Arash Zeini

Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, has been sending a book every two weeks to Canada’s Prime Minister since April 16, 2007. A visit to Canada’s House of Commons on March 28th, 2007 and the first hand experience with politicians inspired him to this wonderful project. He writes:

For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website.

What an interesting way for an artist to communicate with a politician. (I realise that we may not be able to call this a communication due to a lack of response and feedback from Mr Harper! What a pity).

Read more here: What is Stephen Harper reading?

Washingtonpost.com has a multimedia-like feature on Zoroastrians in Iran. A quick scan of the first page does not reveal any date for the feature, but I think it could be from the year 2000 or so. It is available in an HTML and a flash version. I did not have the time to go through it myself but decided to post the link here. Enjoy it:

Among the Zoroastrians - Washingtonpost.com

Following the invasion of Iraq statements like this have appeared all over the Internet:

As a minority in Muslim societies, the Kurds often tell their children that Islam was forced on them by Arab conquerors. In recent years, many have returned to the original religion of Zoroastrianism, a condition that suggests a greater ethnic rather than religious identification. [1]

I wonder what the background to this is? Since Zoroastrianism is a non-proselytising religion and conversion numbers as one of the most heated debates within the Zoroastrian community, it is unlikely that official conversions take place among the Kurds. The recent and ongoing conflicts between the Yazidis and Muslims demonstrate that the current sectarian climate in Iraq is near boiling point, and that conversion carries grave repercussions and is thus virtually unthinkable. As the title of this particular post suggests, all these statements seem to be politically motivated. Now, I do not understand politics, nor do I desire to understand or analyse politics. I only wonder, if it is true that conversions take place, who is the religious authority that converts these “many” Kurds who “have returned to the original religion of Zoroastrianism”? In which part of Kurdistan do the conversions take place? What are the numbers of people converted? Does anyone know? Strange news, isn’t it?

[1]: London: An American alliance with the Kurds?

If you are struggling with Unicode and related fonts, have a look at these sites:

Alan Wood’s Unicode Resources

Gallery of Unicode Fonts

On snot and fonts

The Indologica website offers a comprehensive list of downloadable books. It is a very useful resource if you need older books on indological subjects. While you are there, have a look at these pages too:

Digitale Bücher

Indologica blog

Note: the lecture Programme has been revised

ANCIENT INDIA & IRAN TRUST

Friday Lectures, Easter Term 2008
(5pm, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge)

25 April: Dr Kate Crosby (SOAS)

Pali as a Sacred Language

9 May: Ursula Sims-Williams (British Library)

Reconstructing Provenance, with reference to Central Asian Manuscript Collections

23 May: Film screening, introduced by Rastin Mehri (SOAS)

Zoroastrians in British Columbia: Performance and Identity (45 mins)

13 June: Professor Prods Oktor Skjærvø (Harvard University)

Unveiling the Past: How the Old Iranian Scripts were Deciphered

After having spent some time on Professor Skjærvø’s article on orality in the study of Old Iranian literature, I look forward to his lecture.

Wendy Doniger has reviewed West’s Indo-European Poetry and Myth in the London Review of Books. Admittedly, I am not too familiar with her work, but I have the impression that she is a gifted writer besides being an incredible scholar of religions. This review is no exception and is a wonderful piece of writing on a very useful book. Be sure not to miss the section on Concepts of poetry in the first chapter of West’s book.
Doniger sums up her review with these words:

In the light of this insight, anything that occurs throughout the Indo-European world is Indo-European, whether or not the Indo-European speakers borrowed it from or lent it to some other cultures. All that is unique is the linguistic structure. And that world of words and stories is beautifully laid out for us in this important book.

Bibliographical data:

West, M. (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. , 480. Oxford University Press.
Link to review:

LRB · Wendy Doniger: The Land East of the Asterisk