Herausforderungen. ÖAW-Iranist Florian Schwarz erklärt, was es bräuchte, um die Dürre langfristig in d...
www.oeaw.ac.at
August 12, 2025 at 11:21 AM
In the recent Iran-Israel conflict, being informed on wider and long-term contexts can help with understanding the region.

The IFI's Robert Steele has been informing the public on the history of these tensions: read (in German) his interview in Der Standard here:
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
Wie der Iran und Israel zu Feinden wurden
Der Konflikt zwischen Iran und Israel hat sich in den vergangenen Wochen dramatisch zugespitzt. Droht ein Krieg ohne Ende? Robert Steele vom Institut für Iranistik der ÖAW über historische Hintergründ...
www.oeaw.ac.at
July 22, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Lots of great work on the wider Iranian world at last week's International Medieval Congress (@imc-leeds.bsky.social).

From the IFI, we had Stefan Kamola on astrology & legitimacy in Mongol contexts, and @jubalbarca.bsky.social on masculinities in the medieval Caucasus. An exciting week all round!
July 14, 2025 at 6:56 PM
New publication - a special issue of Medieval Worlds on knowledge transfer in Mongol Baghdad, with contributions from three of our researchers (Bruno De Nicola, Stefan Kamola, and Ghasem Gharib) is now out!

Find out more here:
doi.org/10.1553/medi...
Medieval Worlds
doi.org
July 6, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Friends in Vienna, our Caucasus researchers are holding an interdisciplinary, cross-institution picnic for Caucasus and Caucasus-adjacent studies this coming weekend.

If you'd like to join, please do, and do forward this to anyone else based in the city doing research of any kind on the region!
June 17, 2025 at 11:24 AM
As part of this year's Middle Ages in Modern Games conference, a short analysis of some modern reception of the history of the Caucasus region and its roots from our own @jubalbarca.bsky.social:
Our session on Field of Glory: Kingdoms closes with ‘On Piety and Power: Faith in Field of Glory: Kingdoms’ and is delivered by @JubalBarca. It’s live: middleagesinmoderngames.net?p=649
June 4, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Institute for Iranian Studies
A short interview with ÖAW-Präsident Heinz Faßmann (@oeaw.bsky.social) and Dr. Bruno De Nicola (@nomaland.bsky.social) on the recently signed agreement between @iranianstudies.bsky.social and the Chinggis Khaan Museum in #Mongolia.

www.oeaw.ac.at/news/besuch-...
Besuch im Reich des Chinggis Khan
Bundespräsident Alexander Van der Bellen war in der Mongolei zu Gast. Heinz Faßmann war Teil der Delegation des Staatsbesuchs und verstärkte die wissenschaftliche Kooperation mit dem zentralasiatische...
www.oeaw.ac.at
June 2, 2025 at 9:35 AM
We have two post-doctoral roles open in the PersCom team under Dr. Ariane Sadjed, looking at Jewish history in central Asia!

Job outlines and application links below:

www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=4xhd...

www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=bcr4...
Offene Stellen an der ÖAW
Aktuelle Stellenausschreibungen aus den Instituten und der zentralen Verwaltung der ÖAW
www.oeaw.ac.at
June 2, 2025 at 1:27 PM
We're excited to announce a Memorandum of Understanding signed for us by ÖAW president Fassmann with the Director of the Chinggis Khaan National Museum of Mongolia!

Joint historical document expertise will build new research insights on Mongolia's critical role in central Asian history & culture.
May 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Upcoming @nomaland.bsky.social lecture TODAY at 5pm CET!

"The Ottoman reception of the Nuzhat al-Qulūb (c. 1340), a Persian encyclopaedic work by Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī."

More info: www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veransta...

To participate online, register at oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
The Ottoman reception of the Nuzhat al-Qulūb (c. 1340), a Persian encyclopaedic work by Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī
Webinar series "Pre-modern Islamic manuscripts"
www.oeaw.ac.at
May 6, 2025 at 9:55 AM
New project at the IFI! Dr. @jacopobrn.bsky.social's "A Tale of Pots and People" will use a data-driven approach to the ceramic finds of the Bukhara Oasis in Uzbekistan in order to look at everyday life and interactions with major events from the C3rd to C8th CE:

www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/forschun...
April 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Now available on our website is a write-up and summaries of "A Transdisciplinary Approach to Mughal Studies", a symposium and exhibition held in honour of Prof. Ebba Koch for her 80th birthday.

You can find all the talks and a summary of the event here:
www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/ifidi...
April 24, 2025 at 1:40 PM
We have a new publication in our Iranian Studies Monographs (Veröffentlichungen zur Iranistik) series! "Hybrid Judeo-Persian and Arabic Correspondence: Eight Documents from the Cairo Genizah" provides new editions of documents from around 1000AD.

Find out more at:
verlag.oeaw.ac.at/en/product/h...
Hybrid Judeo-Persian and Arabic Correspondence. Eight Documents from the Cairo Genizah | 978-3-7001-9322-7 | Verlag der ÖAW
Bestellen sie jetzt Hybrid Judeo-Persian and Arabic Correspondence in unserem Verlagswebshop.
verlag.oeaw.ac.at
April 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Another researcher currently visiting the IFI for a six-month research stay is Ghasem Gharib, a lecturer in history at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. He is part of our NoMansLand project, and his current work is focusing on a Sufi Saint, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani.

Welcome to Ghasem!
April 14, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Another new member! Dr. Tinatin Khomeriki joins the Circulating Knowledge in the Caucasus project. She will study knowledge production, dissemination, and exchange amid Georgia's political tensions: her interests include urban anthropology, (in)security, (mis)trust and suspicion.

Welcome, Tina!
April 9, 2025 at 10:59 AM
We have new researchers at the IFI and we're excited to introduce them!

First, social anthropologist Ila Sikharulidze is joining us within the project “Circulating Knowledge in the Caucasus” - he will analyze how knowledge disseminates among Georgian Azerbaijanis in Kvemo Kartli. Welcome, Ila!
April 8, 2025 at 10:11 AM