Introduction: Religious Diversity in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iran

The papers published in this volume of the Journal of Persianate Societies were read during the workshop organized at Sapienza University of Rome on 21 November 2019 to celebrate the opening of the Mediterranean regional branch of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) based at the Research Centre for Cooperation with Eurasia, the Mediterranean, and Sub-Saharan Africa (CEMAS) at the Sapienza University of Rome and the beginning of a new series of seminars entitled “Parlane con Sapienza, Uno Sguardo Oltre,” dedicated to the societies and history of the Middle East and North Africa. These lectures were meant to foster our university’s “third mis-sion” activities, by targeting diverse audiences. The Mediterranean regional branch will both strengthen the scientific debate and expand the international academic network of ASPS by engaging scholars interested in studying the vast territory stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indo-Gangetic plains from Antiquity to the modern period. At the same time, the cycle of conferences on the Middle East will allow us to better under-stand the complexity of regions and societies in continuous transformation by opening a dialogue that goes beyond the boundaries of the academic world and involves different constituents of the civil society. On the occasion of the first workshop, scholars in the field of Iranian Studies have delivered lectures focusing on religious diversity in late Antique and early Medieval Iran. The multi-faceted approaches characteristic of the paper that were submitted for publication will provide an in-depth perspective on such a challenging socio-cultural context.