TRAVELS - Tracing Records and Views of European Literature on Zoroastrians of Iran in the Late Modern Age

ID Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01 MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships

Sapienza's role in the project: Host Institution

Supervisor: Carlo Giovanni Cereti

Fellow: Massimiliano Vassalli

Department: Ancient World Studies

Project start date: September 1, 2025

Project end date: August 31, 2028

Abstract del progetto:

The TRAVELS project addresses a critical gap in Zoroastrian studies by reconstructing the history of the Zoroastrian community in Iran from 1773 to 1854. While research has typically focused on Antiquity or the Contemporary Age, the Middle and Modern Ages remain underexplored due to a lack of sources, and this period is particularly obscure as Iranian Zoroastrians ceased official contact with their Indian brethren and faced persecution. However, this era coincides with heightened European interest in the Middle East. Consequently, dozens of European travellers meticulously documented their journeys through Iran, providing crucial insights into the Zoroastrian community.
Through an innovative multidisciplinary approach - integrating history, religious studies, gender studies, anthropology, and both Iranian and European studies - TRAVELS seeks to bridge this gap by analysing 52 diaries to uncover crucial details about community’s geography, traditions, and interactions, as well as European perceptions of this minority. To balance the Eurocentric standpoint, TRAVELS will consider Parsi records and the scant Zoroastrian Iranian literature of the time. Indeed, despite the halt in official ties, Iranian Zoroastrians initiated a new wave of migration abroad due to oppression, a trend that continues today with Zoroastrians moving to Western countries. TRAVELS also aims to link the Modern Age with the contemporary world, by incorporating narratives of today’s Canadian and British Zoroastrian communities into the historical discourse through interviews and archival research.
The immediate outcome will be a reconstruction of the history of Zoroastrians in Iran, attentive to internal diversity, such as gender and social disparities, and placing this history within a global context. From a long-term perspective, by leveraging European sources and a multidisciplinary approach, TRAVELS aims to introduce innovative methodologies and research lines into Zoroastrian studies.