Prof. Dr. Kianoosh Rezania
Coordination
Universitätsstr. 90a
44789
Bochum
Office 1.10
Fon+49 234 32-21979
In the history of religion, Western Asia in its diverse historical periods has a fundamental importance. On the one hand, this region constitutes a dynamic multiethnic and multilingual field in which several cultures were always in exchange with each other, and these contacts led to the emergence of many religious ideas and some widespread religions such as Zoroastrianism, Eastern Christianity, Manichaeism and Islam. On the other hand, the region acted as a link between the Indian, Central Asian, and Chinese cultural regions on the one hand and Europe (or the cultural region that was becoming Europe) on the other. Geographically, the region we call West Asia stretches from the Hindu Kush in the northeast to the Arabian Peninsula in the southwest, and from the Sindh region in the southeast to the Black Sea in the northwest.
The History of West Asian Religions at CERES consists of two foci: Iranian and Mesopotamian religious history. The Iranian history of religion focuses on antiquity and late antiquity (12th century B.C. – 10th century A.D.) and deals with Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism and their contact with Islam in the early Islamic period. The history of religions in Mesopotamia deals primarily with the Sumerian and Akkadian cultures (4th-1st century B.C.) and studies various religious aspects of these cultures. The two concentrations are primarily philological and deal with sources in many different languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Avestic, Old Persian, Middle Persian, Arabic, and New Persian.
Our courses provide our students with a basic knowledge of the religious history of this region in its various historical periods – and with a broad philologically based approach.
Universitätsstr. 90a
44789
Bochum
Office 1.10
Fon+49 234 32-21979
This project aims to challenge the paradigmatic notion “Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement.” This labeling is a byproduct of research conducted during …
The Middle Persian language played a prominent historical and cultural role in the first millennium CE as the official language …
The ERC-project Armenia Entangled deals with the entangled history of the Armenian plateau and its adjacent areas. It is based …
The “Graduate School of Metaphor and Religion” (GSMR) is the central instrument for the promotion of early career researchers in …
Focusing on Zoroastrian eschatology, this project asks, to what extent the construction of religious meaning relies on the transformation of …
Since the linguistic and conceptional proximity between law and religion in the ancient Near East is striking, this project wants …
Universitätsstr. 90a
44789
Bochum
Office 3.14
Fon+49 234 32-21969
Universitätsstr. 90a
44789
Bochum
Office 1.09
Fon+49 234 32-28272
Universitätsstr. 90a
44789
Bochum
Office 1.09
Fon+49 234 32-22382
Universitätsstr. 90a
44789
Bochum
Office 1.12
Fon+44 744 7484792