Beyond Islamic Studies: Non-Muslim History and Memory in Medieval Iran

Join the Medieval Institute for its twenty-third annual Mellon Colloquium. The colloquium is a half-day public seminar discussion with the institute’s 2024–25 Mellon Fellow, Prof. Kayla Dang, assistant professor of theological studies and the Renard Professor of Islamic Studies at Saint Louis University, on her book-in-progress. She will be joined by three distinguished discussants: Christian C. Sahner of University of Oxford, Alison Vacca of Columbia University, and Sarah Bowen Savant of Aga Khan University.

Professor Dang’s book project tells a new history of the Zoroastrian religion by focusing on its priests—the individuals responsible for recording and transmitting Zoroastrian religious knowledge, which survives in extant Zoroastrian Middle Persian (or Pahlavi) books. Using Arabic sources alongside Middle Persian ones, she studies the priesthood in and as part of Islamic society, and she brings Zoroastrianism more firmly into emerging discussions about the interactions of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and others in the medieval Middle East. Join us on Friday, April 11, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET.

Register here

For more information visit the event website.