The All India Persian Teachers’ Congress

The All India Persian Teachers’ Congress held its 26thIn-ternational Session from 25 March to 27 March, 2006. Thesessions was co-sponsored by All India Persian Teachers’Association (AIPTA) of Delhi and Osmania University andconvened in Hyderabad, India at Osmania University. Profes-sor Suleman Siddiqui, Vice Chancellor of Osmania Univer-sity and Chairman of the Reception Committee, whose aca-demic specializations include Sufism in the Deccan, Islamicjurisprudence and modern trends in Islam, made the welcomeaddress.The following books were released at the conference:Farsi Drama: Tarikh wa Tanqeed, by Mr. Hossein RavishMughal Shahzaadian: Ilmi wa Adabi Khidmat, by Mr. ShafieShakeeb
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5Farsi Drama Nigari par maghrib ke Asrat’, by ProfessorJaleel TajleelThe following books were translated into Persian:Tooti-e Hind Sue-Chaman, a travelogue of R. N. Tagore, tr. byMr. Hossein RavishWajood-e Wijdani, divine songs of Baul from Bengali intoPersian, tr. by Mr. Shafie ShakeebThe following books were published by CCRUMUnani Medicines in India (Persian Language), by AghaHossein RavishAaina-e Sarguzisht (Russian translation), by Mr. MortazaShafie ShakeebThe following received awards for serving the cause of Persianin India:Professor Sharifunnisa Anasari (retired), Professor andHead, Department of Persian, Osmania University, HyderabadProfessor Pl. Yaqoob Oman (Retired), Professor and Head,Department of Persian, Nizam College of Arts, Osmania Uni-versity, Hyderabad***Habib Borjian has published the following recent articles:"A Mazandarani account of the Babi Incident at ShaikhTabarsi," Iranian Studies 39/3, 2006, pp. 381-400."The Oldest Known Texts in New Tabari: The Collection ofAleksander ChodŸko," Archiv Orientálni 74/2, 2006, pp. 153-171."Mazandarani: language or dialect?" Iranshenasi 18/1, 2006,pp. 43-49."Textual sources for the study of Tabari language I. Olddocuments," Dialectology/Guyesh-shenâsi, no. 4, 2006.He has also made the following new contributions toEncyclopaedia Iranica, published online at: www.Iranica.com:"Âlempur, Mohiy-al-Din" (Tajik journalist); "Amir Pâzvâri"(legendary poet of Mazandarani language; with Maryam Bor-jian); "Âsemi, Mohammad" (Tajik scholar and humanist);"Bidokht" (center of Gonâbâdi Sufi order in Khorasan);"Kulâb" (province and town in Tajikistan); "Kurgan-Tepe"(town and former province in Tajikistan); "Tajikistan-Dictionaries and Encyclopedias".and has presented the following conference paper:"Central Iranian Plateau Dialects: Methods and Goals ofDocumentation" (with Maryam Borjian), Endangered andMinority Languages and Language Varieties. GeorgetownUniversity Roundtable on Languages and Linguistics, Wash-ington, D. C., March 3-5, 2006.***Rosemary Stanfield-Johnson presented the paper “The Follyof Working Backward from Published Text to Manuscript.”Second World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies. Amman,Jordan, 11-16 June 2006.***Brill's journal Iran and the Caucasus (IC) provides a specialoffer to ASPS membersThe peer-reviewed journal Iran and the Caucasus publishesin-depth and multi-disciplinary research in the field of thehistory of the Iranian and Caucasian peoples. It offers a widerange of scholarly topics aimed at experts in their respectivefields of research. Since 2002, the journal has been publishedby Brill, well-known and widely acclaimed for its publicationsin the area of Central Asian and Middle East and Islamic Stud-ies. Two substantial issues are published annually.IC is devoted to furthering our knowledge of the region in awide variety of fields: history, economics, social sciences,archaeology, religion, literature, philology, and anthropology.The journal is edited under the guidance of an interculturaleditorial board with scholars from the region itself, as well asfrom Europe and the United States. It is therefore unique inbeing a scholarly forum in the truest sense of the word on aregion of growing importance, and a treasure-trove of informa-tion otherwise hard to get at. IC is supported by the CaucasianCentre for Iranian Studies in Yerevan, Armenia.For information on the journal please visit the journal webpage at http://www.brill.nl/ic. The journal page provides easyaccess to relevant information such as aims and scope, edito-rial board members, author submission guidelines, indexingand abstracting databases and subscription prices. There isalso a link to the online version of the journal. Here you canfind more information on how to register for RSS-feeds and T-o-C-alerts. For a free online issue, please go tohttp://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/ic.Free trial for members of ASPSIC would like to introduce you to our journal and have yourvalued opinion on its content. Therefore, we offer all ASPSmembers a free trial to the electronic version of the journalduring the months of November and December 2006. Thisspecial offer is only valid for current ASPS members. If youare interested, please send an email to Ms. Liesbeth Kanis,kanis@brill.nl. You will then receive a username and pass-word, which will provide you access for the months of No-vember and December 2006.
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6***The establishment of the “Houshang Pourshariati Iranian Stud-ies Book Award” was announced at the 39th Middle EastStudies Association of North America (MESA) yearly meetingheld in Washington D.C., November 19-22, 2005. The bookaward recognizes outstanding publishing in Iranian studies.The inaugural recipient of the award, recognized for lifetimeachievements in Iranian Studies, was the late professor ShapurShahbazi of Eastern Oregon University.The annual “Houshang Pourshariati Iranian Studies BookAward,” carries a stipend of $2,000; it is awarded to non-fiction scholarly monographs based on original research pub-lished in English. Eligible for consideration are those that“seek to advance knowledge and scholarship on Iran and Ira-nian culture and history, and its expression in literature, phi-losophy, art, and science from ancient times to the present.”For further information about the award please seehttp://mesa.wns.ccit.arizona.edu/excellence/pourshariati.htmHoushang Pourshariati (1934–2004) was a journalist, publicintellectual and humanist who devoted his life to the advance-ment and welfare of Iran in the course of his distinguishedcareer in the Iranian press and media.Travel Fellowship ProgramASPS is happy to announce continued support from the OpenSociety Institute (OSI) for our fellowship program. Our granthas been renewed for three years. We are currently acceptingapplications for travel fellowships.Qualifications: Applicants from Iran, Afghanistan, and Taji-kistan who are engaged in teaching or research in the humani-ties or social sciences, and have a formal invitation or accep-tance of a paper from an academic institution or sponsors of aconference in the United States, may submit (1) a letter ex-plaining the research, the title of the paper, and details of theconference; (2) a letter of acceptance from the conference,and; (3) a curriculum vitae to:Dr. Colin MitchellDept. of History6135 University Ave.Dalhousie UniversityHalifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA(902) 494-2788 c.mitchell@dal.caPlease Note: The Travel Fellowship Program will only reim-burse against original receipts for expenses including travel,lodging, meals, and conference registration. The limit is$3,000. Those who receive travel fellowships agree to write areport of their travel and to submit a copy of the paper deliv-ered.The Central Asia Research Fund (CERF)CERF provides grants of up to $1500 to support the researchand publications of individual Central Asian scholars in Af-ghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,and Northwest China.We are pleased to announce a call for applications for the2006-07 CERF award. Our deadlines have changed to enableus to better publicize the grant program in different regions,thereby making grant opportunities available to as many wor-thy applicants as possible.The deadlines for the receipt of proposals are September 15and June 15 of each year.Awards will be announced on November 15 and August 15 ofeach year.General Grant ProvisionsEligibility: CERF grants are available to individual applicantsfrom Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uz-bekistan, and Northwest China who demonstrate how theirresearch will make a substantive contribution to the knowledgeof historical, political, economic, or cultural developments inthe region of Central Eurasia. Applicants must hold a mini-mum degree equivalent to a BA. Grantees are not eligible toreapply for a CERF Grant for five years from the receipt of aprevious CERF award.Financial Provisions: Grants do not exceed US $1500 andprovide funding for the following:• Publication costs for books or monographs (including trans-lations from English)• Technical equipment necessary for specific research projects,such as computers, printers, scanners, voice recorders, or digi-tal cameras• Travel expenses for archival research that will result in ascholarly publicationSelection Process: CERF grants are awarded twice a year.Proposals must be received on each deadline of September15thand June 15th. An ASPS evaluation committee consistingof the grant director, Dr. Jo-Ann Gross, and two persons cur-rently serving on the Board of Directors of ASPS will reviewapplications. The CERF Committee will make an effort when-ever possible to provide regional balance in the distribution ofgrants based on:• Importance of the topic• Academic merit of the proposed project• Demonstrated career commitment to the field• Feasibility of the project• Potential impact of the research• Adequate academic and professional experience of thecandidate
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7Application for a CERF award: CERF candidates are re-quired to submit an electronic application in MS Word formatthat includes the following:1. Name and address, email address, fax number2. Place and date of birth3. Citizenship4. Institutional name and address5. Research field or discipline6. Highest degree obtained7. Title and description of research proposal (1-2 pages) thatincludes objectives and potential impact of research and/orpublication8. Budget (included detailed account of specific expenses)Award and Final Report: The grant period is for one year.Of the award, $200 will be held until the receipt of a one pagefinal report (sent electronically) within two months of thecompletion of the award, and the receipt of two copies of anypublication resulting from the award. The report must includethe following:• Name of project and objectives• Extent to which the objectives were met• Impact of project• Receipts of all expenses***Conferences, Exhibitions, Calls for Papers, and ArticlesFirst Interdisciplinary Conference on the Visual Anthropologyof IranCALL FOR PAPERS: University of Oxford, September 2007.The two-day conference on the Visual Anthropology of Iran,organized by the Society for Iranian Anthropology (SIRA) willgather together specialists from across the world, scholars andstudents alike (anthropologists, folklorists, ethnographers,linguists, filmmakers, artists, and photographers) interested inall aspects of the visual culture of Iran: works in film, video,media and multimedia, and all its visual representations in art.This first conference will examine the origins and developmentof the visual anthropology of Iran through pre- andpost-revolutionary periods. In addition, the conference willinclude a special competition, which will enable visual anthro-pologists and filmmakers to present their films aboutIran. An international jury made up of academics and special-ists, under the patronage of French screenwriter Jean-ClaudeCarričre, will award a special prize for the best film. For moreinformation and details, please visit our website:www.anthropology-iran.orgContact: Dr. Michael AbecassisE-mail: michael.abecassis@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk, orinfo@anthropology-iran.org***CALL FOR ARTICLES: The editorial board of Iran and theCaucases (IC) invites you to submit articles for publicationdealing with Irano-Caucasica, with particular focus on Iranianmatters: History of the Iranian and Caucasian Peoples (An-cient, Medieval and Modern), Literature and Folklore (Textsand Studies), Textology, History of Religion, Archaeology,Economic and Political problems and challenges of the region,etc. For more information please contact the editor: Garnik S.Asatrian, caucas@armline.amSubmission guidelines:For details on how to submit an article or book review, pleasecheck the Brill website: www.brill.nl/ic***CALL FOR PAPERS: The Commission on the History ofScience and Technology in Islamic Societies is pleased toannounce a conference in Barcelona, Spain, 11-14 April 2007,around the general theme of "A Shared Legacy: Islamic Sci-ence East and West."Planned sessions will focus on the exact sciences, the naturalsciences, medicine, technology, and transmission of knowl-edge. In addition, a session entitled "75 years of History ofArabic Science in Barcelona: the Millás Legacy" is scheduledto commemorate the 75th year of the publication of J.M. Millás Vallicrosa's book "Assaig d'histňria de les ideesfísiques i matemŕtiques a la Catalunya medieval" (Institutd'Estudis Catalans) and to honor this pioneer in the field of theHistory of Arabic Science in Barcelona and Spain.The conference will be part of a program called "BarcelonaCičncia 2007", sponsored by the City Council of Barcelona,which is devoting the year 2007 to the theme of "Science."Other support comes from the Societat Catalana d'Histňria dela Cičncia i de la Tčcnica, a filial of the Institut d'EstudisCatalans, which in 2007 commemorates its 100th anniversary(1907-2007); the International Union of the History and Phi-losophy of Science; the Spanish Ministerio de Educación yCiencia; and the University of Barcelona.We hope to be able to support scholars from developing coun-tries with limited subventions to help cover travel costs. Wewill have more information on this possibility in early 2007.DeadlinesTitle: 30 November 2006Abstract of 200 to 500 words: 15 January 2007Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2007For further information please contact Mercč Comes atmcomes@ub.edu***CALL FOR PAPERS: ASPS invites papers for Studies onPersianate Societies. Please consult the style sheet, whichappears on page iii of the journal.***
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8%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%If undelivered, return toRosemary Stanfield-Johnson, Ph.D.Editor, ASPS NewsletterUniversity of Minnesota Duluth1121 University DriveDuluth, Minnesota 55812USA