Evangelos Venetis

Dr. Evangelos Venetis was born on 5/1/1977 in Athens. He teaches Islamic and Iranian Studies at the Department of Arabic, Persian and Turkish, the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. He is also a Research Associate of ELIAMEP in the field of Middle Eastern studies.

He studied history at the University of Ioannina, where he received also his master's degree in medieval history entitled: “The Zoroastrian priesthood and his influence in diplomatic relations Byzantium and Persia” (Second International Award of Iranology, Tehran, 12.16.2002). In 2006 he successfully completed his doctoral dissertation in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Edinburgh.

He has authored three books: “Grammar of modern Persian for Greek-speaking” (Tehran, 2007), “Bibliographica Sasanica” (Costa Mesa, California, 2009) and “The Alexander Book: An analysis of an Anonymous Persian Prose romance” (London, 2011 - forthcoming). He is also in the process of completing writing his new book on the “History of the Greeks in modern Iran, 1837-2010” (Athens, 2010). He has also authored a large number of articles on medieval and modern Islamic world in Greek and international journals.

He is the founder and director of the Society for Hellenic-Iranian Studies.

Publications:

Books

-E. Venetis, “History of Hellenism in Modern Iran” (19th-21st c.) (Athens, 2009)

-E. Venetis, “Iskandarnāma: An Analysis of an Anonymous Persian prose Romance” (Brill, Leiden, 2009)

-E. Venetis, “T. Daryaee and M. Alinia, Bibliographika Sasanika”, vol. 1, Mazda (Costa Mesa, CA, 2008)

Scientific publications

- 'The Persianized Olympias in the Shahnama', Graeco-Arabica 11 (2010)

- ‘Islamic lore and supernatural creatures in the Persian prose “Book of Alexander (Iskandarnāma)” ’, Persica, 21 (2007), pp. 75-87

- ‘Warlike Heroines in the Persian Alexander Tradition: The Cases of Araqit and Burandukht’, “Iran” (London), 43 (2007), pp. 227-232

- ‘Kingship and Divine Intervention in the Iskandarnama Prose Romance’, “Archiv Orientalni” (Prague), 74 (2006), pp. 271-281

- 'The Sasanian Occupation of Egypt (A.D 7th c.) according to some Pahlavi papyri abstracts found in Egypt' Graeco-Arabica 9-10 (2003-2004), pp. 403-412

- 'Some Notes on the Zoroastrian Clergy Policy and the Roman - Sasanian Conflict (3rd cent.)', “Journal of Oriental and African Studies-JOAS” 12 (2003), pp. 27-37

-'The Zoroastrian Priests and the Foreign Affairs of Sasanian Iran and the Later Roman Empire (5th cent.)', “Name-ye Iran-e Bastan/The International Journal for Iranian Studies” 3/1 (2003), pp. 47-78

- 'The Portrait of Alexander the Great in Pseudo-Callisthenes' Romance, in the Codex of Venice and in some Persian miniatures', Graeco-Arabica 7-8 (2000), pp. 547-554

Publications in collective works

- 'Alexander the Great and the Seleucids in Iran' in “Iranian Civilization: From Past to Present”, ed. T. Daryaee, Costa Mesa, CA: 2010)

- ‘The concepts of “javānmardī” and ‘ayyārī in the Iskandarnāma,’ in “Metaphors in Persian Literature”, ed. A.A. Gohrab (Amsterdam, 2010)

- ‘Further Remarks on the Persian Khurramdēn and the ‘Abbāsid-Byzantine Conflict (9th c. A.D.),’ in the “Festschrift in Honor of the Late Prof. Shapur A. Shahbazi”, ed. K. Abdi, (Costa Mesa, CA: 2010)

- ‘Naval details in the Persian 1427 Gulistan Manuscript (15th century)’ in Treasures of Arab, Persian and Byzantine Ships, Athens 2004, pp. 132-138

- 'The Crew of Dhaw Ships in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf during 16th cent. according to Akbar-Nameh by Abu 'l Fazl `Allami (-1593)' in “Aspects of Arab Seafaring”, Kuweit-Athens 2002, pp. 259-271

- 'Const. VII Porphyrogenitus, Stadiodromicon", text & translation; in "Byzantine and Arab Sailing Ships (7th-13th cent.)', Athens-Oinoussai 2001, pp. 67-68.

Contributions to encyclopedias and dictionaries

- ‘Contemporary Graeco-Iranian Relations’, in Encyclopaedia Iranica (ed. E. Yarshater, New York) - ‘Vasilios Vatatzes’, in Encyclopaedia Iranica (ed. E. Yarshater, New York)

- ‘Khurramis in Byzantium’, in Encyclopaedia Iranica vol. 13 (ed. E. Yarshater, New York)

- ‘Ibn Balkhi’, ‘al-Djuvayni’ and ‘Nasir-i Khusrau’, in Oxford “Companion to Exploration” (Oxford University Press)

Articles on conferences

- ‘Graeco-Persian literary interactions in classical Persian literature,’ in “The Proceedings of the International Conference on Ancient Greek-Iranian Archaeology” (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, 15-17 November 2006) – (Athens, 2009)

- 'The Legendary Travel of Alexander the Great to China according to the Persian epic romance Iskandarnama' in M. Kordosis (ed.), “Proceedings of the First International Conference of Graeco-Chinese Medieval Studies”, (1-3 October 2004, The University of Ioannina, Ioannina – Greece) (Ioannina 2007)

Internet publications

- E. Venetis & M. Alinia, The Establishment and Development of Christianity in the Parthian Empire (1st cent. -224/6 A.D.) in Transoxiana 6 (July 2003)

Book reviews

- Torab A., Performing Islam, Gender and Ritual in Iran, Leiden – Boston, 2007, ISBN: 90- 04-15295-4 /978-90-0415295-3, 302 pp. in “Journal of Oriental and African Studies”, 14 (2009)

- Hagg, T. and B. Utas, The Virgin and her Lover, Fragments of an ancient Greek novel and a Persian epic poem, Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures, Supplements to the Journal of Arabic Literature, vol. XXX, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2003. ISSN: 1571-5183, ISBN: 90- 04-13260-0, pp. xiii, 278; pls. 6, in “Persica” 23 (2010), 137-138

- Afshar, I. and Afshari M. (eds.), “Hussein-e Kurd” (Tehran, 1385/2006) in “Iranian Studies”, 43/3 (2010), 424-6

- Skalmowski, W., “Studies in Iranian Linguistics and Philology”, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagielloñskiego, KrakÓw, 2004 (24 cm, 336), ISBN: 82-233-1872-7, in Bibliotheca Orientalis (2006), pp. 35-36

- Matthee, R., “The Pursuit of Pleasure, Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History”, 1500- 1900, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005, in “Journal of the American Oriental Society”, (2006), p. 461

- Yamamoto, K., “The Oral Character of Persian Epics”, Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures Series (Leiden and Boston, Brill Academic Publishers, 2003), xxiv + 191 Notes, tables, appendices, bibliography, index. ISBN: 90-04-12587-6, in “Journal of the American Oriental Society”, (2006), pp. 441-2

- Gaillard, M., “Alexandre le Grand en Iran. Le Darab Nameh d'Abu Taher Tarsusi”, Paris: Editions de Bocard, 2005, in the journal “Iranian Studies” (New York) 39 (2006), pp. 456- 459

Notes in scientific reviews

- 'Some Notes on Research in Contemporary Iran' in the “Newsletter of the International Society for Iranian Studies”, 33/1-3 (2004), p. 17

- 'The development of Iranian Studies in Greece' (in Persian), in “Name-ye Iran-e Bastan / The International Journal for Iranian Studies”, 1/2 (2001-2002), pp. 83-84

- 'The Sasanika Project' in “Graeco-Arabica”, 9-10 (2004), pp. 453-454

- ‘The Role of the Sasanians in the Silk Road: The Sasanian-Soghdian Conflict (568/9 A.D.)’, in the “Newsletter (Khabarnameh)” of The Persian Cultural Center of San Diego CAUSA No. 83 (January-February 2003), pp. 8-9