Overview
Jason Sion Mokhtarian is Herbert and Stephanie Neuman Professor in Hebrew and Jewish Literature and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Cornell University. The son of Jewish emigrants from Tehran, Mokhtarian grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and studied at the University of Chicago before earning graduate degrees in Ancient Iranian studies and Late Antique Judaism from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was also a Lady Davis Research Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Mokhtarian is the author of two books and numerous articles and a series co-editor of the Olamot Book Series (Indiana University Press), which translates innovative books by Israeli scholars on a range of topics in Jewish Studies. His first book, "Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests: The Culture of the Talmud in Ancient Iran" (University of California Press, 2015), was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in scholarship and recently translated into Persian. His second book, "Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Therapies between Magic and Science" was published in 2022 (University of California Press). His current research focuses on the Talmud in its Sasanian context, the Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls, and Judeo-Persian translations and commentaries of the Bible. Mokhtarian teaches a range of courses in both Jewish Studies and Iranian Studies and has advised undergraduate and graduate students at Cornell in various capacities.
Courses Taught:
Rabbinic Judaism: Literature and Beliefs (Freshman Writing Seminar)
Introduction to Judaism
Jews, Christians, and Others in Late Antiquity
Sacred Books of the Jews
Medicine, Magic, and Science in the Ancient Near East
Religions of Iran
Research Focus
- Rabbinic Literature
- Iranian Studies
- Talmud in its Sasanian context
- Ancient Jewish magic and medicine
- Religions of Iran
- Sasanian history and culture
- Middle Persian
- Judeo-Persian
- Jews of Persia
Publications
Books
- Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests: The Culture of the Talmud in Ancient Iran (University of California Press, 2015)
- Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Remedies between Magic and Science (University of California Press, 2022).
Edited Volumes
The Aramaic Incantation Bowls in Their Late Antique Contexts (under contract, Brown Judaic Studies). Co-edited with Alexander Marcus.
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, special edition on “Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia.” Co-edited with Kristin Joachimsen (PERSIAS research group).
- Iranian Studies, special edition on “Religious Trends in Late Ancient and Early Islamic Iran.” Volume 48.1 (2015). Co-edited with David Bennett.
Selected Articles
“Families and Lists of Protections in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls” (forthcoming)
“A Judeo-Persian Translation of the Book of Esther (Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Hébreu 127)” (forthcoming)
- “Material Culture of the Jews of Sasanian Mesopotamia.” In A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism: Third Century BCE to Seventh Century CE, eds. Naomi Koltun-Fromm and Gwynn Kessler (Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing, 2020), 145-166.
- “Zoroastrian Polemics against Judaism in the Doubt-Dispelling Exposition.” Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations 3.1 (2018)
- “Clusters of Iranian Loanwords in Talmudic Folklore: The Chapter of the Pious (b. Ta’anit 18b-26a) in Its Sasanian Context.” In The Aggada of the Bavli and Its Cultural World, eds. Geoffrey Herman and Jeffrey L. Rubenstein (Providence: Brown Judaic Studies, 2018), 125-148.
- “Excommunication in Jewish Babylonia: Comparing Bavli Mo‘ed Qatan 14b-17b and the Aramaic Bowl Spells in a Sasanian Context.” Harvard Theological Review 108 (2015): 552-578.
- “Empire and Authority in Sasanian Babylonia: The Rabbis and King Shapur in Dialogue.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 19 (2012): 148-180.
In the news
- Final speaker in series examining antisemitism, Islamophobia
- Jewish Studies celebrates 50 years with speakers, conferences
- New Jewish studies major approved in College of Arts & Sciences
- Ancient Jewish text preserves real-world remedies
- Call for papers for December 2022 Workshop on Judeo-Persian Literature
- Mokhtarian co-organizes conference on magic bowls
- Four A&S faculty honored with endowed professorships