Evangelos Venetis
Evangelos Venetis received his first degree in history (1999) and an MA in medieval history (Sasanian-Byzantine diplomatic relations, 2001) from the University of Ioannina, Greece. He holds a PhD in Islamic and Iranian Studies from the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, the University of Edinburgh, UK (2006). He is currently a Research Associate in Islamic and Iranian studies at the School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies, the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. Venetis has published various articles in scientific journals and he is the coauthor of the Bibliographika Sasanika, vol. 1 (Costa Mesa – CA, 2007). His book "The Iskandarnama (Book of Alexander): An Analysis of an Anonymous Persian Prose Romance" will be published soon. His research interests focus on classical Persian literature, history and Sasanian Iran while his special research area is that of Graeco-Iranian Studies. He is the founder and director of the Society for Hellenic-Iranian Studies.
Touraj Daryaee
Touraj Daryaee was born in Tehran, Iran in 1967. His elementary and secondary schooling was in Tehran, Iran and Athens, Greece. Daryaee took his Ph.D. in History at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1999. He specializes in the history and culture of Ancient Persia. His most recent articles include: “History, Epic, and Numismatics: On the Title of Yazdgerd I (Ramšahr),” Journal of the American Numismatic Society, vol. 14, 2002(2003), pp. 89-95; “Gayomard: King of Clay or Mountain? The epithet of the First Man in the Zoroastrian Tradition,” Paitimana, Essays in Iranian, Indo-European, and Indian Studies in Honor of Hanns-Peter Schmidt, Mazda Press, 2003, pp. 339-349; “Sight, Semen, and the Brain: Ancient Persian Notions of Physiology in Old and Middle Iranian Texts,” The Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 30, nos. 1&2, 2002, pp. 1-26; “The Changing ‘image of the World’: Geography and Imperial Propaganda in Ancient Persia,” Electrum, Studies in Ancient History, vol. 6, 2002, pp. 99-109. His books include Šahrestaniha i Eranšahr, A Middle Persian Text on Late Antique Geography, Epic, and History, Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa, 2002; History & Culture of the Sasanians, Qoqnoos Press, Tehran, 2003; and Menog i Xrad: The Spirit of Wisdom, Essays in Memory of Ahmad Tafazzoli, Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa, 2003. He is also the editor of the Name-ye Iran-e Bastan, The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies.