Author Archives: Peri

The AOS is pleased to announce that the first open access essay of the AOS Essay Series has been launched: Nicolai Sinai, Rain-Giver, Bone-Breaker, Score-Settler: Allāh in Pre-Quranic Poetry (Essay no. 15, pp. ix + 79, ISBN: 978-1-948488-25-9). Available for downloading.

For the 2020 AOS meeting in Boston, pre-registration, dues payment, and abstract submission can all be done online. Deadline for submissions (with concomitent dues and pre-registration) is October 15.

The Digital Orientalist is now an arm of the AOS. The Digital Orientalist is an online platform run by a team of eight professors, librarians, and students from across AOS’s different sections. Its stated purpose is to foster a conversation about the use of computers in our fields, especially with regard to digital humanities. The Digital Orientalist is embarking on a three-year affiliation in the hopes of growing to be an integrated and valued part of the society. Have a look at www.digitalorientalist.com, follow them on Twitter @DigiOrientalist, or join them on Facebook. If you wish to be part of the team of editors or if you have an idea or question related to digital humanities, do not hesitate to reach out to the current editor-in-chief James Morris (james@digitalorientalist.com), or the founder, Cornelis (Eric) van Lit, a fellow-AOS member (eric.van.lit@gmail.com).

At its Annual Meeting in Chicago, March 2019, the membership elected Dominique Charpin, member of the Collège de France and a leading authority on Mesopotamian civilization, as AOS Honorary Member. He has accepted his election and we have the good fortune of anticipating his attendance at the March 2020 Meeting in Boston.

To the poetry in translation evening at the AOS meeting, Saturday, March 16, 7:00 pm, Omni Chicago hotel, Chagall B, featuring:

Gary Beckman (ANE) Univ. of Michigan
Signe Cohen (SSA), Univ. of Missouri
Xiaojing Miao (EA), Univ. of Colorado
Franklin Lewis (INE), Univ. of Chicago

The fourth and final volume of 2018 has been published and mailed and its table of contents posted.

Version 1.0 has been posted on the Annual Meeting page; check back till the last moment for updated versions. Note new Saturday evening event:  An Evening of Poetry in Translation by the Members of American Oriental Society

The American Oriental Society mourns the death, Saturday, January 5, 2019, of Stanley Insler, Salisbury Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Yale University and esteemed member of the Society. Serving in official capacity as Secretary-Treasurer from 1976–1982, Treasurer from 1982–1986, and President in 1997–1998, Stanley also served unofficially, with typical acuity and vision, as the investor genius behind AOS’s well-being. Requiescat in pace.

NEW AOS BOOK, ships December 28, 2018:

Qāsim Beg Ḥayātī Tabrīzī. A Chronicle of the Early Safavids and the Reign of Shah Ismāʿīl (907–930/1501–1524). Edited by Kioumars Ghereghlou. Pp. xxx + 384, illus. $ 69.95. ISBN 978-0-940490-01-7

A little-known and long forgotten Persian dynastic history from the middle of the sixteenth century is now edited and introduced for the first time. The chronicle is devoted to the history of the Ṣafaviyya Sufi order from its formative years under Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn Isḥāq Ardabīlī (d. 1334) and his immediate successors until the early years of the reign of Shah Ismāʿīl (1501–1524), the founder of the Safavid dynasty.

Available for (pre)order.

Post-election hangover medicine: the third issue of the year has been sent to subscribers and the contents posted to the website.