Developing Digital Resources for Middle Iranian Textual Corpora
Adam Benkato, Professor
Near Eastern Studies
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
This project consists of two parts: the 'Open Archive of Middle Persian Documents' and 'Chorasmian Online'. The goal is to make primary source material and lexicographical material available to researchers online. We will probably work on both projects in tandem or on alternating weeks, as the tasks and skills required are quite similar.
Role: The first part involves the digitizing and encoding of Middle Persian documents for the creation of an online database of M.P. documents covering the 3rd to 8th centuries CE. We will be working to complete a database of bibliographic references and manuscript characteristics, transfer published editions and translations of Middle Persian documents to a digital form, and eventually encode the editions in XML format for uploading to the database. For this part, interested students may also have the chance to work in the special collections of the Bancroft Library and learn how to handle, study, and catalog original Middle Persian documents.
The second part involves the digitization of an unpublished dictionary of the Chorasmian language (11th-14th centuries CE) to make available to researchers online. We have already prepared digital versions (using OCR) of the unpublished print materials. These need to be corrected by comparison with the original, and then the individual entries will be reformatted. The final stage will be to create and correct XML documents for each entry.
Note that knowledge of Middle Persian or Chorasmian is not required for this project, as all the texts we work with use Latin-based transcription. (Although some knowledge of those languages may be gained through the research.)
Qualifications: Students should be meticulous and detail-oriented, especially in verifying bibliographical information, transferring/transcribing text from print to digital, and correcting OCR/scanning errors. A familiarity with academic citation styles will be useful. Knowledge of source languages is not necessary; a basic familiarity with French or German (for book titles etc.) will be handy but can also be obtained through a bit of experience.
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Related website: https://melc.berkeley.edu/people/adam-benkato
Arts & Humanities