Department of Religions and Philosophies
Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism, co-chair
SOAS South Asia Institute
Academic Staff
Centre for Iranian Studies
Member
Centre of Buddhist Studies
Committee Member, Centre of Buddhist Studies
Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies
Member, Curator, Principal Investigator
Almut Hintze studied Indo-European philology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Oxford and earned her PhD in Indo-Iranian Studies at the University of Erlangen.
After her habilitation in Berlin with a study of the semantics of “reward” in Ancient Iranian (Avestan) and Vedic Sanskrit texts, she spent a term at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Subsequently she became Research Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge and was appointed to the Zartoshty Brothers post at SOAS in 2001.
She was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2015.
Research interests
Indo-Iranian philology, Zoroastrian literature and religion
Current Research Project (ERC Advanced Investigator Grant 2016-2021): The Multimedia Yasna (MUYA)
The Multimedia Yasna project examines the performance and written transmission of the core ritual of the Zoroastrian tradition, the Yasna, whose oldest parts date from the second millennium BCE. Composed in an ancient Iranian language, Avestan, the texts were transmitted orally and not written down until the fifth or sixth century C.E. The oral tradition continues to be central to the religion and the daily Yasna ceremony, the most important of all the rituals, is recited from memory by Zoroastrian priests.
The interpretation of the Yasna has long been hampered by out-dated editions and translations of the text and until now there has been no documentation and study of the performance of the full ritual. The project MUYA will examine both the oral and written traditions. It will film a performance of the Yasna ritual and create a critical edition of the recitation text examining the Yasna both as a performance and as a text attested in manuscripts. The two approaches will be integrated to answer questions about the meaning and function of the Yasna in a historical perspective.
Combining models and methodologies from digital humanities, philology and linguistics, the project will produce a subtitled, interactive film of the Yasna ritual, an online platform of transcribed manuscripts and editorial tools together with print editions, translations and commentaries of the Avestan Yasna. Information which was formerly restricted to students of Iranian philology and practising Zoroastrians will now become accessible to a world-wide audience through digital humanities. The project, based at SOAS, is headed by Almut Hintze as PI with an international team of researchers in the UK, Germany, India and Iran. It provides positions for three full-time and one part-time postdoctoral researchers (PDR), and three fully funded PhD scholarships.
The Historical Origins and Development of the Neo-Zoroastrian Movement: An ethnographic study of Neo-Zoroastrian settlements in Europe and North America
A Study of the Relations between the Arab Caliphate and Other Political Entities (the Sogdians, Chinese, Turks and Tibetans) in Transoxiana from 705 AD to the 810s AD
Die Indogermanen und das Pferd. Akten des Internationalen interdisziplinären Kolloquiums Freie Universität Berlin, 1.-3. Juli 1992. Bernfried Schlerath zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet.
Hänsel, B, (eds.), Zimmer, Stefan, (eds.), with collaboration of Dunkelmann, M. L., (eds.) and Hintze, Almut, (eds.) (1994). Budapest: Archaeolingua Alapitvany. (Archaeolingua)
An enigmatic word in the Gathas: auuǝ̄mīrā in Yasna 49.10
Hintze, Almut (2024). In: Cantera, Alberto, (eds.), Pirart, Éric Victor, (eds.) and Redard, Celine, (eds.), at̰ hōi aōjī zaraϑuštrō paōuruuīm ¿Habló Zaraϑuštra? Homenaje a Jean Kellens en su 80º anniversario. Girona: Sociedad de Estudios Iranios y Turanios, pp 125-135
Hintze, Almut (2023). In: Grebe, Matthias, (eds.) and Grössl, Johannes, (eds.), T and T Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil. London: Bloomsbury, pp 577-588
Interactions between religious minorities and the Zoroastrian fire temple in the light of new clay sealings from Taḵt-e Solaymān
Moradi, Yousef and Hintze, Almut (2023). In: Gyselen, Rika, (ed.), Reflets d'époques sassanide et post-sassanide (224-760). Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l'étude de la civilisation du Moyen-Orient, pp 153-176
The main seal of the sanctuary of Ādur Gušnasp and some other administrative sealings from Taḵt-e Solaymān
Moradi, Yousef and Hintze, Almut (2022). In: Gyselen, Rika, (ed.), Sometimes Sasanian, always Ēr. Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l'étude de la civilisation du Moyen-Orient, pp 75-99
A new sealing of Pērōz from Tak̠t-e Solaymān and its historical context
Moradi, Yousef and Hintze, Almut (2020). In: Gyselen, Rika, (ed.), Persia, 552 BCE-758 CE : primary sources, old and new. Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l'étude de la civilisation du Moyen-Orient, pp 111-134
Defeating Death: Eschatology in Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity
Hintze, Almut (2019). In: Rubanovich, Julia, (eds.) and Herman, Geoffrey, (eds.), Irano-Judaica VII Studies relating to Jewish contacts with Persian culture throughout the ages. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, pp 23-72
Zoroastrian afterlife beliefs and funerary practices. In: Chr. Moormann (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying. London and New York: Routledge 2017, 86–97
Hintze, Almut (2017). In: Moreman, Christopher M., (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, pp 86-97
Scribes and Their Patrons: on the Merit of Copying Manuscripts in the Zoroastrian Tradition
Hintze, Almut (2017). In: Hintze, Almut, (eds.) and Williams, Alan, (eds.), Holy Wealth: Accounting for This World and the Next in Religious Belief and Practice. Festschrift for John R. Hinnells. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp 145-164
Hintze, Almut (2013). In: Pirart, Eric, (ed.), Le sort des Gâthâs et autres études iraniennes in memoriam Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin. Leuven; Paris; Walpole: Peeters, pp 53-73
On the Prophetic and Priestly Authority of Zarathustra
Hintze, Almut (2012). In: Choksy, Jamshed, (eds.) and Dubeansky, Jennifer, (eds.), Gifts to a Magus: Indo-Iranian Studies Honoring Firoze Kotwal. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, pp 43-58
Sundermann, Werner, Hintze, Almut and De Blois, Francois (2009). In: Sundermann, Werner, (ed.), Exegisti monumenta. Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp xiii-xxiv
Hintze, Almut (2009). In: Tremblay, Xavier, (eds.) and Pirart, Eric, (eds.), Zarathushtra entre l’Inde et l’Iran. Études indo-iraniennes et indo-européennes offertes à Jean Kellens à l’occasion de son 65e anniversaire. Wiesbaden: Reichert, pp 129-144
The Return of the Fravashis in the Avestan Calendar
Hintze, Almut (2009). In: Durkin-Meisterernst, Desmond, (eds.), Reck, Christiane, (eds.) and Weber, Dieter, (eds.), Literarische Stoffe und ihre Gestaltung in mitteliranischer Zeit. Kolloquium anlässlich des 70. Geburtstages von Werner Sundermann. Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, pp 99-121
Hintze, Almut (2009). In: Emmerick, Ronald E., (eds.) and Macuch, Maria, (eds.), The Literature of Pre-Islamic Iran. Companion Volume I to A History of Persian Literature. London: Taurus, pp 1-71
Treasure in Heaven. A Theme in Comparative Religion
Hintze, Almut (2008). In: Shaked, Shaul, (eds.) and Netzer, Amnon, (eds.), Irano-Judaica. Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture Throughout the Ages. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, pp 9-36
Hintze, Almut (2007). In: Maggi, Mauro, (eds.), Sundermann, Werner, (eds.) and Macuch, Maria, (eds.), Iranian Languages and Texts from Iran and Turan: Ronald Emmerick Memorial Volume.. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp 110-134
On the compositional structure of the Avestan Gāhs
Hintze, Almut (2007). In: Pedersen, Claus, (eds.) and Vahman, F., (eds.), Religious Texts in Iranian Languages: symposium held in Copenhagen May 2002. København: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, pp 29-43
When the Stars Rise: the Avestan Expression aiβisrūϑrima- aibigaiia-
Hintze, Almut (2003). In: Cereti, Carlo G., (eds.), Maggi, Mauro, (eds.) and Provasi, Elio, (eds.), Religious themes and texts of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia: Studies in honour of Professor Gherardo Gnoli on the occasion of his 65th birthday on 6 December 2002. Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, pp 143-155
Zur Uberlieferung der altesten Zeugnisse indoiranischer Sprachen
Hintze, Almut (2000). In: Nishina, Y, (ed.), Europa et Asia polyglotta : Sprachen und Kulturen : Festschrift für Robert Schmitt-Brandt zum 70. Geburtstag. Röll: Dettelbach, pp 67-85
Hintze, Almut (2000). In: Forssman, Bernhard, (eds.) and Plath, Robert, (eds.), Indoarisch, Iranisch und die Indogermanistik. Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 2. bis 5. Oktober 1997 in Erlangen. Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, pp 163-175
Hintze, Almut (2000). In: Modi, Homai N., (ed.), Indo-Persian Relations. Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Bombay 6–9 January 2000. Mumbai: K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, pp 110-123
The Saviour and the Dragon in Iranian and Jewish/Christian Eschatology
Hintze, Almut (1999). In: Shaked, Shaul, (eds.) and Netzer, Amnon, (eds.), Irano-Judaica IV. Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture Throughout the Ages. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, pp 72-90
Kategorienwechsel und funktionale Umdeutung im Präsens und Aorist
Hintze, Almut (1999). In: Habisreitinger, Jürgen, (eds.), Plath, Robert, (eds.) and Ziegler, Sabine, (eds.), Gering und doch von Herzen. 25 indogermanistische Beiträge Bernhard Forssman zum 65. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, pp 101-114
Hintze, Almut (1998). In: Meid, Wolfgang, (ed.), Sprache und Kultur der Indogermanen. Akten der 10.Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Innsbruck 22.-29.9.1996. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, pp 139-153, 1 map
Hintze, Almut (1998). In: Wiesehöfer, Josef, (ed.), Das Partherreich und seine Zeugnisse. Akten des Kolloquiums Eutin 27.–29. Juni 1996. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, pp 147-161
Compositional Techniques in the Yašts of the Younger Avesta
Hintze, Almut (1995). In: Fragner, Bert, (eds.), Fragner, Christa, (eds.), Gnoli, Gherardo, (eds.), Haag-Higuchi, Roxane, (eds.), Maggi, Mauro, (eds.) and Orsatti, Paola, (eds.), Proceedings of the Second European Conference of Iranian Studies held in Bamberg, Sept. 30–Oct.4, 1991. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, pp 277-286
Review: Alan Williams, The Zoroastrian Myth of Migration from Iran and Settlement in the Indian Diaspora. Text and Analysis of the 16th Century Qeṣṣe-ye Sanjān ‘The Story of Sanjān’
Hintze, Almut (2012). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (22) 2, pp 468-473
A seamless portrait of a neglected culture. Review of Pheroza J. Godrej and Firoza Punthakey Mistree, A Zoroastrian Tapestry. Art, Religion and Culture. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd. and Middletown (USA): Grantha Corporation, 2002, 762pp., numerous plates and illustrations
Hintze, Almut (2004). The Times Higher Education Supplement 1628, pp 30
Review: Martin Kümmel, Stativ und Passivaorist im Indoiranischen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1996, (Historische Sprachforschung, Ergänzungsheft 39)
Review: Anne Potthoff, Lateinische Kleidungsbezeichnungen in synchroner und diachroner Sicht. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, 1992, 266 p., 5 Abb.
BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking. Buses, beer and VR - a taste of university research. Episode about “Living Zoroastrianism”, using VR to experience a Zoroastrian fire ritual, at Being Human festival launch event at Senate House on 13 Nov. 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00014qk (starting at minute 29).
