This multicultural reference work on Jewish folklore, legends, customs, and other elements of folklife is the first of its kind.

Scholars and students interested in Jewish folklore and literature will appreciate this diverse collection as well as readers interested in Jewish and Israeli culture.

The volume demonstrates the cultural centrality of the oral tradition for Iranian studies. It contains contributions from scholars from various areas of Iranian and comparative studies, among which are the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition with its wide network of influences in late antique Mesopotamia, notably among the Jewish milieu; classical Persian literature in its manifold genres; medieval Persian history; oral history; folklore and more. The essays in this collection embrace both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, both verbal and visual media, as well as various language communities (Middle Persian, Persian, Tajik, Dari) and geographical spaces (Greater Iran in pre-Islamic and Islamic medieval periods; Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan of modern times). Taken as a whole, the essays reveal the unique blending of oral and literate poetics in the texts or visual artefacts each author focuses upon, conceptualizing their interrelationship and function. Contributors are: Frantz Grenet, Jo-Ann Gross, Charles G. Häberl, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Reuven Kiperwasser, Ulrich Marzolph, Margaret A. Mills, Ravshan Rahmoni, Karl Reichl, Julia Rubanovich, Shaul Shaked, Raya Shani, Dan Y. Shapira, Maria E. Subtelny, Gabrielle R. van den Berg, Yuhan S.-D. Vevaina, Naama Vilozny, Mohsen Zakeri, and Tsila Zan-Bar Tsur.

Unconventional Anthroponyms: Formation Patterns and Discursive Function continues a series of collective volumes comprising studies on onomastics, edited by Oliviu Felecan with Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Previous titles in this series include Name and Naming: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives (2012) and Onomastics in Contemporary Public Space (2013, co-edited with Alina Bugheşiu). In contemporary naming practice, one can distinguish two verbal (linguistic) means of nominal referential identification: a “natural” one, which occurs in the process of conventional, official, canonical, standard naming and results in conventional/official/canonical/standard anthroponyms; a “motivated” one, which occurs in the process of unconventional, unofficial, uncanonical, non-standard naming and results in unconventional/unofficial/uncanonical/non-standard anthroponyms. The significance of an official name is arbitrary, conventional, unmotivated, occasional and circumstantial, as names are not likely to carry any intrinsic meaning; names are given by third parties (parents, godparents, other relatives and so on) with the intention to individualise (to differentiate from other individuals). Any meaning with which a name might be endowed should be credited to the name giver: s/he assigns several potential interpretations to the phonetic form of choice, based on his/her aesthetic and cultural options and other kinds of tastes, which are manifested at a certain time. Unconventional anthroponyms (nicknames, bynames, user names, pseudonyms, hypocoristics, individual and group appellatives that undergo anthroponymisation) are nominal “derivatives” that result from a name giver’s wish to attach a specifying/defining verbal (linguistic) tag to a certain individual. An unconventional anthroponym is a person’s singular signum, which may convey a practical necessity (to avoid anthroponymic homonymy: the existence of several bearers for a particular name) or the intention to qualify a certain human type (to underline specific difference – in this case, the unconventional anthroponym has an over-individualising role – or, on the contrary, to mark an individual’s belonging to a class, his/her association with other individuals with whom s/he is typologically related – see the case of generic unconventional anthroponyms).

Against the methodological backdrop of historical and comparative folk narrative research, 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition surveys the history, dissemination, and characteristics of over one hundred narratives transmitted to Western tradition from or by the Middle Eastern Muslim literatures (i.e., authored written works in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish). For a tale to be included, Ulrich Marzolph considered two criteria: that the tale originates from or at least was transmitted by a Middle Eastern source, and that it was recorded from a Western narrator’s oral performance in the course of the nineteenth or twentieth century. The rationale behind these restrictive definitions is predicated on Marzolph’s main concern with the long-lasting effect that some of the "Oriental" narratives exercised in Western popular tradition—those tales that have withstood the test of time. Marzolph focuses on the originally "Oriental" tales that became part and parcel of modern Western oral tradition. Since antiquity, the "Orient" constitutes the quintessential Other vis-à-vis the European cultures. While delineation against this Other served to define and reassure the Self, the "Orient" also constituted a constant source of fascination, attraction, and inspiration. Through oral retellings, numerous tales from Muslim tradition became an integral part of European oral and written tradition in the form of learned treatises, medieval sermons, late medieval fabliaux, early modern chapbooks, contemporary magazines, and more. In present times, when national narcissisms often acquire the status of strongholds delineating the Us against the Other, it is imperative to distinguish, document, visualize, and discuss the extent to which the West is not only indebted to the Muslim world but also shares common features with Muslim narrative tradition. 101 Middle Eastern Tales and Their Impact on Western Oral Tradition is an important contribution to this debate and a vital work for scholars, students, and readers of folklore and fairy tales.

Light and Shadows highlights the 2,700-year history of Jews in Iran. It reveals centuries of oppression, fascinating cultural borrowings, and great artistic achievements. The story is told through rare archaeological artifacts, illuminated manuscripts, beautiful ritual objects and amulets, ceremonial garments, musical instruments, photographs, and more. It examines as well the large-scale exodus of the Jewish community following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Today, at least 25,000 practicing Jews remain in Iran, unwilling to give up their ancestral home and the distinctive way of life they have led there. Light and Shadows is a co-publication between the Fowler Museum at UCLA and Beit Hatfutsot--The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.