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[kassia]

So, those of you who were wondering about the whole religion-in-Persia project...
Foltz's Religions of the Silk Road is good (although the paper quality of my copy is crappy) - the right level of detail for me, and I have little enough background that the wider scope (geographically and temporally) is useful. His Spirituality in the land of the noble, although on nicer paper and seemingly exactly the right scope, is too speculative for what I want, but is well-written and recommended for those who are kind of interested but don't need rigorous citations and don't have any background in the topic.

I have a good set of notes for further research.

Also, I'm really enjoying Wendy Doniger's translation of selections from the Rig Veda.

Comments

[zkzkz.livejournal.com]

So, those of you who were wondering about the whole religion-in-Persia project...

Some of us were wondering more about what triggered this passion. It's pretty specific for an idle curiosity. Why religion-in-Persia and not Religion-in-Andalusia or Religion-in-Tibet?

Also... I'll be near Nashua sometime in the next two weeks if you're around.

corrected

[elbren]

I've always been interested in religious frontiers and how the movement of a religion into a new culture changes the religion (for instance, when Roman Christianity confronted Germanic Europe), and my curiosities generally are narrow enough that I can hope to satisfy them before they fade.
This happens in Iran multiple times in a pretty tight time frame. Buddhism comes from India into Iran (and via Iranian translators into China), Christianity comes from the Greek and Syriac world into Iran, Islam comes from Arabia. For all three of these, it's among the first foreign cultures the religion sees. (Ok, Christianity is the weakest in there, because in the west it was intersecting with Roman culture at the same time or before, but Islam is the most dramatic.)
Not to mention whatever Judaism might have been before it interacted with Babylon.
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