Raffaelli, Enrico

Enrico Giuseppe Raffaelli did his undergraduate studies at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", specializing in Iranian studies, with a focus on Zoroastrianism and the languages of pre-Islamic Iran. He did his PhD studies on Zoroastrianism between 1999 and 2004 in conjunction between the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Section of Religious Sciences of Paris. 

 

He spent one year conducting post-doctorate research in St. Petersburg, Russia, between 2004 and 2005.

 

He currently offers graduate and undergraduate courses on the history, the rituals and the literature of the Zoroastrian religion.

 

He is the author of the book L’oroscopo del mondo (“The Horoscope of the World”, 2001), dealing with astrology in Zoroastrianism, its relation with Mesopotamian, Classical and Indian astrology, and its influence on Islamic astrology. He has also published  several articles and book chapters on astrology in pre-Islamic Iran, and on the Avestan and Middle Persian literature.

 

His present areas of interest include the history of pre-Islamic Iranian literature, with a particular focus on the Avestan literature and its exegeses in Middle Persian, and the Apocalyptic genre in the Zoroastrian literature.