IRAN AND THE CAUCASUS, the annual international academic journal of the Caucasian Center for Iranian Studies, Yerevan (CCIS), founded in 1997 by Garnik Asatrian, the head of the center. The journal was conceived as a multidisciplinary Orientalistic periodical of the center, which had already published the Armenian Journal of Oriental Studies, Iran-Nameh, and Acta Kurdica (both founded and edited by Garnik Asatrian). The latter was later incorporated into Iran and the Caucasus with its wider thematic spectrum. The emergence of this journal was the logical continuation of the more than century-long tradition of Armenian Oriental studies, which thus responded to the growing international interest in the sensitive Irano-Caucasian region.
The journal started with an approach different from the ones taken by those local academic schools, whose representatives used domestic viewpoints in their study of regional problems. Special attention was paid to Caucasian and Northern Caucasian scholarship, which so far had been published mainly in languages not usually made available to or read by scholars worldwide. In contrast, Iran and the Caucasus has been an international scholarly journal from the very first issue, representing the scholarly traditions and products of both East and West.
As reflected in the title, the journal presents an extensive range of various interests, covering all aspects (history, linguistics, literature, folklore, textology, religion, archeology, economic and politics, etc.) of the so-called Irano-Caucasica. The term Iran is applied here to the vast area from Asia Minor to India, including Central Asia, that is, all territories that have ever been within the political boundaries of Iran, or inhabited by Iranian peoples, or have been influenced by Iranian culture.
The journal is divided into four major sections: history and culture, linguistics, historico-political issues, and book reviews. The journal is run by an editorial board consisting of the editor and three associated editors: Victoria Arakelova (CCIS, Yerevan), Uwe Blaesing (University of Leiden), and Giusto Traina (Université Paris-Sorbonne). It also benefits from the services of an advisory board.
The first five volumes (1997-2001) were published in Tehran by the International Publication of Iranian Studies (Entešārāt-e bayn-al-melali barā-ye moṭālaʿāt-e irāni) and the following volumes by Brill Academic Publishers in Leiden. The contents of the first two volumes were mostly in English and Russian, while in the next three volumes German and French joined English as the prevailing languages. Since 2004 the journal has appeared in two separate fascicles of 170-200 pages per year (in May and December) in English (about 70 percent), German, and French, with English summaries. For further details regarding the journal, see Ḥabib Borjiān, “Irān wa Qafqāz, maqālat-e taḥqiqi az Markaz-e Irān-šenāsi dar Qafqāz,” Iranshenasi/Irānšenāsi 13/1, 2001, pp. 180-93.
(Victoria Arakelova)
Originally Published: December 15, 2006
Last Updated: March 30, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5, pp. 485-486
This article is a revision of Victoria Arakelova, “IRAN AND THE CAUCASUS,” Encyclopædia Iranica, XIII/5, pp. 485-486, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-and-the-caucasus (accessed on 17 July 201y).
