On these pages, you can find a variety of content produced by our research team. We update these pages on a regular basis.
New Publications in The Islamicate East Series
31 March 2026
Thomas Benfey, Middle Persian Documents and the Making of the Islamic Fiscal System: Problems and Prospects
17 February 2025
Thomas Benfey, Windādag's Orders: Ten Unpublished Middle Persian Ostraca from Chāl Ṭarkhān-ʿEshqābād (2024)
01 November 2024
Pejman Firoozbakhsh, Manuscript of a Persian Qaṣīda from about the Year 400/1007 (2024)
01 November 2024
Arezou Azad, Interpreting Economies in Khurasan in the 11th-13th Century CE through Documentary Sources (2024)
25 October 2024
Zhan Zhang, Two Judaeo-Persian Letters from Eighth-Century Khotan (BAI 31, 2022-23)
03 October 2023
The Conceptualization of Religion and Incipient Secularity in Late Sasanian Iran (Thomas Benfey)
31 July 2023
Thomas Benfey discusses the conceptualizations of "religion" of Burzōy and Paul the Persian in his new paper
The Historian of Islam at work. Essays in honor of Hugh N. Kennedy
27 November 2022
Edited by Maaike van Berkel and Letizia Osti
"No One Can Give You Protection". The Reversal of Protection in a Persian Decree Dated 562/1167.
09 March 2022
Arezou Azad & Pejman Firoozbakhsh, Acts of Protection, Annales islamologiques 54 (2020)
Arezou Azad et al, Translation of The Merits of Balkh (2021)
09 March 2022
Pejman Firoozbakhsh, Persian Settlement Contract from 473/1080 (2022)
08 March 2022
The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, Hugh Kennedy (2022)
01 January 2022
Document of the Month series editors: Arezou Azad, Edward Shawe-Taylor, Nadia Vidro
The online series, Document of the Month, presents some of the most interesting and revealing medieval documents from the desks of Invisible East researchers and their colleagues worldwide.
Document of the Month 6/26: Timurid Epistolary Collections
30 June 2026
Document of the Month 5/26: Trade Letters from the Indian Ocean
26 May 2026
Document of the Month 4/26: A Summons Letter to Tax Collectors
30 April 2026
Document of the Month 3/26: A Mystical Homily
30 March 2026
Document of the Month 2/26: A Letter of Safe Passage
23 February 2026
Document of the Month 1/26: A Commercial Letter from Mount Mugh
27 January 2026
Document of the Month 12/25: A Judeo-Persian Letter from Bamiyan
15 December 2025
Document of the Month 11/25: The Festival of Sada
18 November 2025
Document of the Month 10/25: A Qajar Endowment Deed
21 October 2025
Document of the Month 9/25: An Early "Joseph and Zulaykha"
17 September 2025
Document of the Month 8/25: Template Funerary Inscriptions
20 August 2025
Document of the Month 7/25: Invisible East Qur'ans
02 July 2025
Document of the Month 6/25: "She Smells with a Fragrant Nose"
16 June 2025
Document of the Month 5/25: A Versatile Amulet
16 May 2025
Document of the Month 4/25: A Judeo-Arabic Bible Commentary
24 April 2025
Document of the Month 3/25: A Female Farmer with a Strong Voice
06 March 2025
Document of the Month 2/25: A Land Sale Deed in Old Uyghur
26 February 2025
Document of the Month 1/25: An Early Calligraphic Signature
22 January 2025
Document of the Month 12/24: A Lost Arabic Papyrus
18 December 2024
Document of the Month 11/24: A Hidden Threat
08 November 2024
Blog co-editors: Arezou Azad & Nadia Vidro
The Invisible and the Visible: Sogdians and their Silks
04 June 2025
نوروز در اسناد بامیان
25 March 2025
نوروز در اسناد بامیان
Nowruz in Balkh and Bamiyan
19 March 2025
Nabi Saqee finds references to Nowruz in the Bamiyan Papers
The Yarkand Documents: From a Garden to a Digital Corpus
26 February 2025
Mateen Arghandehpour writes on the Yarkand Documents
Fīrūzkūh Papers: Pre-Mongol Persian Documents from Today's Afghanistan
27 November 2024
Nabi Saqee writes on the Fīrūzkūh Papers: Pre-Mongol Persian Documents from Today's Afghanistan
On writing a new childrens' book on the Barmakid Jafar (part 2): Hero or Villain?
25 October 2024
On writing a new childrens' book on the BarmaKIDS (part 1): "The Real Jafar"
14 October 2024
A children's collection of stories in progress by Siobhan Templeton (text) and Nicolas Oberlin (illustration)
The Long Road to Kabul: Reflections on the Making of the Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan
01 August 2024
A few words from Warwick Ball on the history, publication and revision of the Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan
The Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī manuscript at the Bodleian Library (in Persian)
14 November 2023
Nabi Saqee discusses the Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī manuscript at the Bodleian Library (in Persian)
Jews in old Ghor and Bamiyan (in Persian): Part 1
04 July 2023
Read the new blog by Nabi Saqee on Jews in old Ghor and Bamiyan
Jews in old Ghor and Bamiyan (in Persian): Part 2
04 July 2023
Read the second part of the blog on Jews in old Ghor and Bamiyan by Nabi Saqee
Format, Style and Politeness Strategies in Middle Persian Official Letters from 7th-Century Egypt
22 May 2023
Narges Nematollahi looks at the format and linguistic style of Middle Persian documentary letters exchanged between Sassanid state officials in Egypt
Invisible East wins DH Resource Award
30 April 2026
The Invisible East Digital Corpus has won the DH Resource award in the DH Awards 2025!
A blog on Arezou Azad's latest title: The Rise and Fall of the Barmakids
09 April 2026
A blog on Arezou Azad's translation of the Akhbār-i Barmakiyān with Pejman Firoozbakhsh
A blog on Arezou Azad's latest book: The Warehouse of Bamiyan
25 November 2025
In Our Time guest appearance
13 March 2025
Mateen Arghandehpour a guest on In Our Time
'A Night with Buddha' event
08 March 2025
Nabi Saqee invited to speak in Stockholm
The Islamicate East series welcomes new editor
12 February 2025
Teresa Bernheimer
Invisible East Launches film, Striking Gold
18 September 2024
The incredible story of the discovery of the Firuzkuh Papers
Ed Shawe-Taylor awarded Margaret B. Ševčenko Prize
24 April 2024
The Reza Hosseini Memorial Lecture Series
29 February 2024
On the Past and Present of the Middle East.
The Islamicate East series
01 August 2023
The Invisible East programme launches its new series published with EUP
