Part two of the Proceedings of the Third European Conference of Iranian Studies contains 34 papers in English, French and German, arranged thematically in five sections. The first, Linguistic studies, ranges from the New Persian names in the Shahnama to the use of the particle in modern Tajik. Nine papers grouped under the heading Literary studies deal not only with classical Persian poetry, but also with modern prose literature and the oral traditions of the Bakhtiyari and of Baluchistan and Badakhshan. A similar chronological and topical spread is found in the section on Religion and religious literature, with investigations of mediaeval and modern biographical works, a study of documents connected with the Passion of Husayn, and papers on sufi literature. The section on history covers a range of topics from the Mongol period to the 1950s and events in Central Asia and Afghanistan as well as Iran. Finally, four attractively illustrated articles on Ottoman and Persian miniatures, painting in Central Asia, Kubachi-ware and the decorations on the Haydariyya mosque in Qazvin round off a varied and stumulating set of contributions, which highlight the richness and diversity of Persian culture in the mediaeval and modern period. The volume also testifies to the vigour of Persian studies in Europe, which the Societas Iranologica Europaea has assisted to promote through its four-yearly conferences. There is something in this volume to attract all students of Persian civilisation.

Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia and been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others. Yet Persian literature has never received the attention it truly deserves."A History of Persian Literature" answers this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This 18-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian experience.The main object of this companion volume is to provide an overview of the most important extant literary sources in Old and Middle Iranian languages - the languages of the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian periods culminating in the rich resource of Pahlavi Persian which fed so directly into the language of the later great Persian poets. It will be an indispensable source for the literary traditions of pre-Islamic Iran and an invaluable guide to the subject.

Old Tibetan Studies, edited by Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, is an inquiry into secular and religious Old Tibetan documents from Central Asia and Tibet. The volume is written with the intent to confront facts and textualization and contribute to the clarification of particular aspects of the administrative and legislative organization, the ecclesiastical institution, and the religious, monastic, intellectual and material culture of Old Tibet and its borderlands. The material is critically examined from different perspectives, focusing on classical disciplines (history, linguistics, lexicography, philology, codicology and diplomatics). With contributions by Roland Bielmeier, Anne Chayet, Helga Uebach, Kazushi Iwao, Siglinde Dietz, Yoshiro Imaeda, Bianca Horlemann, Brandon Dotson,Tsuguhito Takeuchi and Cristina Scherrer-Schaub.

In no region of the world Buddhism can be seen as a unified doctrinal system. It rather consists of a multitude of different ideas, practices and behaviours. Geographical, social, political, economic, philosophical, religious, and also linguistic factors all played their role in its development and spread, but this role was different from region to region. Based on up-to-date research, this book aims at unraveling the complex factors that shaped the presence of particular forms of Buddhism in the regions to the north and the east of India. The result is a fascinating view on the mechanisms that allowed or hampered the presence of (certain aspects of) Buddhism in regions such as Central Asia, China, Tibet, Mongolia, or Korea.

The first encounters between the Islamic world and Tibet took place in the course of the expansion of the Abbasid Empire in the eighth century. Military and political contacts went along with an increasing interest in the other side. Cultural exchanges and the transmission of knowledge were facilitated by a trading network, with musk constituting one of the main trading goods from the Himalayas, largely through India. From the thirteenth century onwards the spread of the Mongol Empire from the Western borders of Europe through Central Asia to China facilitated further exchanges. The significance of these interactions has been long ignored in scholarship. This volume represents a major contribution to the subject, bringing together new studies by an interdisciplinary group of international scholars. They explore for the first time the multi-layered contacts between the Islamic world, Central Asia and the Himalayas from the eighth century until the present day in a variety of fields, including geography, cartography, art history, medicine, history of science and education, literature, hagiography, archaeology, and anthropology.