Religion, culture, and politics in pre-Islamic Iran : collected essays / Bruce Lincoln.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lincoln, Bruce, author.

Series:

Ancient Iran

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Iran--Politics and government.

Iran.

Iran--Civilization--To 640.

Iran--Religion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (433 pages)

Place of Publication:

Leiden, Netherland ; Boston, Massachusetts : Brill, [2021]

Summary:

"In Religion, Culture, and Politics in Pre-Islamic Iran, Bruce Lincoln offers a vast overview on different aspects of the Indo-Iranian, Zoroastrian and Pre-Islamic mythologies, religions and cultural issues. The book is organized in four sections according to the body of evidence they engage most directly: Avestan, Old Persian, Pahlavi, and Iranian materials in comparison with other data, including studies of myths, especially those with cosmogonic implications, ritual practices, cosmological constructions of space and time, points of intersection between religion, ethics, law, and politics, ideological aspects of scientific and medical theorizing, social organization and gender relations, and other diverse topics"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Figures

Tables

Part 1 Indo-Iranian, Avestan, and General Iranian

Chapter 1 Human Unity and Diversity in Zoroastrian Mythology

Chapter 2 The One and the Many in Iranian Creation Myths

Chapter 3 The Cosmo-Logic of Persian Demonology

Chapter 4 Toward a more Materialist Ethics: Vermin and Poison in Zoroastrian Thought

Chapter 5 Before Religion? The Zoroastrian Concept of Daēnā and Two Myths about It

Part 2 Old Persian and Achaemenid

Chapter 6 Apocalyptic Temporality and Politics in the Ancient World

Chapter 7 Religion, Empire, and the Spectre of Orientalism: A Recent Controversy in Achaemenid Studies

Chapter 8 Persian Archers and Paradise Gardens: Projecting Power in the Achaemenid Empire

Part 3 Pahlavi

Chapter 9 Physiological Speculation and Social Patterning in a Pahlavi Text

Chapter 10 Embryological Speculation and Gender Politics in a Pahlavi Text

Chapter 11 Pahlavi kirrēnīdan and Traces of Iranian Creation Mythology

Chapter 12 Cēšmag, the Lie, and the Logic of Zoroastrian Demonology

Chapter 13 Anomaly, Science, and Religion: Treatment of the Planets in Medieval Zoroastrianism

Chapter 14 Of Dirt, Diet, and Religious Others: A Theme in Zoroastrian Thought

Part 4 Iranian Materials in Comparative Perspective

Chapter 15 The Indo-European Myth of Creation

Chapter 16 Treatment of Hair and Fingernails among the Indo Europeans

Chapter 17 The Center of the World and the Origins of Life

Chapter 18 Hegelian Meditations on "Indo-European" Myths

Chapter 19 From Purity to Law: Avestan yaoždā and Latin iūs

Chapter 20 From Ritual Practice to Esoteric Knowledge: The Problem of the Magi

Bibliography

Index of Words

Index of Sources

Index of Subjects.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

90-04-46029-2

OCLC:

1251739654