Resources

Throughout historical and contemporary periods, Persia (Iran) has occupied a central role in global religious thought and spirituality. The ancient Persian religions, including Zoroastrianism (Mazdayasna) and Manicheanism, had highly developed theological and philosophical...

The period known as Late Antiquity (c. 3rd-9th cent. CE) witnessed major religious transformations that still define our world today, including most importantly the rise of rival monotheisms, the “Abrahamic” traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. After suffering...

This course is designed for graduate students in the Committee on the Study of Religion and is open to students in related fields who teach courses pertaining to religion. The course aims to equip students with skills to be effective Teaching Fellows at Harvard and to...

Questions arising from the diversity of religions recur in all of the major branches of Islamic thought and appear in complex permutations in diverse cultural contexts. Focusing primarily on pre-modern Islam, this course invites students to investigate perspectives on the...

Students learn the details of Classical Persian grammar, lexicography, and prosody, and work with modern Persian academic commentaries on classical works. Students gain the reading fluency necessary for research in Classical Persian prose, and a foundational understanding of...