Antonio Panaino, Old Iranian Cosmography. Debates and Perspectives.

Introduction; Main Lines of Pre-Islamic Iranian History; Historiographical and Methodological Problems; The Hellenistic and Parthian Phase; The Sasanian and post-Sasanian Period; Conclusions; Bibliographical references; Indexes.

This booklet offers an up-to-date presentation of the old Iranian (mostly Mazdean) cosmography and uranography, with an introduction into the scholarly debate about this intriguing subject. The text necessarily enters a number of astronomical and astrological matters focusing on their development along the complex history of pre-Islamic Iran and the first centuries of the Islamic domination over that area. This synthetic overview also tries to emphasize some intercultural and inter-linguistic phenomena, which played an important impact on the Iranian history in its seminal relation with different worlds such as the Mesopotamian, Indian, Graeco-Roman, Central Asian and Chinese ones. A wide bibliography concludes the study.