These seminars will be held in person at INALCO, 65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris 13th arrondissement.
Organizers : Samra Azarnouche (EPHE PSL, CeRMI), Justine Landau (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CeRMI)

Organized by the CeRMI: the [French] Center for Research on the Iranian World (UMR 8041: CNRS – Sorbonne Nouvelle – INALCO – EPHE), this monthly seminar presents recent research on Iran and the Iranian world, from antiquity to the present day. Adopting a “cultural area” approach and a multidisciplinary perspective (linguistics and philology, literature, history, history of religions, art history, social sciences), the seminar features presentations by members of the research unit (researchers, professors, and doctoral students) as well as invited speakers from other academic institutions in France and abroad.

The seminar is designed as a forum for exchange and debate, addressing issues related to the five research axes developed within the CeRMI: Production, Writing, and Exchange; Religious Communities: Texts, Traditions, and Identities; Contemporary States, Territories, and Societies; Literatures and Literary Creation; Languages and Linguistics. The seminar is aimed at doctoral students and researchers working on the Iranian cultural area, and is also open to Master’s students and, more broadly, to anyone interested in these research topics.
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The Calendar

+ Thursday, October 24, 2024, Paris, Inalco, Room 4.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Marc Toutant (CNRS/CETOBaC)

Le Tuḥfat al-ṭālibīn, a Mongolian grammar of Eastern Turkish: Philological, Cultural, and Political Teachings.

+ Thursday, November 14, 2024, Room 4.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Mohammad-Ali Amir-Moezzi (École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL)

Persian Mystical Poetry and Spiritual Exercises.

+ Thursday, December 12, 2024, Room 4.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Muriel Debié (École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL)

The Acculturation of Alexander the Great in Late Antiquity and the Beginnings of Islam.

+ Thursday, January 9, 2025, Room 3.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Nader Sohrabi (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen – Max Planck Institute)

Iran’s Constitutional History from Below: Petitions, Taxes, and Democratization (1906-1911)

+ Thursday, January 30, 2025, Room 4.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Jeffrey Kotyk (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)

Alternative Views on Sasanian History: Contemporary Chinese Accounts of Persia.

+ Thursday, February 20, 2025, Room 4.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Eva Zahiri (EPHE/GSRL – Science Po)

For an Islamic Law of Our Time: The Renewal of Legal Thought in Iran.

+ Thursday, March 13, 2025, Room 4.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Nima Asefi (Associate researcher – Universität Hamburg)

Central Iran during the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods: A Study Based on the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijān and the Tārīkh-e Qom.

+ Thursday, April 10, 2025, Room 4.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Pavel Lurje (Hermitage Museum)

Sogdian Documents from Mount Mugh: Historical, Archaeological, Administrative and Economic Geographies of Central Asia at the Eve of Islamization.

+ Thursday, May 15, 2025, Room 3.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Austin O’Malley (University of Chicago)

Mixtapes and Local Jams: Selection and Regionality in the Nozhat al-majāles, an Early Collection of Persian Quatrains.

+ Thursday, June 5, 2025, Room 3.15 (5 PM – 7 PM)
Alessandra Fiorentini (EHESS/CNRS LAP)

The Cult of the Lady of Tuesday in the Contemporary Iranian World.