Ancient India & Iran Trust
@indiairantrust.bsky.social
The Ancient India & Iran Trust is an independent charity in Cambridge, UK, promoting the study of the archaeology, art, religions and languages of early India, Iran & Central Asia https://www.indiran.org/
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/david-str... available to view in the Trust library - AIIT.a.3113 - bit.ly/4yRnfRH
David Stronach and British Archaeology in the Middle East
Drawn from interviews conducted between 2007 and 2020, this account of the life of renowned archaeologist and former director of the British Institute of Persia…
bloomsbury.com
Two unpublished Bactrian documents Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2026. Two unpublished Bactrian documents in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Bulletin of SOAS FirstView. 1–8. Bactrian, the principal written language of pre-Islamic Afghanistan, was little known until the early 1990s, when more than 150…
Two unpublished Bactrian documents
Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2026. Two unpublished Bactrian documents in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Bulletin of SOAS FirstView. 1–8. Bactrian, the principal written language of pre-Islamic Afghanistan, was little known until the early 1990s, when more than 150 contracts, economic documents and letters, together with a few Buddhist texts, were acquired by collectors. Most of these were published by Nicholas Sims-Williams between 2001 and 2012 in three volumes entitled Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan.
biblioiranica.info
On 6 June, you are warmly invited to join us for a special afternoon at the @indiairantrust.bsky.social in Cambridge. This event forms part of a new series dedicated to exploring Armenian manuscripts and material heritage in lesser-known UK collections. Book now: www.eventbrite.com/e/armenian-h...
Armenian Heritage at our Doorstep: Exploring UK Collections
You are warmly invited to join us for a special afternoon at the Ancient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge.
eventbrite.com
Looking forward to our lecture by Sandra Mason tomorrow: 'How Eastern Thinking Influenced Western Culture: The Story of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám' mailchi.mp/c9a17a65cc50... All welcome!
Our lectures for Easter Term begin on Friday 8 May. We hope you can join us. mailchi.mp/1e5ac74a9715...
Looking forward our lecture this Friday by Masoud Mohammadirad on The Documentation of Hewramî. We hope you can join us. mailchi.mp/1dbad950d810...
AIIT trustee Prof. Sam Lieu will be speaking on 'Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire’ at the CLANS (Cambridge Late Antique Network Seminar) seminar on 5 February 2026, 5–6:30pm, Classics Room 1.04, Faculty of Classics, Cambridge. All welcome. For enquiries, please email clans@classics.cam.ac.uk
Looking forward to our Lent Term lectures, starting on 30 January. Hope to see you there. mailchi.mp/22f94d21d889...
Looking forward to our lecture this Friday by Arash Zeini, University of Oxford: Navigating Zoroastrian Communal Identity in the Early Islamic Era We hope you can join us. mailchi.mp/40a06087be68...
1: On Friday, 28 November, I will be speaking about the 'Epistles of Manuščihr' (881 CE) and their early Islamic context at @indiairantrust.bsky.social: "Navigating Zoroastrian Communal Identity in the Early Islamic Era" mailchi.mp/869594076c33... Abstract: The Abbāsid Caliphate came to power
Man, Landscape, and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran Cereti, Carlo Giovanni, Pierfrancesco Callieri & Vito Messina (eds.). 2025. Eranshahr. Man, Landscape, and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran (Collana Convegni 75). Rome: Sapienza Università Editrice. This fourth volume of the Atlas of the…
Man, Landscape, and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran
Cereti, Carlo Giovanni, Pierfrancesco Callieri & Vito Messina (eds.). 2025. Eranshahr. Man, Landscape, and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran (Collana Convegni 75). Rome: Sapienza Università Editrice. This fourth volume of the Atlas of the Ancient Near East (OCAVOA) collects 15 contributions by members of the three Units composing the PRIN 2017 ‘Eranshahr: Man Landscape and Society in Arsacid and Sasanian Iran.
biblioiranica.info
Latest blogpost on an interesting item in our Archives - a dinner menu for the 1889 International Congress of Orientalists. Check out how iconic dishes around the globe are celebrated in different ancient and modern Asian languages! royalasiaticsociety.org/language-and...
Language and Culinary Culture – Dinner Menu for International Congress of Orientalists
Some time ago, a researcher visited us to consult the papers of the International Congress of Orientalists held in our collections. Although these papers are classified as part of our institutional ar...
royalasiaticsociety.org
17 October - Indian classical music at West Road Concert Hall to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Lucy Cavendish College www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/events/arpan
Arpan
The Cambridge Indian Classical Music Community presents Arpan, a concert dedicated to Lucy Cavendish College's mission.
lucy.cam.ac.uk
@timesofindianews.bsky.social columnist Bachi Karkaria on her recent visit to the Trust: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/errati...
Strawberries and scholarship
India and Iran converge again in Cambridge The temptation was strawberries, but I savoured learning’s creamy layer. In 1998, I’d interviewed Richard Blurton — yes with an ‘l’ – when, as director of B...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Congratulations to our trustee Prof Cameron Petrie on his appointment as Head of the Department of Archaeology at Cambridge University.
Cambridge Archaeology@cam-archaeology.bsky.social · last yr.The Department of Archaeology is pleased to announce the appointment of Prof Cameron Petrie as the next Head of Department. Prof Petrie succeeds the outgoing Head of Department, Dr Tamsin O’Connell, as from 1 July 2025. 👉 www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/new-hea...
Our visiting scholar Professor MB Rajani is presenting "Uncovering Mughal Agra: Riverfront Gardens, City Walls, and Urban Transformations through Remote Sensing and GIS" next week. Please come along to the McDonald Institute if you are in Cambridge or via Zoom 👇 cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Our lecture this Friday is now a hybrid event. Join us in person or online: mailchi.mp/e3e11f261cb2...
Sir Harold Bailey on film at the Trust - a lovely little section from a 1985 documentary has just come to our attention. www.indiran.org/sir-harold-b...
Cambridge Nahoft will be performing at Trinity College Chapel on Monday 31 March. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/smoke-of-i...
Smoke of Incense
Persian Classical Music Concert
eventbrite.co.uk
Spaces are available for our Cambridge festival talk on Friday 21 March: 'New Epigraphic Discoveries from Ancient Bactria'by our Chair, Professor Nicholas Sims-Willaims www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/new-e... To book your place, email info@indiran.org @cambridgefestival.bsky.social
Education for all? Lessons from the South Bank to Georgia State, Rt Hon Simon Hughes. The Professor John Hinnells Memorial Lecture Tue 4 Mar 5.30pm-6:30pm The Auditorium, Robinson What can help Cambridge, Russell Group and all universities in England do better? shorturl.at/qHIzF
Looking forward to our lecture this Friday by Professor Douglas Hedley: 'The Romantic Appropriation of India'. All welcome. mailchi.mp/733d4f6d743d...
The latest edition of our newsletter, Indiran, is now available online www.indiran.org/about/trust-...
We have two in-person Friday lectures this term, on 21 February and 7 March, as well as a talk for Friends of the Trust this Friday. We hope you can join us. mailchi.mp/8019b6ae63ce...
Happy New Year for 2025. Our first blogpost of the year starts with the sad news of long-term Member, Michael Loewe but also highlights news from the Royal Asiatic Society of Georgia: royalasiaticsociety.org/happy-new-ye...
