Arash works on a new edition of the Epistles of Manuščihr, a set of three missives from the ninth century. The letters address the ritual innovations introduced by Manuščihr's brother, Zādspram. Beside a fresh edition of the letters, the habilitation will also look at the historical and religious background of the controversy that caused a rift in the community and between the two brothers.

Published

Benkato, Adam & Arash Zeini (eds.). 2021. The roar of silence: A Festschrift in honour of François de Blois. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 31(3).
Zeini, Arash. 2021. Ritual and ritual text in the Zoroastrian tradition: The extent of Yasna 41. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 31(3). 637–646.
Zeini, Arash. 2020. Zoroastrian scholasticism in late antiquity: The Pahlavi version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia). Edinburgh University Press.
Zeini, Arash. 2018. The king in the mirror of the Zand: Secrecy in Sasanian Iran. In Touraj Daryaee (ed.), Sasanian Iran in the context of late antiquity: The Bahari lecture series at the University of Oxford (Ancient Iran Series 6), 149–162. Jordan Center for Persian Studies.
Zeini, Arash. 2018. Various entries. In Oliver Nicholson (ed.), The Oxford dictionary of late antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(Adurbad-i Mahraspand, Arday Wiraz Namag, Bundahishn, Letter of Tansar,Matigan-i Hazar Datastan, Vendidad, Xwaday Namag, Andarzbad, Astodan, Bahram VI, Beth, Bozorgmihr, Hazarbad, Hormizd II, Hormizd IV, Marzban, Peroz, Qobad II, Spahbad)
Zeini, Arash. 2018. Middle Persian papyri, ostraca and parchments: An introduction. Sasanika Papyrological Studies, No. 1.

Zeini, Arash. 2016. A Unique Pahlavi papyrus from Vienna (P.Pehl. 562). With an introductory note by Dieter Weber. Studia Iranica 45(1). 39–52.
Zeini, Arash. 2015. Preliminary remarks on Middle Persian <nc> in the Pahlavi documents. In Anna Krasnowolska & Renata Rusek-Kowalska (eds.), Studies on the Iranian World I: Before Islam, 67–73. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press.
Zeini, Arash. 2015. Preliminary observations on word order correspondence in the Zand. DABIR 1(1). 31–35.
Zeini, Arash. 2013. ‘The Everlasting Zoroastrian Flame’: An interview with Dr Sarah Stewart. Published at IranWire.com: http://en.iranwire.com/features/3954/
Zeini, Arash (ed.). 2012. The Avestan manuscript Pt4_400 (Iranian Pahlavi Yasna) of the Bodleian Library (Avestan Digital Archive Series 39). Digital Publication.
Zeini, Arash. 2010. Review of Hinnells, John & Alan Williams (eds.): Parsis in India and the Diaspora. Numen 57(2). 258–263.
Zeini, Arash. 2008. Review of A. Cantera: Studien zur Pahlavi-Übersetzung des Avesta. Bibliotheca Orientalis 65(5–6). 785–790.

In Preparation / Press

Zeini, Arash. 2022. Multiple Translation Activities: Translation in Iranian Cultures. In Sonja Brentjes (ed.), Routledge Handbook on Science in Islamicate Societies. Routledge.

Zeini, Arash. Review of Sarah Savant: The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory, and Conversion. For DABIR.
Review of A.C.S. Peacock & D.G. Tor: Medieval Central Asia and the Persianate World: Iranian Tradition and Islamic Civilization. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Review of Juano Ferrer-Losilla: Final –y in Non-Manichaean Parthian and the Proto-Parthian ‘Rhythmic Law’. Journal of the American Oriental Society.
Entries for Encyclopædia Iranica: Niyāyišn, Saddar Nasr, Saddar Bondahešn
Review of Louise Marlow. 2016. Counsel for kings: Wisdom and politics in tenth-century Iran, vol. I & II. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Review of Reza Zia-Ebrahimi. 2016. The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism: Race and the Politics of Dislocation. DABIR.

Lectures

2021 "Is there a Middle Persian epistolary tradition? A survey", Islamicate Manuscripts & Texts Colloquium (IMaT) 2021: Letters, Invisible East, The Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, 30 November 2021.
2020 "From Yasna to Yazišn: On the (in)significance of the ritual in late antique Zoroastrianism", NES 160: Religions of Ancient Iran, University of California, Berkeley, 19 November 2020.
2019 “From Yasna to Yazišn: On the (in)significance of the ritual in late antique Zoroastrianism”, ECIS9, Freie Universität Berlin, 11 September 2019.
2017 “Editing the Pahlavi Yasna”, Editing Avestan Texts in the 21st Centtury: Problems and Perspectives, Freie Universität Berlin, 24 March 2017.
2016 “Capital and Yield: Sasanian Legal Terminology in Religious Context”, Freie Universität Berlin, 16 June 2016.
2014 “Aspects of Zoroastrian Exegesis in the Late Antique Era”, WZO Seminar on Zoroastrian Religion, History and Culture, The World Zoroastrian Organisation, 8 June 2014.
2014 “Secrecy and Canonisation in Sasanian Iran: A Scholastic Reading of the Zand”. Bahari Lecture Series: “Sasanian Iran in the Context of Late Antiquity”, Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity, University of Oxford, 20 May 2014.
2014 Vortragsgsreihe: “Kingship in Ancient Iran”, School of Classics, School of History and Institute of Iranian Studies, University of St Andrews.

“The Return of the Avesta”. 14 May 2014.

“The Sasanian Empire and Religious Authority: The Case of Zoroastrianism”. 07 May 2014.

“Mythical Kings, Empire and Multiculturalism: The Case of the Achaemenids”. 30 April 2014.

Workshops Organised

2014 “Kingship in Ancient Iran: An Interdisciplinary Workshop”. University of St Andrews, June 12–13, 2014.
2014 “Introduction to TEI and oXygen”: An introductory workshop, discussing text encoding and the oXygen XML editor. The Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge, 25 January 2014.

Other relevant Experiences

2015 TEI Simple workshop: Working with TEI Simple and its processing model. University of Oxford, 27 May, 2015.
2015 Founded “Bibliographia Iranica”, a bibliographic blog: www.biblioiranica.info.
2014 Editor at DABIR Online Journal: www.dabirjournal.org
2014 Assistant Editor at De Gruyter Open in Theology and Religious Studies.
2012 Participated in the ‘Fourth Summer School on Pahlavi Papyrology. On the Threshold of Islam: Documents in the Pahlavi Cursive Script’. Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Iranistik, September 24–28, 2012.
2012 Conceptualised and collaborated on a pilot project (SOAS) to investigate the pathway from text encoding to the printing of a critical edition, May–June, 2012.
2010 Participated in the ‘2nd Summer School on Pahlavi Papyrology’. Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO), Rome, September 06–09, 2010.
2010 Participated in the Summer School ‘New Western Iranian and Early Judaeo-Persian Dialectology’. University of Hamburg, Department of Iranian Studies, August 16–27, 2010.
2009 Participated in the first ‘International Summer School in Pahlavi Papyrology’. Austrian National Library, Vienna, September 20–26, 2009.