EVENT DETAILS

"The Talmud in Ancient Iran: The Rabbis and Persian Priests in a Judicial Context"

Dr. Jason Sion Mokhtarian
Professor of Religious and Jewish Studies
Indiana University Bloomington



An Assistant Professor of Religious and Jewish Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, Jason Sion Mokhatarian is a scholar of ancient Judaism with a particular interest in the Jews of Persia in early and late antiquity. Dr. Mokhtarian's current research project examines the extent to which Sasanian Iran, as both a real historical force and imaginary interlocutor, played a role in the formation of Babylonian rabbinic identity and authority from the third through seventh centuries CE. By tracing the impact of ancient Iranian civilization on the Babylonian Talmud, Mokhtarian's research gauges the prospects and limits of the integration of Iranology into Talmudic Studies, two historically distinct disciplines. His talk at UC Irvine focuses on the social and cultural interface between the Babylonian Rabbis and Zoroastrian priests in various judicial settings. At Indiana University, Dr. Mokhtarian teaches a wide range of courses in the history of Judaism and late antique religions, including "Introduction to Jewish History: From the Bible to Spanish Expulsion", "Sacred Books of the Jews", "Jews, Christians, and Others in Antiquity", and "Rabbinic Judaism: Literature and Beliefs". Dr. Mokhtarian received graduate degrees in Ancient Iranian Studies and Ancient Judaism from the University of Chicago and UCLA, and in 2006 was a Lady Davis Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


**Event is free and open to the public.**
**Driving and parking directions: http://www.uci.edu/campus_maps.php