Exploring the sacred and secular life of ancient Near Eastern and Indo-Iranian religions, the book delves into how these cultures perceived cosmic order and chaos. It examines the interplay between social, political, and religious structures, highlighting how myths of creation and eschatology shaped societal norms and historical narratives. By analyzing the roots of these beliefs, particularly in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the work reveals their shared themes of order, judgment, and perspectives on death and the afterlife.
Focusing on contemporary Persian, this guide offers detailed instructions for reading and writing the script, including various handwriting forms and cursive writing. It covers essential scripts like Naskh and Nastaliq, as well as less common styles such as Kufic. With a wealth of exercises and writing practices, it aims to reinforce language learning for both students and teachers, drawing on the author's extensive classroom experience to enhance understanding and proficiency.
Eschatology in the Indo-Iranian Traditions traces the roots of the belief in life after death from the earliest religious beliefs of the Indo-European people, through its first textual emergence among the Indo-Iranians. Tracing the Indo-Iranian concepts of the nature and constitution of man, with special reference to the doctrine of the Soul and its transmigration, the book demonstrates the profound nature of the physical, ethical, spiritual, and psychological ideals embodied in these thought systems as preserved in the Indian and Iranian scriptures. The central issue was death and the journey to the afterlife. Exploring the characteristic features of Indo-Iranian religions provides a better understanding of the development of eschatological beliefs in later religions in the same way that the Zoroastrian apocalyptic beliefs point to genetic historical relations among Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. This comparative study enriches our understanding of the antecedents of afterlife beliefs and creates enthusiasm for further in-depth research into the Indo-Iranian religion as a system, acknowledging its genetic historical connections with both earlier and subsequent traditions. Eschatology in the Indo-Iranian Traditions has wide-ranging appeal to upper undergraduate and graduate courses in comparative religion, Asian studies, philosophy, and Indian and Iranian studies.
