Afghanistan Through the Ages - Voices in Stone, Script and Story

This interdisciplinary workshop series brings together scholars, students, and the wider public to explore the rich and layered histories of the region centred around present-day Afghanistan and its neighbours. Spanning the highlands of the Hindukush and Pamirs to the riverine and desert plains, the series delves into the lives, languages, and literatures that have shaped this pivotal region over the centuries.

Through sessions on history, archaeology, philology, and literary traditions, we examine how people have written, spoken, remembered, and imagined Afghanistan across time. Special attention is given to the resilience of cultural and linguistic expressions under pressure — from imperial rule to modern upheaval. As Afghanistan’s past continues to reverberate through contemporary questions of identity, heritage, and displacement, this series invites new conversations grounded in textual, material, and human traces.

Program

October 1, 2025: Riccardo Bonotto (Inalco-EHESS) - room 4.21 
An economic history of the Sikhs of Afghanistan

November 5, 2025: Alya karame (Orient-Institut Beirut) - room 3.16
The Qur'ans of the Ghaznavids and Ghurids: New Genres

December 3, 2025: Ella Kempf (Inalco-Cermi) - room 3.01
Mountains, plants and people: Agriculture and botanical knowledge in the Bamiyân Valley from the Middle Ages to the present day

January 14, 2026: Laurianne Sève (Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan) - room 3.01
New research on Aï Khanoum (Afghanistan)

February 4, 2026: Stefano Pelló (University of Venice Ca' Foscari) - room 3.01
Kafiristan in Persian Sources (ca.1500-1800): Ethnographical Imagination across the Hindukush

March 4, 2026: Alka Patel (Université d'Aix Marseille) - room 3.01
Near and Far - Afghanistan and India

April 1, 2026: Xavier Hermand (EHESS-Paris) - room 3.01
Tnot respectable enough to become Muslim: tradespeople and religious change

May 6, 2026: Maria Szuppe (CNRS-Cermi) - room 3.01
Histories of families: the Barnabadi Khojas and their political and economic networks in Herat, 16th-18th centuries

June 3, 2026: Mohammad Ali Dinakhel (Inalco-Cermi) - room 3.01
Pashto Across Borders: Language Planning and Identity in Afghanistan and Pakistan (20th-21st Centuries)

Organizers

• Arezou Azad, Chair and Junior Professor, The Art and Heritage of Afghanistan, Inalco
• Matteo de Chiara, University Professor (Pashto language and literature - Iranian philology), Inalco ; Deputy Director of the Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien (CeRMI)

This lecture series is funded by: Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien (CeRMI), the Invisible East programme, and the ANR project, “Pashtu Literature between Identity and Contact (PLIC).”

To listen to the seminar online, please join the zoom on the dates and times indicated for each session, using the QR code on the left at the bottom of the poster to download below.