First Bahari Workshop for Early Career Scholars
Programme
08:30-09:00 Coffee and Pastries
09:00-09:15 Inaugural remarks: Yuhan S-D Vevaina, University of Oxford
09:15-09:30 Introduction: Olivia Ramble and Alessia Zubani, University of Oxford
09:30-11:00 Session 1: Epigraphy and Materiality
Chair: Delphine Poinsot (Collège de France)
Antonietta Castiello (Universität Oldenburg) Hidden Figures: The Invisible Hand of Writing Professionals in Palmyra’s Material Memory
Milad Abedi (Universität Innsbruck) Beyond Borders: The Cultural Repositioning of Pahlavi Scribal Traditions
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-13:00 Session 2: Economic and Administrative Manuscript Fragments
Chair: Khodadad Rezakhani (University of Leiden)
Nima Asefi (University of Hamburg) Tracing the Pahlavi Scribes: Writing Materials, Career Progression, and Syntactic Anomalies in the Pahlavi Documents from Hastijan, Tabaristan, and Fars
Thomas Benfey (University of Tübingen) Berk. 40: A Middle Persian Writing Exercise?
13:00-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-16:00 Session 3: Writing and Authority in the Religious Sphere
Chair: Francesco Calzolaio (The Hong Kong University)
Chloé Agar (University of Oxford) Hagiographers as Professionals of Writing: Legitimisation and Illusion in the Cult of Saints in Egypt
Johan Lundberg (University of Oxford) Jacob of Edessa and Syriac Writing in the Seventh Century
16:00-16:30 Coffee Break
16:30-18:00 Session 4: Scribes and Literary Productions: Epistles and Epigrams
Chair: Arash Zeini (University of Oxford)
Alberto Bernard (École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL) Priests and Scribes in Late-Antique Zoroastrianism
Ugo Mondini (University of Oxford) and Nina Sietis (Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale) Professionals of Writing in Greek Sources: Evidence from Epigrams and Manuscripts
18:00-18:15 Final Remarks: Arash Zeini (University of Oxford)
Antonietta Castiello – Hidden Figures: The Invisible Hand of Writing Professionals in Palmyra’s Material Memory
The city of Palmyra never fails to captivate. With its monumental architecture, the famous portraits of its inhabitants, and its bilingual inscriptions, it emerged between the first and third centuries AD as a truly unique civilisation. Open to the world around it, Palmyra was a thriving crossroads where people, animals, gods, and goods from the Ancient World met, standing out in the Mediterranean landscape as a remarkable example of a diverse and ever-evolving community. The city’s memory, preserved in its surviving ruins and the legacy of a flourishing diaspora, can often be elusive. Yet, while interpreting its past is no easy task, it remains fascinating challenge. It is within this framework that we seek to uncover traces of writing professionals among the many faces that shaped Palmyra’s vibrant society. Historical sources documenting the lives of Palmyrene citizens—whether priests, soldiers, merchants, or scribes—are scarce but striking, often tied to the material traces left behind. These range from funerary portraits, where the deceased is depicted with the “tools of the trade” such as a scroll and stylus, to inscriptions that bear subtle hints of the invisible hand that carved them, hidden behind the signature of the commissioner. This presentation sets out to gather and analyse these fragments, piecing together clues to illuminate the identities of the writing professionals who, despite being part of a society that left behind no literary texts, remain hidden figures in the Palmyrene history.
Milad Abedi – Beyond Borders: The Cultural Repositioning of Pahlavi Scribal Traditions
The Pahlavi script has long been identified with the Zoroastrian Middle Persian literary tradition, associated primarily with the Zoroastrianism, Sasanian empire, and intellectual life of post-Sasanian Zoroastrian communities as well as its southwest Iranian linguistic base. This view often frames Pahlavi as a local and religiously specific medium, isolated from broader historical currents. However, emerging archaeological evidence and studies in lexical contact challenge this limited perspective. This paper reexamines the cultural and linguistic role of Pahlavi scribes by tracing the script’s use beyond its conventional boundaries. Particular attention is paid to the appearance of Book Pahlavi in transcultural contexts, including bilingual environments across the Sino-Iranian and Arab-Iranian zones. These instances demonstrate that Pahlavi script served not only as a vehicle of religious preservation but also as a medium of cross-cultural communication and exchange. By investigating the involvement of Pahlavi-literate scribes in facilitating administrative, commercial, and intellectual interactions, this study situates Book Pahlavi within wider trans-Eurasian networks. It argues that the scribal practices associated with Pahlavi played an underestimated but crucial role in shaping the cultural dynamics of late antiquity. Ultimately, reorienting the understanding of Pahlavi script from a so-called localized tradition to a script that bridged East and West reveals new dimensions of cultural connectivity in the late antique world.
Nima Asefi – Tracing the Pahlavi Scribes: Writing Materials, Career Progression, and Syntactic Anomalies in the Pahlavi Documents from Hastijan, Tabaristan, and Fars
This lecture consists of three parts. In the first part, drawing on the Hastijan documents and two Arabic sources, it will be demonstrated that some dārīgs had the opportunity to rise to the rank of dibīr or even higher. The second part will show that, through close attention to syntactic features and also the identification of scribal-specific writing characteristics — in this case, by highlighting distinctive phrasing and the various methods used to enumerate delivered rations — it is possible to identify documents written by the same scribe. The final part briefly overviews the writing materials discovered in the three caves.
Thomas Benfey – Berk. 40: A Middle Persian Writing Exercise?
In this presentation I examine the Middle Persian document Berk. 40—to my knowledge the only known instance in the Middle Persian documentary corpus in which a substantial text is repeated on the same writing surface. A full edition and translation of this document has never been published, although Philippe Gignoux and Dieter Weber have offered partial readings. In addition to offering an edition and translation of Berk. 40, and touching on some intriguing features of its contents—it includes two important administrative and fiscal terms, whose precise meaning remains unknown, and which merit further study—I will discuss the significance of this duplicated text for our understanding of scribal practices in early Islamic Iran.
Chloé Agar – Hagiographers as Professionals of Writing: Legitimisation and Illusion in the Cult of Saints in Egypt
Hagiography is rightfully criticised as a source for understanding the Late Antique and Byzantine world. Nonetheless, these criticisms are based on interpretations that take the texts at face value. These texts, as part of the cult of saints, were written by ecclesiastical and monastic individuals and read aloud to congregations on saints’ feast days. As such, their miraculous subject matter and devotional context make them inherently unreliable as witnesses of historical events. What hagiography can actually tell us concerns the things which writers did not intend to be examined closely, not least because much of the population was probably illiterate and the authority of the clergy was, in an ideal world at least, not to be challenged. Hagiography enables us to investigate the identity, socio-economic status, and political roles of professionals of writing in the sphere of religion and gives us an insight into the inner workings of the cult of saints. This paper will examine the clues that hagiographers left behind which, while initially seeming like indiscriminate details, demonstrate that there was an ‘art’ of writing. This includes written references to the texts being read aloud, the insertion of the writers into the events being recounted, and the attribution of the texts’ composition to notable Church figures. Such clues show that these texts were presented as being written by specialists for performative use, which conferred authority on their writers but also diverted attention away from their true identities.
Johan Lundberg – Jacob of Edessa and Syriac Writing in the Seventh Century
Jacob, the bishop-scholar of Edessa, was one of the most prolific Syriac writers of the seventh century. He was a churchman and a writer. He wrote works on Canon law and composed homilies. He also wrote a Hexaemeron, worked on a revision of the Syriac Old Testament, and kept up a copious correspondence. One of his letters is about the art of writing. This letter was written to bishop George of Sarugh and it was originally appended to Jacob’s translation of Severus of Antioch. Jacob makes his case for accurate spelling and precise pointing, explaining how this trade differs from other trades. It is part exhortation and part instructional manual. This is not Jacob’s only piece on the subject. He also composed a treatise on dots, and traces of his views on vowels are preserved in fragments of his grammar. Writing was an important subject for Jacob. In fact, he calls it the highest of the arts. What makes a proficient seventh century Syriac scribe? What practices did he try to change and, to what extent, did he succeed? The answers to these questions is found between Jacob’s writings and manuscripts from his and subsequent periods.
Alberto Bernard – Priests and Scribes in Late-Antique Zoroastrianism
What were the relations between priests (mowmard, āsrōn) and scribes (Middle Persian dibīr) in late-antique Iran? Drawing on evidence from sigillography, Pahlavi legal and religious texts, and the Letters of Manuščihr (9th c. CE), this paper examines how Zoroastrian priests conceptualized the intersections, boundaries, and tensions between their own social function and that of scribes and notaries. Particular emphasis is given to the involvement of priests in the legal-administrative apparatus of the Sasanian empire.
Ugo Mondini and Nina Sietis – Professionals of Writing in Greek Sources. Evidence from Epigrams and Manuscripts
This paper aims to provide an overview of writing professionals and their activities within the Greek context from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. It will highlight both continuities and transformations in the documentary and graphic traditions of the Byzantine Empire, beginning with the exceptionally rich documentation from Egypt and concluding with Constantinople, where direct sources are notably scarce. In order to trace these developments, the paper will offer technical insights into the scripts employed by professionals of writing and the communicative conventions they were required to follow. The second part of the presentation will be dedicated to the analysis of selected literary excerpts that illustrate the diversity of graphic and compositional practices in the Byzantine world. By integrating palaeographical evidence with literary sources, the paper seeks to reconstruct a nuanced picture of the activity of professionals of writing in a period marked by both continuity and innovation.
