The Rise of the Persian Renaissance

9.10-9.20 - Welcome Firuza Abdullaeva (University of Oxford) and Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (University of Leiden)

Session 1: Before the Silence Chair: Elizabeth Tucker

9.20-10.00 - Olga Yastrebova (NLR, St Petersburg)
On the Early Persian version of the Arday Viraf Nama

10.00-10.40 - Nicholas and Ursula Sims-Williams (SOAS, London)
The Man with the Panther's skin: Rustam before Firdousi

10.40-11.20 - Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis (British Museum, London)
Continuity and cultural identity in ancient Persia

11.20-11.40 - refreshments served in the HMR

Session 2 On the edge Chair: Robert Skelton

11.40-12.20 - Victoria Kryukova (Kunstkamera Museum, St Petersburg)
Cult niches in Central Asia: before and under Islam

12.20-1.00 - Abolala Soudavar (independent scholar, New York)
Mithraic Societies: A Lasting Structure for Iranian Brotherhoods

1.00-2.00 - lunch in Hall

Session 3 Still on the edge Chair: Nicholas Sims-Williams

2.00-2.40 - Ali Kolesnikov (Institute of Oriental Studies, St Petersburg)
On Arabo-Muslim cliches in late Zoroastrian scriptures

2.40-3.20 - Oleg Grabar (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
Origins of Persian painting

3.20-3.40 - refreshments served in the New Refectory

Session 4 On another edge

3.40-4.20 -Anton Pritula (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg)
Syriac poetry with Persian approach

4.20-5.00 - Francois de Blois (SOAS, London)
Middle Persian literature and New Persian literature: Continuity or discontinuity

5.30 - Garden party (Fellows' private garden, Wadham College)

7.15 - High table dinner in Hall

Session 5 Hedonistic Renaissance in poetry Chair: Leonard Lewisohn

9.10-9.50 - Ali Miransari (Great Islamic Encyclopaedia, Teheran)
Aesthetics of the Early Persian Wine Odes

9.50-10.30 - Natalia Chalisova (Russian University of Humanities, Moscow)
Wine is a Great Healer: a New Persian topos in retrospection

10.30-11.10 - Kamran Talattof (University of Arizona, Tucson)
Sparkling and Ravishing: Wine in Rudaki's Poetry

11.10-11.30 - refreshments served in the New Refectory

Session 6 After the Silence, first attempts of revival Chair: Homa Katouzian

11.30-12.10 - Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (University of Leiden)
The tradition of the genre of riddle in Persian literature before Islam and after the Arab conquest

12.10-12.50 - Firuza Abdullaeva (University of Oxford)
Pre-Islamic in Islamic: the feast of Sada in early Persian poetry

1.00-2.00 - lunch in Hall

Session 7 The Rise of the Renaissance Chair: Charles Melville

2.00-2.40 - Andrew Peacock (BIPS, Ankara)
Gardizi, the Seljuks and the Persian Renaissance

2.40-3.20 - Sunil Sharma (University of Boston)
Retrieving Women's Voices in Early Persian Poetry

3.20-3.40 - refreshments served in the New Refectory

Session 8 Revival in prose Chair: Edmund Bosworth

3.40-4.20 Edmund Herzig (University of Oxford)
The 'Persian Revival' in Narratives of Iranian Nationalism

4.20-5.00 - Ali Dehbashi (Bukhara journal, Teheran)
Publishing Scholarly Classics on Persian literary Classics: pros and contras of the new project

5.00-5.10 Closing remarks by Firuza Abdullaeva and Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
5.40-6.40 Punting on the Thames (optional)

7.15 Private Dinner at the Cherwell Boathouse Restaurant