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Shaul Shaked: From Zoroastrian Iran to Islam:
studies in regligious history and intercultural
contacts. (Collected Studies Series, CS505.) x,
321 pp. Aldershot, Hants.: Variorum; Brookeld,
Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Co., 1995. £49.50.
Philip G. Kreyenbrolek
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 61 / Issue 03 / October 1998,
pp 613 - 613
DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X00020115, Published online: 05 February 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0041977X00020115
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Philip G. Kreyenbrolek (1998). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, 61, pp 613-613 doi:10.1017/S0041977X00020115
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SHORT NOTICES 613
can be no reference to Western monographs, the author was forced to leave out. The present
which is a pity, for those new to armenology collection includes some of Shaked's most
might appreciate reference to such British important work until the early 1990s, and the
works as: David Lang's The Armenians: a book will undoubtedly find a warm welcome.
people in exile (1988), Christopher J. Walker's PHILIP G. KREYENBROEK
Armenia: the survival of a nation (1990), and
James Clackson, The linguistic relationship
between Armenian and Greek (1994).
As it is, this reviewer noted only one glaring
omission—'The Armenian relative clause', DAVID N. LORENZEN: Praises to a form-
International Review of Slavic Linguistics, 3, less God: nirgunT texts from North
1978, 99-138, which was written by a certain India, xiii, 303 pp., plate. Albany,
B. G. Hewitt. NY: State University of New York
B. G. HEWITT Press, 1996. $16.95.
Lorenzen's reputation among Sant specialists
SHAUL SHARED: From Zoroastrian as an innovative textual scholar, already estab-
Iran to Islam: studies in religious lished with a series of articles written in both
English and Spanish and confirmed with his
history and intercultural contacts. meticulous and illuminating presentation of
(Collected Studies Series, CS505.) Anantadas's KabTr-paracaT (SUNY, 1991), will
x, 321 pp. Aldershot, Hants.: be further enhanced by the present volume of
Variorum; Brookfield, Vermont: texts and studies, in which his particular forte
of leaving the familiar tramlines in order to
Ashgate Publishing Co., 1995. conduct interesting examinations of parts of
£49.50. the extensive nirgunT material lying neglected
by the roadside is again well to the fore.
In his preface the author says that the collection The book is divided into two parts. The
of articles selected for this volume reflects two opening chapter advances possible reasons
main topics: interpretations of Sasanian underlying the prima facie rather surprising
Zoroastrianism and the transmission of fondness of nirgunT writers, first attested in the
Sasanian Zoroastrian ideas into Islam. He goes well-known hymn by Namdev in the Adi Granth
on to point out that the two themes are (p. 1165), for the eminently sagun-oriented
interrelated, as early Islamic sources contain a story of the salvation of the pious demon
great deal of information about Sasanian Prahlad from his evil father Hiranyakasipu by
Zoroastrianism, while careful analysis shows Vishnu as Man-lion, and suggests its appeal is
that many Iranian ideas played a role in the likely to have lain in low-caste identification
development of Islam.
with the demon hero, saved in spite of his
The collection has therefore been divided status. The book's longest chapter then presents
into two sections, Part 1: 'Sasanian a critical Hindi text preceded by an annotated
Zoroastrianism', and Part 2: 'From Iran to English prose translation by Lorenzen and
Islam'. Part 1 contains: 'Esoteric trends in Shukdeo Singh of the extended Prahlad-caritra
Zoroastrianism; ' The notions menog and getig by Jan Gopal, the prolific Dadupanthi poet
in the Pahlavi texts and their relation to whose life of Dadu has recently been made
eschatology'; 'Some notes on Ahreman, the accessible through Callewaert's edition (revd.
Evil Spirit, and his creation';' Mihr the Judge'; mBSOAS, 54/2, 1991, 389).
'The myth of Zurvan: cosmogony and eschato-
logy '. In Part 2 one finds: ' From Iran to Islam: The second part of the book comprises a
notes on some themes in transmission, series of pieces related to KabTr and
1. " Religion and sovereignty are twins " in Ibn Kablrpanthi literature. After a short chapter
al-Muqaffa's theory of government. 2. The four offering a typology of nirgunT hagiographic
sages'; ' From Iran to Islam: on some symbols songs, there is another textual offering, the
of royalty'; 'Paymdn: an Iranian idea in contact KabTr-Raidds kd sarhvad by Sain, with a critical
with Greek thought and Islam'; 'A facetious Hindi text accompanied by a facsimile version
recipe and the two wisdoms: Iranian themes in and a prose translation by Lorenzen and Uma
Muslim garb'; ' First man, first king: notes on Thukral. A highly suggestive chapter on
Semitic-Iranian syncretism and Iranian mytho- ' KabTr's most popular songs' presents modern
logical transformations'; ' " For the sake of the favourites in English verse translation and
soul": a Zoroastrian idea in transmission into shows how the post-Tagore Kablr of the
Islam'; and 'Some Iranian themes in Islamic twentieth century is so much softer in character
literature'. The articles have been brought up than the ferocious iconoclast of the classical
to date by means of additional notes, comment- collections. The rituals of the modern
aries and bibliographical data, and the work Kablrpanth are the subject of the final chapter,
ends with a useful index of topics, Iranian, which also presents a generous selection of the
Arabic and Hebrew terms, and textual hymns associated therewith in English verse
references. translation.
Lorenzen's epilogue rightly draws attention
Some of Shaked's more recent work has not to the immense amount of work still to be
been included, notably the article' Some Islamic done on nirgunT literature. But as long as
reports concerning Zoroastrianism' (Jerusalem studies of this calibre keep appearing, Sant
Studies in Arabic and Islam 17, 1994). A more
or less arbitrary line obviously had to be drawn specialists will have plenty to think about as
somewhere, and in any case it is to be hoped the textual labour proceeds.
that many future publications will follow those CHRISTOPHER SHACKLE
