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Biases and Misuse in an Age of Prejudice:
The Case of the Zoroastrians of Iran in the Modern Period
Thursday, March 12, 4 -5pm
Persian Studies Room, Humanities Gateway HG1341
Lecture by Massimiliano Vassalli
*This event is co-sponosred by UCI Department of Classics and Religious Studies
This lecture proposes a methodology for reconstructing the history of Iran’s Zoroastrians between 1773 and 1854, a period marked by a severe lack of local sources. It critically reassesses external testimonies, including Parsi visitors’ accounts and European travel narratives, by contextualizing them against their cultural, ideological, and historiographical biases. Through a comparative reading of these sources and a systematic critique of Eurocentric perspectives and the misuse of ancient evidence, the approach aims to extract historically reliable data despite fragmentary and prejudiced documentation.