The "Archival Impulse" conference organised by Ulfat Abdurasulov and Paolo Sartori at the IFI and Jan Hennings at Central European University, thus aims at examining how archives have grown with imperial expansion from the 15th to 19th centuries. Find out more at: www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veransta...
02.03.2026 16:45 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0From the 16th century states invested in knowledge production resulting in new archival regimes - but much of this knowledge was not put to governmental service, was never exploited, or was simply ignored. If that knowledge is not a utilised tool of power, then what is it and what is its function?
02.03.2026 16:45 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Programme cover for "The Archival Impulse: Knowledge Production, Record Keeping, and Imperial Governance (15th-19th Centuries)", an event running from 18th-20th March 2026.
Program for the "Archival Impulse" conference, 18-20 March. Keynote on day 1 on concepts of archival completeness by Randolph C. Head: day 2 includes panels on appropriation & mobility, archives and fictions of governance, nad a second keynote on interdisciplinary perspectives. Day 3 has panels on documentation and archival legacies, and on documentary regimes and diplomatic impulses. Each panel has an associated open discussion. Case studies include re-circulation of Ottoman documents in Europe, the archives of Ivan the Terrible, Archival knowledge in 19th century Nepal, Mughal chancery records, and archival reconstructions of the 1718 Congress of Passarowitz.
Upcoming conference!
European imperial expansion has long been a focal point for historians, but only more recently that have scholars begun to systematically question colonial knowledge production and rethink bureaucracy as an instrument of governance:
#History #Archives #Knowledge #Imperialism
Coming up this evening!
27.02.2026 09:07 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Today's lecture is by Prof. Marcus Milwright (University of York), entitled: "Encircling Inscriptions in Early Persian Architecture: Thoughts on Moving, Reading, and Looking".
More information about this and future lectures:
persianmanuscripts.org/2026-2/
#IranianStudies #Iran #Persian #History
Lecture poster for the PMA talk series lecture "Encircling Inscriptions in Early Persian Architecture: Thoughts on Moving, Reading, and Looking" by Prof. Marcus Milwright (University of York). 26 February 2026, 6 โ 7.30 pm (CET). Zoom registration is available. The lecture poster shows a large round tower or dome with intricate detailing on the yellowish outer stonework.
Lecture coming up TODAY in just under three hours! This is organised by the Persian Manuscripts Association, who from March will be joining with our NoMansLand Webinar Series to co-organise a series of online lectures for the rest of 2026.
Register to join at:
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Starting very soon with our Friday evening workshop session! Looking forward to an exciting weekend with everyone :)
20.02.2026 18:09 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 2 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
A recent interview with the IFI's Dr. Robert Steele regarding the protests in #Iran - do have a read (in German):
www.oeaw.ac.at/news/protest...
#IranProtests #IranianStudies
On February 19, at CEU, our Dr. Polina Ivanova will be giving a talk on how we write the histories of the absences of destroyed heritage, looking at the Ottoman history of Amasya. It will be in hybrid format - do join us for it!
events.ceu.edu/2026-02-19/w...
#Armenia #Turkey #History #Ottoman
The IFI's @sasanianshah.bsky.social contributed to this segment on the recent Iran protests - have a listen and stay informed on the situation:
oe1.orf.at/player/20260...
(In German)
#Iran #IranianStudies
Vienna Winter Caucasiology Meetup Weโre having another meetup! This is the third meetup of Caucasiologists across Viennese academic and knowledge-sector institutions that weโve run. It being winter, weโre once again going to have a cosy indoor meetup to discuss work and meet friends and colleagues over a coffee or drink. If youโre someone working on or from the Caucasus and youโre in Vienna on February 27th, weโd love to see you there! When: Friday, February 27th, 2026: 17:30-20:30pm Where: Cafรฉ Merkur, in the 8th district. Open to: All academics at any level, working on or from the broadly defined Caucasus region (including the North Caucasus, South Caucasus, and Subcaucasus). Interested friends in adjacent non-academic work and academic fields whoโd like to come along are also all very welcome! Contact: james.baillie@oeaw.ac.at โ there is no obligation to โregisterโ or similar but itโd be good to have an advance idea of numbers, and weโre happy to answer any queries.
Our Caucasus research group is having another meetup - Caucasus and Caucasus-adjacent scholars across all Vienna institutions are very welcome!
Details below:
Event tomorrow on Prepositional Compounds in Avestan and Old Persian - this is an in-person guest lecture, if you're in Vienna tomorrow morning then please do come and join us!
www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veransta...
New post on our blog!
The term sรกgaris (ฯฮฌฮณฮฑฯฮนฯ) is used in classical sources for a specific weapon type attributed to the Scythians. But what was this weapon, and why this word? In the latest Tigris to Talas blogpost Hanna Vertiienko goes in search of answers:
www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/blog/...
Poster for the Chagatai Manuscript Reading Course, organised by Philip Bockholt and Jeanine Dagyeli. It is aimed at building up to an advanced level for reading Chagatai manuscripts. The reading course will be at the University of Munster from 29 June to 3 July 2026. It is on-site only. The lecturers will be Jeanine Daฤyeli (Vienna), Lรกszlรณ Kรกroly (Uppsala), Benedek Pรฉri (Budapest), Eric Schluessel (Oxford) and Marc Toutant (Paris). Being renowned specialists in their respective fields, they will introduce participants to a variety of literary genres and texts, including poetry, historiography, craft treatises, and medicine.
Page two of the poster for the Chagatai Manuscript Reading Course, organised by Philip Bockholt and Jeanine Dagyeli. Eligibility for the course will be to participants of any relevant discipline and career level with a focus on Central Asia, Afghanistan and Northwestern China. Participants are required to have intermediate level Chagatai and the ability to read Arabo-Persian script without relying on latinisation. The programme will be conducted in English with 20 places available. To apply, send your application to translapt@uni-muenster.de in a single PDF file before 13.02.2026. The PDF file, titled with the applicantโs surname, should consist of a letter of interest (max. one page) and a CV, including a statement on the applicantโs proficiency in Chagatai and on how the Summer Academy would support their academic development. Applicants will be informed by 02.03.2026. Pending funding decisions, a limited number of full or partial travel grants will be available upon justified request. For further questions, please contact us at the email address translapt@uni-muenster.de.
Forthcoming: a Chagatai Manuscript Reading Course! Jeanine Dagyeli is leading this effort along with Philip Bockholt from the University of Munster. It is aimed at building scholars up to an advanced level for reading Chagatai manuscripts.
Details below:
#CentralAsia #Chagatai #Manuscripts
Our next hybrid lecture is "Sufi Teaching in the Margins: Ritual, Pedagogy, and Intertextuality in a Kubrawi Manuscript from 15th C. Badakhshan" by Bruno de Nicola!
The lecture is tomorrow, 17:00-18:30 Central European Time: more details at www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veransta...
The event will be in person from January 15-17, at the Postsparkasse building in Vienna.
More details here: www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/veran...
Poster for the Second European Round Table on Modern Persian Literature, 15-17 January 2026, SR1, Postsparkasse, 1010 Wien. The poster has a statue in the middle, the logo of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the top and those of the Soudavar Memorial Foundation and UNSW Sydney at the bottom. The colour strip of the Academy (dark blue) is on the top left, and those of the Institute for Iranian Studies (Green and Yellow) are on the bottom right of the poster.
Forthcoming event!
We're soon hosting the Second European Round Table on Modern Persian Literature, co-organised by the University of New South Wales and with generous support from the Soudavar Memorial Foundation, Geneva.
#Iran #Literature #Persian #PersianLiterature #IranianStudies
You can join, without pre-registration, at the zoom link: univienna.zoom.us/j/6529599561...
See you there!
In this talk, our own Dr. Polina Ivanova will look at how Armenian manuscript writing changed as the upheavals of the C16-17 Safavid-Ottoman wars and Celali revolts displaced and restructured Armenian society, refocusing book production away from monastic and towards merchant parts of society.
16.12.2025 14:37 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Poster for Polina Ivanova's talk "Scribes without Scriptoria - Towards A Social History of Armenian Manuscript-Making in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire."
Tomorrow (Dec 17) at 5pm Central European Time, please join us for a talk on Armenian manuscript-making in the Ottoman Empire, another of our webinars on premodern manuscripts from the Islamic world!
16.12.2025 14:37 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
This talk uses the C16-C21st qanats of the Varamin plain as a case study: combining source reading and aerial remote sensing data, we can trace these systems and look at their ecological, social and political impacts.
The talk will be at 4pm CET. Register here:
univienna.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
This Friday we will be having a talk by Fabian Sarga of the Fre University of Berlin, who will be talking about how qanat irrigation systems shaped the landscape - and how the landscape shaped them - in Iran!
26.11.2025 09:00 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Our @sasanianshah.bsky.social will be doing some invited lectures at the University of Lille in the coming weeks!
The topic is "The Orientโs East: Iran and Eurasia in the First Millennium CE" and three of the lectures will be available online with registration here: framaforms.org/the-orients-...
Our next @nomaland.bsky.social lecture will be tomorrow on the topic of Preaching, Books, and Community in Ottoman Hungary, by Prof. Tijana Krstiฤ!
Details available here:
www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/veransta...
Vienna Autumn Caucasiology Meetup Weโre having another meetup! After our successful picnic event in summer, weโre going to have a late October gathering in the 8th district, and we look forward to seeing you there. The meetup is again organised by the Caucasus research group at the Institute for Iranian Studies of the Academy of Sciences: with these meetings we aim to improve networking and communication among researchers in Vienna who are approaching the Caucasus region from a wide range of different fields and angles. This is a casual meetup, do turn up at any point during the times below and weโll be very happy to see you. When: Saturday, October 25, 2025: 17:30-20:30pm Where: Cafรฉ Merkur, in the 8th district. Open to: All academics at any level working on or from the broadly defined Caucasus region (including the North Caucasus, South Caucasus, and Subcaucasus). Interested friends in adjacent non-academic work and academic fields whoโd like to come along are also all very welcome! Contact: james.baillie@oeaw.ac.at โ there is no obligation to โregisterโ or similar but itโd be good to have an advance idea of numbers, and weโre happy to answer any queries.
Our Caucasus research group is organising an October meetup! If you're based around Vienna and working on Caucasus studies of some kind, we'd love to see you there :)
09.10.2025 11:40 โ ๐ 4 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Lecture by Dr. Sacha Alsancakli on "The Ottoman reception of the Nuzhat al-Qulลซb (c.1340)" at the @nomaland.bsky.social Webinar. Watch it here:
youtube.com/watch?v=MOqk...
@oeaw.bsky.social @fwf-at.bsky.social
@iranianstudies.bsky.social @translapt.bsky.social
@sachaalsancakli.bsky.social
A young woman looking at the camera. She is white, with mouse-blonde hair, and her head is tilted towards the viewer with her right hand touching her chin: there is a bright window behind her.
New faces at the IFI for the new academic year!
Ilona Chmilevskia joins us as a pre-doctoral researcher working with Shamil Shikhaliev to study the transformation of Islamic juridical systems in the eastern Caucasus under the Russian Empire. Welcome to Ilona!
We have an open position for a pre-doctoral researcher in Dr. Ariane Sadjed's "Persian Jews โ History, Community, Memory" team, looking at the Jewish communities of central Asia.
See here for job profile and other details: applications must be in by October 1st.
www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=pp87...
Here we seek to take a non-Eurocentric perspective and bring together scholars specialising in different parts of Asia to question these narratives and provide alternative perspectives on how, and whether, we should see non-European cultures as in a comparative decline in the early modern period.
09.09.2025 09:41 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0