Lecture | LUCIS What's New?! Series
On the Question of the Islamic Influence on Familial Notions in Late Medieval Zoroastrianism
- Date
- Thursday 20 February 2020
- Time
- Explanation
- Free to visit, drinks after
- Series
- What's New?! Spring Lecture Series
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.48
After cautioning against the theological uses of the influence discourse in the studies of Zoroastrianism and Islam by providing two relevant examples, this presentation proceeds to investigate the extent of Islamic influence, or more precisely medieval Perso-Islamic culture, on late medieval Zoroastrian notions of the family. This is conducted through the close reading and analysis of pertinent passages in two letters exchanged between Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrians in 1478 and 1480/86 A.D. It is argued that notions of the family in Iranian priests’ discourse remained more connected to ‘classical Zoroastrianism’, while the actual social situation reveals more evidence of Zoroastrian communities contact with their wider Islamic and Hindu environments.
About Kiyan Foroutan
Kiyan Foroutan is a PhD candidate in the Center for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR) at Leiden University. His dissertation is titled “Zoroastrian Family in pre-Modern India and Iran: Identity Maintenance in Minority Settings.” The project has been supported by Gerda Henkel Stiftung and Zartoshty Brothers Fund for Zoroastrian Studies. He has done extensive archival and ethnographic research on Persian and Pahlavi Zoroastrian manuscripts in Indian libraries and modern Parsi community