The Jews of Central Asia: history and cuisine

Online article from the Jerusalem Post in which chef Dennis Wasko explores the history of the Bukharian Jews of today's Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, including their cuisine.
A recipe for Bukharian Plov (a chicken and rice dish) is included!

Oriental Orthodox church history : open-access texts via ...

Goussen Library (Universität Bonn)

The Goussen Library on Oriental church history was collected by Heinrich Goussen (d.1927) and has been the subject of a digitisation project by the Universität Bonn since 2007.

This open access collection comprises over 1,000 digitised documents and books dating from the 16^th – 20^th centuries in Western languages, and also in Syrian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian and Georgian, among others.

Links to this resource will shortly be added to the Library subject guide for Religions, under Electronic Publications, and Individual Religions: Christianity

The Hebrew God: lectures from the Collège de France

Go to the Collège de France's website to download copies of course material from Thomas Römer's ongoing lecture series "Le dieu Yhwh: ses origines, ses cultes, sa transformation en dieu unique".


This comprises bibliographies and PowerPoint presentations (in French)

Jainism in 2nd century India

Article from the online edition of the Indian newspaper The Hindu reports on the discovery of a fragment bearing Tamil-Brahmin script at Pattanam in the Ernakulam district of Kerala that establishes the presence of Jainism on the west coast of India in the 2nd century AD.

"Hymns of Zoroaster": online article

This feature from the news website Today's Zaman looks at the historical background to Professor M.L. West's recently published "The hymns of Zoroaster: a new translation of the most ancient sacred texts of Iran".
For more details and book reviews, go to publisher I.B. Tauris' website.

SOAS Library has a copy at PLB295 / 733763

Syrian Christianity: 2 news reports

Syrian Christian texts preservation project
Report from the MSN website outlining a new project to "trace, catalogue and digitise lost documents relating to religious practices, culture and heritage of Syrian Christians of Kerala"

Threat to Syro-Orthodox monastery
Report from Zenit website on the accusations of proselytism against the monks of the Mor-Gabriel monastery in Turkey (founded in the 4th century AD) and other claims by the local community that are threatening the monastery's survival.
(Zenit is a non-profit Roman Catholic news organisation that aims "to view the modern world through the messages of the Pope and the Holy See")

Christian wedding, Jewish rites (New York Times article)

This feature from the New York Times looks at the growing popularity among evangelical Christians in the USA of incorporating Jewish marriage rituals into wedding ceremonies as a way of connecting to Christianity's Jewish origins. The feature also gives a short overview of the origins and traditions of the Jewish rites