Professor Gherardo Gnoli, currently professor of Religious history of Iran and Central Asia at “La Sapienza” University in Rome and formerly professor of Iranian philology in Naples, is a distinguished scholar in the field of Iranian studies, especially Iranian religions. His scientific career has seen him engaged mainly in the study of the religious and secular history of the Iranian world as against the general background of studies on Late Antiquity. In this field he has written extensively on Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, the origin of the idea of Iran and the relationship between throne and Zoroastrian church in pre-Islamic Iran.Besides a complete bibliography of his works up to 2001, the volume contains forty-one papers (23 in English, 8 in French, 7 in German and 3 in Italian) dedicated to him by colleagues, friends and former students to honour him on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The papers reflect the research interests of the dedicatee in that they deal with a variety of themes relating to Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Christianity, Buddhism and the multifarious religious history of pre-Islamic Iran approached mainly, but not exclusively, from a historical and philological point of view.The sujects of the papers range from the relationships between Zoroastrianism and society to the reflexes of religious beliefs on several Iranian languages, from religious iconography to the composition techniques of religious texts, from the history of Avestan studies in the 20th century to the analysis of religious concepts and ideas. The volume also contains a number of previously unpublished or untranslated religious texts as well as re-editions and new translations. The papers cover all Old and Middle Iranian languages (Avestan, Old and Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Khotanese, Bactrian) and also New Persian, Ossetic and other New Iranian languages. Contributors: A. D. H. Bivar, F. de Blois, A. Cantera, C. G. Cereti and D. N. MacKenzie †, I. Colditz, S. Cristoforetti, E. Filippone, R. N. Frye, Ph. Gignoux, F. Grenet, R. Gyselen, C. Herrenschmidt, A. Hintze, H. Humbach, M. Hutter, Ph. Huyse, A. de Jong, J. Josephson, J. Kellens, G. Lazard, M. Macuch, M. Maggi, E. Morano, A. Panaino, E. Pirart, A. Piras, E. Provasi, Ch. Reck, A. V. Rossi, G. Scarcia, R. Schmitt, M. Schwartz, Sh. Shaked, N. Sims-Williams, P. O. Skjærvø, W. Sundermann, Ph. Swennen, M. Vitalone, D. Weber, J. Wiesehöfer and Y. Yoshida.weiterlesen