Ausbildung

06.2025                     Habilitation an École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des sciences religieuses, Chaire „Religions de l’Iran ancien“, Paris

10.2003 – 11.2009     Promotion an École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des sciences religieuses, Chaire „Religions de l’Iran ancien“, Paris; Abschlussgrad: Dr. phil. (Religionswissenschaft)

10.1999 – 07.2000     Studium an der Universität Bukarest, Fakultät für Philosophie, Bukarest; Abschluss: MA

10.1994 – 02.1999     Studium an der Universität Bukarest, Fakultät für Philosophie, Bukarest; Abschluss: BA

Weiterbildungen, Forschungsreisen, Stipendien

09-11.2022                           Alexander von Humboldt Stipendiatin (erneuter Forschungsaufenthalt), Freie Universität, Berlin 

01.03.2017-31.08.2018      Alexander von Humboldt Stipendiatin, Freie Universität und Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin

12.2012 – 02.2013     DAAD-Stipendiatin, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin

10.2006 – 07.2007     NEC-Stipendiatin, New Europe College, Institute for Advanced Study, Bukarest

11.2003 – 07.2006     AUF-Stipendiatin, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Bukarest und Paris

09.2004                      Teilnahme am archäologischen Vorhaben „MAFOUZ. Mission archéologique franco-ouzbèke de Sogdiane“, Samarkand, Usbekistan

07. – 08.2001             Forschungsarbeit im Archiv zwecks der Publikationsvorbereitung von Dokumenten aus dem Nachlass von Stig Wikander, Carolina Rediviva, Uppsala

Berufserfahrung

02.2016 – 04.2016     Gastdozentin, Universität Bukarest, Masterprogramm „Religiöse Texte und Traditionen“ (Kurs „Einführung in den Zoroastrismus“)

10.2013 – 01.2016      Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (maître de conférences associée), Collège de France, Paris

03.– 06.2011              Gastdozentin, École Normale Supérieure, Paris (4 Vorlesungen)

02.2010                      Gastdozentin, Cama Oriental Institute, Bombay (4 Vorlesungen)

Seit 6.2008                 Forscherin am Institut für Religionswissenschaft, Rumänische Akademie, Bukarest

Besondere Erfahrung

2023–2025                         Sekretärin der Societas Iranologica Europaea

2022                           Buchpreis „Roman & Tanja Ghirshman der AIBL. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris

2017                           Buchpreis „The 24th World Award for Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of Iran“

2015                           Mitveranstalterin der Internationalen Tagung „Ils disent que… De la controverse religieuse: Zoroastriens, Manichéens et les autres“, Paris, Collège de France, 12–13 Juni 2015

2010                            Internationale Sommerschule für mittel-persische Papyrologie, organisiert von Societas Iranologica Europaea (SIE) und Istituto Italiano per l’Africa et l’Oriente (IsIAO),Rom, 5–9 September 2010

2009                            Internationale Sommerschule für mittel-persische Papyrologie, organisiert von Societas Iranologica Europaea (SIE), der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek und dem Institut für Iranistik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, 20–26 September 2009

2008                           Mitgründerin des Instituts für Religionswissenschaft, Rumänische Akademie, Bukarest

2006                           Mitveranstalterin des 6. Kongresses der European Association for the History of Religions (IAHR)„Religious History of Europe and Asia“, Bukarest, 20–23 September 2006

2001 – 2010               Redaktionelle Tätigkeit für die Zeitschriften „Archaeus“ und „Studia Asiatica“, Bukarest

Drittmittel Projekt 2024-2027

DFG Projekt, Nr. 532765934: Polemical Tools in the Zoroastrian Treatise Škand Gumānīg Wizār

Polemical tools are verbal instruments used in a real or imaginary confrontation, a fight-like encounter with the other, defined as an opposing entity in the context of various types of discourse: religious, political, poetical, juridical. They are constituent elements of the art of speech.

Nowadays, one associates polemical tools with either public political debates or certain forms of music (hip-hop) and spontaneous poetry. Fields of neuroscience focus on the origins and motivations of the curse, which itself originates in insult and invective, two old and regularly practiced categories, in both European and Asian literatures.

Yet, polemical tools have been used in various contexts and periods since remotely distant times. Whenever two parties (individuals, groups, or tribes) were in conflict, polemical forms of expression occurred. One rhetorical means used in both ancient Mesopotamia and Iran, for instance, was the tenson, a form of poetic debate, based on dialogue, generally meant to support the superiority of one party against another (see the case of the Middle Iranian poem Draxt ī Asurīg / The Babylonian Tree).

The present project aims at describing in detail the polemical tools used in the Zoroastrian 9th-10th c. treatise Škand Gumānīg Wizār (ŠGW henceforth) / Breaking the doubtful interpretations. This treatise appears to be unique in at least two respects : 1. It gathers in a single work (possibly the result of multiple authors) individual treatises against different religions; 2. It uses different categories of polemical tools, sometimes even within the same chapter.

The main target of the present project is to circumscribe this polemical Zoroastrian treatise to the wider genre of polemical literature, currently circulating during Late Antiquity and the early Muslim Middle Ages, by pointing out common patterns as well as very specific features, and to contribute to a better knowledge of the polemical literary genre.

The objective of the present project is to identify the various forms (rhetorical, logical) of the polemical tools used in ŠGW to describe their specific function and to integrate them in a wider context. This is a new paradigm of research within Zoroastrian studies in general, and in particular in the case of ŠGW. The approach is inovating inasmuch as it aims at dealing with the treatise as a whole. The outcome of the project is a monograph. The method is threefold: philological, historical and comparaive. For the philological part, the project includes the transcription of the Pāzand version of the text, according to the manuscripts MH19 (Martin Haug, Munich) and PB3 (Eugène Burnouf, Paris). This work is done in cooperation with the Zoroastrian Middle Persian Digital Corpus and Dictionary (https://www.mpcorpus.org ).

An international workshop is planned for 2026.

2017/2018:

As an Alexander von Humboldt (Advanced Researcher) fellow, Mihaela Timuş is preparing a monograph on the polemical (inter- and intra-religious) literature of Zoroastrianism, before and after the Arab conquest (3^rd–10^th c. AD).

The analysis of the specific means (rhetorical genres, theological controversial concepts, logical structures, etc.), by which the other religions are referred to in the Zoroastrian sources, is combined with two major historical hypothesis. The historical background of the polemical allusions could have been, on the one hand, the context of the Sasanian Empire, on the other hand, the first centuries of the Arabic centuries. In each case, a good number of parameters are slightly changing. An important place is allotted to the analysis of the specific vocabulary (Avestan and Middle Persian terminology) related to “heresy”.

The main sources used are in Middle Persian (book-texts and inscriptions; Manichaean as well Zoroastrian literatures). Avestan and Persian sources are being engaged as well. An important place is given to the comparison of the terminology in both Zoroastrian and Middle Iranian Manichaean sources.

As the theological and juridical theoretical distinctions are analysed against the background of social patterns (marriage, property, conversion, ritual controversies, related often to pollution, etc.), this philological and historical investigation attempts at delivering results important from a sociological point of view as well.

She is also working on the manuscripts, preserved in the European archives, of the polemical Zoroastrian treatise Škand Gumānīg Wizār (10^th c. AD). At present, her work is focussed on the analysis and the possible solutions to be given for the reconstruction of the Middle Persian terms, difficult to be recognized under their Pāzand form.

Field interests

• history of religions – Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism;
• Avestan, Middle Iranian, Persian languages and literatures;
• Late Antiquity, Middle Ages;
• history of the European scholarship, in particular pre-Islamic Iranian studies (17^th–20^th c. AD).
• comparative studies.

BÜCHER

• Flavia Ruani, Mihaela Timuş (eds.), Quand les dualistes polémiquaient : Zoroastriens et Manichéens. Actes du colloque international, 12-13 juin 2015, Collège de France [coll. Orient et Méditerranée vol. 34], Leuven, Éditions Peeters, 2020.

• Mihaela Timuş, Cosmogonie et eschatologie. Articulations conceptuelles du système religieux zoroastrien, Paris, Studia Iranica. Cahier 54, 2015 (288 p.).

• Mihaela Timuş (ed.), Changing Paradigms in the Study of Iranian Religions. Proceedings of the 6th EASR / IAHR Special Conference Religious History of Europe and Asia, Bucharest, 20-23 September 2006, vol. IV = Studia Asiatica 11 (2010), no. 

• Întotdeauna Orientul. Corespondenƫa Mircea Eliade - Stig Wikander (1948-1977) [Es ist immer der Osten. Die Korrespondenz Mircea Eliade - Stig Wikander (1948-1977)], rumänische Ausgabe, Einleitung, Anmerkungen, Übersetzungen (aus Französisch und Schwedisch) und Addenda par Mihaela Timuş, Iassy, Polirom, 2005.  

ARTIKEL

Sammelbände

• “Re-reading the Manichaean Cosmogonic Fragments (M1001-1032, 9000)”, J. BeDuhn, P. Dilley, I. Gardner (eds), The Medinet Madi Library of Manichaean Codices at 90. Papers from the Symposium at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, 18-19 October 2019 (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 104), Leiden, Brill, 2023, pp. 250-271.
• “ ’King and Saviour’: Geo Widengren’s early contributions (1938-1955) to the history of Iranian religions”, in Göran Larsson (ed.), The Legacy, Life and Work of Geo Widengren and the Study of the History of Religions after World War II, Brill, 2021, pp. 125-143.
• “Reléguer crânement l’adversaire aux enfers. Polémique anti-manichéenne en terre mazdéenne”, in Flavia Ruani, Mihaela Timuş (eds.), Quand les dualistes polémiquaient : Zoroastriens et Manichéens. Actes du colloque international, 12-13 juin 2015, Collège de France [coll. Orient et Méditerranée vol. 34], Paris, Éditions Peeters, 2020, pp. 125-154.

• «Paraître n’est pas être. Sur les péris selon le mazdéisme »,  A. Caiozzo – N. Ernoult (éds.), Femmes médiatrices et ambivalentes. Mythes et imaginaires, Paris, Armand Colin, 2012, p. 49-60.
• «'Comme le corail sur les arbres'. Développements exégétiques mazdéens au sujet de la résurrection», in D. Hamidovic (éd.), De Kèmi à Birīt Nāri. Revue internationale de l’Orient Ancien (numéro thématique « Résurrection »), Paris, Geuthner, 2012, p. 21-32.
• «Monuments et inscriptions. Le voyage du Prince Démètre Cantemir vers la Perse par le Caucase (1722-1723)», in I. Gadoin - Z. Vesel (éds.), Figures pionnières de l’orientalisme : convergences européennes. Monde anglophone, Europe centrale et orientale, Bures-sur-Yvette, Groupe pour l’Étude du Moyen-Orient (Res Orientales XX), 2011, p. 147-164.
• «Changer les mots, altérer les idées. Autour du traité apologétique Škand Gumānīg Wizār», Studia Asiatica 11 (2010), no. 1, p. 135-148.
• «Quand l’Allemagne était leur Mecque... La science des religions chez Stig Wikander (1935-1944)», in Horst Junginger (ed.), The Study of Religion under the Impact of Fascism, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2007 (Numen Book Series. Studies in the History of Religions, Vol. 117), p. 205-228.
• «Sur le vocabulaire du ‘destin’ chez les zoroastriens. Autour du pehlevi baxt», in Antonio Panaino, Andrea Piras (eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europaea held in Ravenna, 6-11 October 2003. Vol. I. Ancient & Middle Iranian Studies, Milano, Edizioni Mimesis, 2006, p. 725-746.
• «Le corps eschatologique (tan ī pasēn) d’après la théologie zoroastrienne”, in Du corps humain, au carrefour de plusieurs savoirs en Inde. Mélanges offerts à Arion Rosu par ses collègues et ses amis à l’occasion de son 80^e anniversaire = Studia Asiatica 4 (2003) - 5 (2004), Travaux réunis et édités par Eugen Ciurtin, Centre d’histoire des Religions et d’Études Asiatiques, Bucarest - Édition-Diffusion De Boccard, Paris, 2004, p. 779-808.

Enzyklopädie(n)

• “Resurrection. Ancient Iran”, The Encyclopedia of Ancient History: Asia and Africa (published on-line https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119399919). 

• «Stig Wikander (1908-1983) », in Lindsay Jones (General Editor) Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, Macmillan Publishers, Thomson Gale, New York, 2005, vol. 14, p. 9734-9737.

Zeitschriften

• “Edward W. West: his journeys in India and works related to it”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3 (2025), p. 1-18.
•  “Sonorous Words. The prayer and its recitation by the followers of Ahura Mazdā”, Recitation in the early Islamic Empire = MIDEO. Mélanges de l’institut dominicain d’études orientales 37 (2022), p. 29-58.
•  “pōryōtkēšān versus kēšdārān. L’autorité religieuse contre les tenants d’autres doctrines”, Studia Iranica 48.1 (2019), p. 29-76.
•  “Breaking the Rules. Considerations on the Zoroastrian Terminology Related to the Idea of Heresy”, Numen. International Journal for the History of Religions 66 (2019) 2-3, p. 271-294.
•  “Les raisonnements taxinomiques dans le Dēnkard 3”, in G. Hermann, I. Rubanovitch (eds.), Irano-Judaica, Jerusalem, 2019, p. 221-249.
•  “Polémique mazdéenne anti-christologique. Mécanismes de déconstruction (Škand Gumānīg Wizār 15)”, Acta colloquii de polemica antiqua Adversus Christianos, Fribourg-en-Suisse, Février 2017 = Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique suisse / Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Kirchengeschichte 112 (2018), p. 105-122.
• «Légendes et savoirs périnataux chez les Zoroastriens», Bulletin of the Asia Institute 22, 2008 [2012], p. 105-118.
• «Pencher d’un coté vers l’autre. Le symbolisme de la balance (gr. tálanta/zugón ; m.p. tarāzūg)», in New Europe College Yearbook 2007-2008, Bucarest, 2011, p. 349-389 (version revue et corrigée de l’article - Archaeus 13 (2009), p. 155-188)
• «Le symbolisme de la balance en Grèce ancienne et en Iran zoroastrien (gr. tálanta/zougón, m.p. tarazūg)», in Archaeus. Études d’histoire des religions 13 (2009), fasc. 1-4, p. 155 – 188.
• «Encircled against the Evil. Commentary on an ossuary in Samarqand», Journal of the Cama Oriental Institute (Bombay) 69 (2009), p. 115-141 (avec trois illustrations).
• «Les ‘Haskell Lectures’ de Stig Wikander, University of Chicago, 1967», in Archaeus. Études d’histoire des religions 8 (2004) fasc. 1-4, p. 265-322.
• «The Unpublished Correspondence between Mircea Eliade and Stig Wikander (1948-1977) - 4^th Part», in Archaeus. Études d’histoire des religions 6 (2002), fasc. 3-4, p. 325-362 (avec Eugen Ciurtin) ; with an Addendum of un-published letters of Stig Wikander, idem, p. 383-394.
• «The Unpublished Correspondence between Mircea Eliade and Stig Wikander (1948-1977) - 3^rd Part», in Archaeus. Études d’histoire des religions V (2001), fasc. 3-4, p. 75-119 (avec Eugen Ciurtin).
• «La bibliographie annotée de Stig Wikander», in Stvdia Asiatica 1 (2000), fasc. 1-2, p. 209-234.
• «The Unpublished Correspondence between Mircea Eliade and Stig Wikander (1948-1977) - 2^nd Part», in Archaeus. Études d’histoire des religions 4 (2000), fasc. 4, p. 179-211 (avec Eugen Ciurtin).
• «The Unpublished Correspondence between Mircea Eliade and Stig Wikander (1948-1977) - 1^st Part», in Archaeus. Études d’histoire des religions 4 (2000), fasc. 3, p. 157-185 (avec Eugen Ciurtin).
• «Un problème de l’eschatologie iranienne: daēnā», in Archaeus. Études d’histoire des religions 4 (2000), fasc. 1-2, p. 179-209

BUCHBESPRECHUNGEN

• The Definitive Zoroastrian Critique of Islam. Chapters 11-12 of the Škand gumānīg wizār by Mardānfarrox son of Ohrmazddād. Translated with commentary by Christian C. Sahner, Liverpool University Press, 2023, in Iran and the Caucasus (forthcoming; submitted) (English). 
•  D. G. Tor, Minoru Inaba (eds), The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia, from the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Period, Notre Dame – Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, 1922, 350 pages., in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 100.4 (2025), p. 1213-1215 (English).  
•  À la recherche de la continuité iranienne de la tradition zoroastrienne à la mystique islamique. Recueil de textes autour de l’œuvre de Marijan Molé, réunis par Samra Azarnouche, Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, 334 p. (Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études. Sciences religieuses 193), in Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques 39 (2025) (French). 
• Jenny Rose, Zoroastrianism. An Introduction, London – New York, I. B. Tauris, 2011, Studia Iranica 42 (2013), fasc. 2, p. 303-310.
• Scholars & Humanists. Iranian Studies in Henning and Taqizadeh Correspondence 1937-1966. Introduced and documented by Iraj Afshar. Documented with and introduction by Touraj Daryaee, in collaboration with Pantea Ranjbar Mohammadi, Costa Mesa – California, Mazda Publishers Inc., 2009, in Archaeus 16 (2012), p. 331-336.
• Alan W. Williams, The Zoroastrian Myth of Migration from Iran and Settlement in the Indian Diaspora. Text, Translation, and Analysis of the 16th Century Qesse-ye Sanjan – ‘The Story of Sanjan’, Numen Book Series, Studies in the History of Religions, vol. 124, Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2009, published in Journal Asiatique 299.1 (2011) : 465-472.
• Andrei Oişteanu, Religie, politică şi mit. Texte despre Mircea Eliade şi Ioan Petru Culianu. Biblioteca Ioan Petru Culianu, Iaşi, Polirom, 2007 », in Archaeus. Studies in the History of Religions 11-12 (2007-2008) = Actes du 6^e Congrès de l’EASR / Conférence spéciale de l’IAHR. « Histoire religieuse de l’Europe et de l’Asie, Bucarest 20-23 septembre 2006. Section IX. Religions & Modernité et autres contributions, vol. 1 », p. 383-389.
• Ph. J. Godrej, F. P. Mistree (eds.), A Zoroastrian Tapestry. Art, Religion and Culture, Ahmedabad, 2002 (762 p.), in Studia Asiatica 7 (2006), no. 1, p. 207-220.
• Aryeh Graboïs, Le pèlerin occidental en Terre sainte au Moyen Âge, De Boeck Université, Paris-Bruxelles, 1998, Archaeus 8 (2004), fasc. 1-4, p. 436-438.
• La geste d’Ardashir fils de Pâbag. Karnamag i Ardaxsher i Pabagan, introduction et traduction du pehlevi par Frantz Grenet, éditions A Die, 2003, 136 p, 12 pl., Archaeus 7 (2003), fasc. 3-4, p. 318-322.
• Stefan Arvidsson, Ariska idoler. Den indoeuropeiska mytologin som ideologi och vetenskap, Stockholm, Brutus Ostlings Bokförlag Symposium, 2000, Archaeus 6 (2002), fasc. 3-4, p. 465-466.
• Rika Gyselen (éd.), Démons et merveilles, coll. Res Orientales XIII, Paris, diff. De Boccard, 2001, Archaeus 6 (2002), fasc. 3-4, p. 432-436.
• Sabine Schmidtke (éd.), Correspondance Corbin - Ivanow. Lettres échangées entre Henry Corbin et Vladimir Ivanow de 1947 à 1966, Paris, diff. Peeters, 1999, Archaeus 6 (2002), fasc. 3-4, p. 450-453.
• Iris Colditz, Sozialterminologie der iranischen Manichäer, Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden, 2000, Archaeus 6 (2000), fasc. 4, p. 248-253.
• Constantin Petolescu, Inscriptions externes concernant l’histoire de la Dacie (II), Editura Enciclopedica, Bucuresti 2000, Archaeus 4 (2000), fasc. 3, p. 275-277.
• Rolf Krauss, Astronomische Konzepte und Jenseitsvorstellungen in den Pyramiden Texten, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1997, Archaeus 4 (2000), fasc. 1-2.
• Hervé Campangne, Mythologie et rhétorique au XV^e et XVI^e siècles en France, Louvain 1996, Archaevs 3 (1999), fasc. 2.
• Daniel Dubuisson, Anthropologie poétique, Presses Universitaires de Lille 1996, Archaevs 2 (1998), fasc. 2 - 3 (1999), fasc. 1.
• (2008-2011) Bibliographische Notizen für Abstracta Iranica.