Andrea Piras | Università di Bologna (original) (raw)

Books by Andrea Piras

A collection of Iranian studies edited by the Iranological team of the University of Bologna, bra... more A collection of Iranian studies edited by the Iranological team of the University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna

Traduzione di: H. Taqizadeh, Māni va din-e u. A cura di Simone Cristoforetti e Andrea Piras. P... more Traduzione di:
H. Taqizadeh, Māni va din-e u.
A cura di Simone Cristoforetti e Andrea Piras. Postfazione di Antonio Panaino.
Indo-iranica et Orientalia Series Lazur, Vol. 21 (Rara Orientalia, 4), 198 pp., Milano: Mimesis.

Indo-Iranica et Orientalia, Series Lazur, 2019

selected essays of Iranian cultural history

Selected essays on Iranian subjects dealing with philology, linguistic, cultural studies, literat... more Selected essays on Iranian subjects dealing with philology, linguistic, cultural studies, literature, ethnology and anthropology, art, numismatic, history of religions (Mazdeism, Manichaeism, Mazdakism, Hinduism, Islam, Kurdish beliefs, Yaghnobi folklore)

Quaderni di Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, Morcelliana, 2018

Pubblicazione del volume che raccoglie e integra i contributi più originali proposti in occasione... more Pubblicazione del volume che raccoglie e integra i contributi più originali proposti in occasione dell'incontro su Esperienze e tecniche dell'estasi tra Oriente e Occidente che si è tenuto a Ravenna nel novembre 2016, a cura di Luigi Canetti e Andrea Piras, nell'ambito delle attività del Laboratorio di storia culturale e religiosa "I lunedì degli Ariani". Un’occasione non consueta per ripensare su basi storico-comparative e metadisciplinari una questione cruciale negli studi storico-religiosi ed etno-antropologici. Studiosi di formazione e sensibilità differenti – classicisti, storici del cristianesimo orientale e occidentale, ebraisti, iranisti, islamologi e americanisti – hanno tentato, secondo i rispettivi linguaggi e punti di osservazione, di esplicitare le categorie analitiche e storiografiche delle ricerche su un obiettivo mobile e sfuggente come quello dell’estasi. Il volume propone anche affondi monografici su contesti specifici e differenziati abbracciando un arco cronologico che va dal mondo antico al mondo moderno e contemporaneo.

Esperienze e tecniche dell'estasi tra oriente e occidente, 2018

Quaderni di Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni, n. 21. Atti del convegno tenutosi a Rave... more Quaderni di Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni, n. 21. Atti del convegno tenutosi a Ravenna, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, novembre 2016. Mondo tardo-antico e neoplatonismo, manicheismo, zoroastrismo, cristianesimo, giudaismo, sufismo, sciamanesimo nordamericano

Spettri, entità e fantasmi evocati da sacerdoti, da maghi o da figli in lutto; oggetti di culto e... more Spettri, entità e fantasmi evocati da sacerdoti, da maghi o da figli in lutto; oggetti di culto e formule magiche recitate sulle tombe o in luoghi sacri; ombre che appaiono improvvisamente ai vivi; lemuri inquieti di corpi insepolti che tornano in sogno per raccontare la tragica storia della loro morte violenta; scene infernali di uccisioni efferate che popolano boschi infestati, dove sembra più sottile il confine tra reale e irreale: monito ai vivi perché la loro condotta rimanga integerrima.
Fantasmi e apparizioni popolano libri sacri e antiche leggende e ci rivelano alcune verità, nell’eterno oscillare ‘da’ e ‘verso’ un Altrove variamente immaginato. Questo libro tratta degli spettri e di coloro a cui essi sono ancora legati; di rituali descritti in altissime testimonianze letterarie dalla Bibbia al Decameron; di storie al confine tra fantasia dell’autore e archetipi culturali e religiosi: modi di pensare la morte, l’anima, l’Aldilà che rivelano nell’uomo quella scintilla di divino, posta fuori dal tempo e dallo spazio fisici, che trova una sua esistenza nel tempo e nello spazio letterari.

A brief history of the Manichaean religion, in three chapters: the life of Mani and the spread of... more A brief history of the Manichaean religion, in three chapters: the life of Mani and the spread of his Church; the doctrine (cosmogony, mythology, anthropology, eschatology etc.); influences and echoes from Middle Age to contemporary age

A study concerning the writings and the art of book in Manichaeism, with special attention to the... more A study concerning the writings and the art of book in Manichaeism, with special attention to the use of drawings and pictures as a medium of communication and teaching, with the aim to explain the cosmological doctrine of Mani

study of a well-known text of the Zoroastrian individual eschatology, with a detailed comparaison... more study of a well-known text of the Zoroastrian individual eschatology, with a detailed comparaison with further Avestan (Widewdad, Wishtasp Yasht) and Pahlavi texts (Arda Wiraz Namag, Dadestan i Denig, Menog i Xrad) and considering the funerary ideology and souls-conceptions within the Iranian tradition

plan of the work of the previous issues (2003 and 2006) and front page of the third volume (2008)... more plan of the work of the previous issues (2003 and 2006) and front page of the third volume (2008). Manichaean texts edited, translated and commented by a team of philologists (Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Uighur, Chinese, Parthian, Sogdian, Middle Persian). Edited by Gherardo Gnoli and Andrea Piras. Introductions by G. Gnoli (volume I and II), selection of Greek (Alexander of Lycopolis; Acta Archelai) and Latin texts (Augustine) by A. Piras

Papers by Andrea Piras

Scienza, filosofia e letteratura nel mondo iranico. Da Gundishapur ai giorni nostri, 2024

An essay on minerals and mineralogy in ancient Iranian culture, between science and symbolism, op... more An essay on minerals and mineralogy in ancient Iranian culture, between science and symbolism, optical and divination tools

Annali di Ca'Foscari, sezione orientale, 2024

The present contribution deals with an inquiry about Iranian Manichaean texts (Middle Persian and... more The present contribution deals with an inquiry about Iranian Manichaean texts (Middle Persian and Parthian) concerning the description of the garden and its symbolic values (of peace, rest, evergreen flowery, fragrance, immortality). The aim of the essay is to provide a sketch of Iranian Manichaean passages to improve the already mentioned hypothesis of a pre-Islamic influence on the Persian literature at the foundation of its imagery, which displays the motif of the garden as a characteristic mark of poetic inspiration to feature beauty, love, mystical feeling and desire for paradisiac condition.

Simorgh. Trenta interviste con iranisti italiani, 2022

an interview in a volume dedicated to the Italian scholarship of Iranology

Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie orientale, vol. 59, 2023

The present essay aims at elucidating the imagery of the New Persian fragment in Manichaean scrip... more The present essay aims at elucidating the imagery of the New Persian fragment in Manichaean script M 786, dealing with the lament of the Anima Viva entrapped in the material world. The poetical text is a remarkable sample of the Manichaean language and its strategy of literary concealing, by means of Islamic and Crypto-Manichaean mixed expressions, such as the 'Ḏulfaqār of Intellect', which is related (I suggest) to the Living Spirit. Within this fragment, a series of funerary terminologies have also been employed, denoting the captivity of the Soul into the Matter, to describe the pain of the human existence and the yearning for salvation, provided by the gods.

Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei, 14, 2022

A survey of Avestan and Middle Persian texts concerning otherworldly journeys: the goddess Aši an... more A survey of Avestan and Middle Persian texts concerning otherworldly journeys: the goddess Aši and her chariot; Pāurva and Anāhitā; Kirdīr and Wirāz

Manichaica Taurinensia (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum: Analecta Manichaica II), 2022

The “Discourse of the Living Soul” is a renowned verse-cycle text dedicated to the Light impriso... more The “Discourse of the Living Soul” is a renowned verse-cycle text dedicated to the Light imprisoned in the material world. Within a monological structure of direct speech, the Soul (Anima Viva) regrets his condition with interrogative laments, among which there is an interesting passage with a metaphor of painting, to describe the Soul’s loss of integrity and his longing for a restoration. By means of other texts using the same imagery of painting it is possible to draw a framework of references, hinting at expressions and practices of reintegration of the Anima Viva (and of the human Self as well), according to a macrocosmic and microcosmic interaction. For unlike the cosmogonic action of the Matter (Hyle or ʾʾz), who shapes the creation by means of artisanal works imprisoning then the light, there is a good manner to manage the material stuff, without “disfiguring” and destroying the entrapped light. The overlapping of metaphors shows a remarkable pattern of intertwined anthro- pology, ethic and soteriology mixed up with aesthetical conceptions and practices of self trans- formation achieved through ascetical tenets.

Indo-Iranica et Orientalia, Series Lazur, 2019

selected essays of Iranian cultural history

Quaderni di Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, Morcelliana, 2018

Esperienze e tecniche dell'estasi tra oriente e occidente, 2018

Scienza, filosofia e letteratura nel mondo iranico. Da Gundishapur ai giorni nostri, 2024

Annali di Ca'Foscari, sezione orientale, 2024

Simorgh. Trenta interviste con iranisti italiani, 2022

an interview in a volume dedicated to the Italian scholarship of Iranology

Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie orientale, vol. 59, 2023

Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei, 14, 2022

Manichaica Taurinensia (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum: Analecta Manichaica II), 2022

Entangled Religions 14.2, 2023

The early Sasanian period witnessed a variety of religious beliefs in competition. The clash betw... more The early Sasanian period witnessed a variety of religious beliefs in competition. The clash between Kirdīr and Mani represents just an episode of the triumph the Mazdean church over Manichaeism, as well as over the other religious formations listed in Kirdīr's inscriptions. Persian Zoroastrianism constituted a stronghold of power and religious hegemony at the heart of the Sasanian Empire. Yet, the peripheral Zoroastrianism of Eastern Iran and Central Asia featured aspects of regional Mazdeism, such as a wide variety of interactions between the Iranian and Indian cultures, and overt religious exchanges with Manichaeism, Buddhism and Islam. This article first examines the connotations of the word indicating 'wonder' and 'miracle' (Middle Persian warz, Parthian warž), and explores its thematic correspondences both within the shared Iranian language heritage (Avestan, Pahlavi, Middle Persian, Sogdian) and religious contexts (Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism). Its second aim is to extend this investigation into different Central Asian contexts of Sogdian Buddhism, taking into account specific Buddhist features. A close textual analysis finds that the interest in miracles is connected to healing. Thus, in the religious literature under analysis, miracles represent the medium of persuasion and conversion par excellence, but are also regarded as medical means to cure and save those in need, often through redeeming knowledge. The connections between medical healing and spiritual wisdom were generally associated with important religious personalities of the larger Indo-Mediterranean area, such as Buddha, Jesus and Mani, and with their messages of redemption. This article advances that 'wonders' and 'healings' represented efficacious notions employed to meet both primary needs of solace against suffering and angst and ardent searches for salvation. The article also highlights the link between the above binomial relation of wonders/healing and the political role of prophetical leaders, allegedly endowed with supernatural powers. As a case-study of this perspective, the article reviews the ideological and social developments of revolts, such as the Khurramiya movements in Islamic times, which exploited precisely this cultural baggage of practices of amazement and trickery for their own messianic propaganda.

Studi Iranici Ravennati vol. IV, 2022

The epithet Macrochéir/Longimanus referred to the Persian king Artaxerxes I has been erroneously ... more The epithet Macrochéir/Longimanus referred to the Persian king Artaxerxes I has been erroneously interpreted (in Classical sources) as a mark of bodily dysmetry. On the contrary, this epithet of all-embracing power is more clearly understandable by means of the Mithra's imagery included in Mihr Yasht

WENTILSEO. I Germani sulle sponde del Mare Nostrum, 2001

Analysis of the passage mentioning the Goths and the Germans, in the Sassanian inscription of Sha... more Analysis of the passage mentioning the Goths and the Germans, in the Sassanian inscription of Shabuhr I at the Ka'aba-e Zardusht (ShKZ)

La corona e i simboli del potere, 2000

esame delle ricorrenze testuali e delle iconografie sugli emblemi del potere (corona, diadema, ti... more esame delle ricorrenze testuali e delle iconografie sugli emblemi del potere (corona, diadema, tiara, ghirlanda) negli imperi achemenide, partico e sassanide

Iranian Studies in Honour of Adriano V. Rossi, 2019

A recent Z. Gulácsi’s essay on the crystal seal of Mani presents a few stimulating implications c... more A recent Z. Gulácsi’s essay on the crystal seal of Mani presents a few stimulating implications concerning practices of sigillography and validation of documents: especially letters, a very typical genre of Manichaean prose literature, issued from the epistolary activities of Mani himself. Sealing practices also shed light on another hitherto unnoticed feature of Mani’s and Kirdīr’s rivalry: not only limited to their competition in religious authority and charisma, but to the prestige of an authenticated writing. For this reason, the frequent Kirdīr’s claims to sealed documents, charters and records, mentioning his name and titles, point to a further contrastive mark of antagonism between both personalities of the first Sasanian period, fighting for cultural supremacy, public audience and royal consensus

Journal of Persianate Studies 14, 2021

The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta (fl. 620s) records an exchange of letters with the ... more The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta (fl. 620s) records an exchange of letters with the Sasanian Empire. The correspondence of March 590, from the Iranian shah Khosrow II Parviz (r. 591-628) and addressed to the Byzantine emperor Maurice (r. 582-602), exhibits a particular style, focused on the ideological oppositions of order and disorder and legitimacy and usurpation. This paper suggests that Khosrow's claims to his kingdom made use of a discourse of catastrophic motifs that reflected common Sasanian apocalyptic beliefs. Thus, the chaotic situation provoked by the inversion of the rightful order elicited, from a Zoroastrian perspective, a response that stressed the dualistic nuance of demonic anarchy in order to stigmatize the risk of deposition. For these reasons, apocalyptic doctrines and royal propaganda share a common language: a political discourse based on the justification of kingship and the demonization of the enemy.

Civiltà e religioni, 2021

The Manichaean religion was characterized by a diffused medical symbolism, because of its practic... more The Manichaean religion was characterized by a diffused medical symbolism, because of its practical concerns of salvation. Mani introduced himself with the epiteth of “physician”, in order to explain his charismatic power of healing, especially for the soul but also with signi cant references the dieseases of the body (fever, tremors, madness). Thus, many doctrinal aspects were imbued with a medical-surgical imagery, to describe within Manichaean texts the process of separation and purification of the Light from the Darkness, of the Soul from the Matter, and the final achievement of the redemption.

IRANIANATE AND SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD, 2021

Analysis of Gospel quotations of Mt 25, 35-36 in the Manichaean text of Shabuhragan

Come la freccia di Arash. Il lungo viaggio della narrazione in Iran: forme e motivi dalle origini all'età contemporanea, 2021

An analysis of a suggested Manichaean background of al-Moqanna's wizardry and trickery in shaping... more An analysis of a suggested Manichaean background of al-Moqanna's wizardry and trickery in shaping his role of charismatic leader during the revolt against the Abbasid rule

I Prescelti di Dio. I santi e l'esperienza della santità (Avallon: l'uomo e il sacro, 55, 2006), 2006

A paper on the role of saints and martyrs in Sasanian Persia

Uomini e lupi: genetica, antropologia e storia, 2021

A study on the wolf and its symbolic representations in anthropology, mythology, folklore and rel... more A study on the wolf and its symbolic representations in anthropology, mythology, folklore and religions of the Eurasian area

Come una statua nella nebbia dell'epica. Sull'opera di Francesco Benozzo (edited by Chiara de Luca), 2018

a survey of Francesco Benozzo's methodology and works concerning Ethnophilology

Eurasiatica. Quaderni di studi su Balcani, Anatolia, Iran, Caucaso e Asia Centrale 12, 2019

This article firstly deals with a general survey of the Turkic-Iranian relationships , from the V... more This article firstly deals with a general survey of the Turkic-Iranian relationships , from the VI century onwards, by the point of view of epigraphic evidences and sparse linguistic references within the Indo-Iranian borderlands and Central Asia. Secondly , it focuses on Turkic words (onomastic, epithets, titles) recorded in Middle Persian texts of the Manichean religion, in order to highlight the cultural contacts between the Uighur newcomers of the Qočo kingdom and the local population, both sharing common religious beliefs such as Manichaeism and Buddhism. Given the Manichaean faith of the Uighur élites, the Middle Persian Manichaean texts show an appreciation of the Turkic rulership, attested by the panegyrical tone of many compositions dedicated to the khans and their entourages.
Sommario 1 Introduzione storico-geografica e etno-linguistica.-2 Interazioni turco-sogdiane nell'epigrafia.-3 Politica, religione e società.-4 Mahrnāmag: onomastica e ti-toli uiguri in medio-persiano.-5 T II D 171: opere pie e donazioni nei monasteri.-6 MIK III 36: panegirici di benedizioni per i regnanti.-7 M43: elogi e pratiche di intronizzazione.

The epistolography in pre-Islamic Iran as a means of communication with performative effects: how... more The epistolography in pre-Islamic Iran as a means of communication with performative effects: how to command at distance by sending a letter which represents the King of Kings in absentia

Seminar of the Doctoral School for Cultural Heritage Studies

Miasmi, epidemie, purificazioni. Scenari medico-simbolici di terapie del corpo e dell'anima. A cu... more Miasmi, epidemie, purificazioni. Scenari medico-simbolici di terapie del corpo e dell'anima. A cura di Andrea Piras e Alessandra Foscati

BIzantinistica (Rivista di studi bizantini e slavi), 2007

"Cristianesimo nella storia" 36, 2015, pp. 673-677

A review of the Apocalyptical-Eschatological Zoroastrian text Ayadgar i Jamaspig, new edition, tr... more A review of the Apocalyptical-Eschatological Zoroastrian text Ayadgar i Jamaspig, new edition, translation and commentary by Domenico Agostini

A review of the volume about the Iranian and the Indian Yima/Yama, ed. by Samra Azarnousch and Cé... more A review of the volume about the Iranian and the Indian Yima/Yama, ed. by Samra Azarnousch and Célin Redard

La ricerca folklorica 65, 2012

a review-article of a recent book on Ethnophilology and Ethnolinguistic

Presentation of the research project for the Membership at Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

9th International Conference of the International Association of Manichaean Studies, University o... more 9th International Conference of the International Association of Manichaean Studies, University of Turin and MAO Museo d'arte orientale, Torino, Monday 11th September - Friday 15th September, 2017

La Giornata di studio Esperienze e tecniche dell’estasi tra Oriente e Occidente intende offrire u... more La Giornata di studio Esperienze e tecniche dell’estasi tra Oriente e Occidente intende offrire un’occasione per ripensare e ridefinire su base storico-comparativa e interdisciplinare una questione cruciale negli studi storico-religiosi ed etno-antropologici. L’estasi, insieme al suo correlato della trance, costituisce, nelle culture antiche e moderne, una delle principali forme di elaborazione mitico-rituale degli stati alterati di coscienza e di incorporazione del divino.
Nove studiosi di ambiti storico-culturali in apparenza distanti ma invero uniti da connessioni profonde ripercorrendo una fascia cronologica che va dal neoplatonismo alla mistica ebraica moderna (passando per la Siria orientale cristiana, l’Iran preislamico, la mistica bassomedievale, il sufismo islamico, l’India medievale, lo sciamanesimo e l’antropologia medica del Mezzogiorno d’Italia) tenteranno da un lato di esplicitare le categorie analitiche e storiografiche delle ricerche su un obiettivo mobile e sfuggente come quello dell’estasi; dall’altro proporranno affondi monografici su contesti specifici e differenziati. Il fine è quello di contribuire all’affinamento del lessico storico-religioso e storico-antropologico di un aspetto cruciale per le scienze dell’uomo.

Workshop concerning Asceticism in Later Roman Empire and interactions amid Neoplatonism, Christia... more Workshop concerning Asceticism in Later Roman Empire and interactions amid Neoplatonism, Christianity, Judaism, Manichaeism and Gnosticism

The project has been presented for the Membership 2015-2016 at Institute for Advanced Study (Scho... more The project has been presented for the Membership 2015-2016 at Institute for Advanced Study (School of Historical Studies: Islamic and Middle East Studies). Pre-view of a forthcoming article for the Manichaen Studies Newsletter 30, 2015-2016

The workshop addresses cases of religious interactions between Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and B... more The workshop addresses cases of religious interactions between Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Buddhism in the Iranian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, and China to the end of the first millennium CE. The participants to the workshop investigate formative dynamics of contacts, interactions, and exchanges that took place between Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Buddhism at multiple levels: knowledge, ritual, material, and experiential. The workshop considers the literary and social negotiations Manichaeism carried with Zoroastrianism, as an imperially-mandated religion, in the Sasanian Empire, between the third and the seventh centuries. To this, it adds the perspective of religious interactions across central Asia and into China, to the end of the first millennium CE. The workshop participants will examine the various ways along which Manichaeism moved eastward, out of the Sasanian Empire, and transformed itself in contact with Buddhism. In analyzing the ways in which religions were imported, adopted and transformed in Western and Central Asia, the 2018 workshop regards transformation, hybridization, and adaptation as various outcomes of religious encounters. To discuss these formative interactions of religions on the move, the organizers invited scholars to investigate primary sources in Middle Persian, Parthian, Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Sogdian, Uyghur, and Chinese, which describe religious contacts across Western and Central Asia until the end of the first millennium CE.

Mani e la sua religione, 2020

Italian translation of S. H.Taqizadeh's book "Mani va din-e u". Translation from Persian by Simon... more Italian translation of S. H.Taqizadeh's book "Mani va din-e u". Translation from Persian by Simone Cristoforetti; bibliographical updating by Andrea Piras. Curatela of Taqizadeh's notes by S.C and A.P.

Gloria Larini, Franco Cardini, 2017