From Scroll to Screen: Archiving Zoroastrian Manuscripts in the Digital World

Date: 11 October 2025
Time: 12:00 pm ET / 11:00 am CT
Location: Zoom
Presented by: The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography & the Zoroastrian Association of Houston

As part of the annual lecture series organized by the Zoroastrian Association of Houston’s library and the FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) Information, Research and Education System (FIRES), this year celebrates the 25th anniversary of the library by inviting scholars in Zoroastrian Studies to present on the theme of “From Scroll to Screen: Zoroastrian Manuscripts in the Digital World.” Daniel J. Sheffield’s talk will be on “Testimonies of Tradition: An Introduction to Zoroastrian Manuscripts,” and Afshin Marashi will present on “Parsis and Iranians: Historical Preservation between Print Culture and the Digital Age.” The moderators will be committee members from the ZAH library and FIRES, who serve as active members within their communities. This event is sponsored by Rare Book School’s Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB).

This event is free and open to the public; however, advanced registration is required. To learn more about this event and to register, click here.

Daniel J. Sheffield is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, where he also serves as Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. A specialist in the history of Zoroastrianism in the medieval and early modern periods, his monograph, Cosmopolitan Zarathustras: Translating Zoroastrianism in Iran and India will appear next spring. He is also the translator of the Pahlavi Book of Religious Judgments (Wizirkard ī Dēnīg) and the Royal Inscriptions of the Achaemenid Persian Kings (with Prods Oktor Skjærvø). He is presently pursuing research for a second monograph, On Translation and Toleration: Azar Kayvan and Comparative Religion in the Early Modern Islamic World.

Afshin Marashi is Professor and Farzaneh Family Chair in Modern Iranian History at the University of Oklahoma. From 2011 to 2020, he served as Founding Director of the university’s Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies. He has also served on the council of the Association for Iranian Studies and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Persianate Studies and the International Journal of Middle East Studies. He is the author, most recently, of Exile and the Nation: The Parsi Community of India and the Making of Modern Iran, published by the University of Texas Press in 2020. He is also the co-editor of the book series “Connected Histories of the Middle East and the Global South,” also published by the University of Texas Press.