Nicholas Sims-Williams, FBA (born 11 April 1949, Chatham, Kent) is a British professor of the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

(SOAS),

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

, where he is the Research Professor of

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

and Central Asian Studies at the Department of the Languages and Cultures of Near and Middle East. Sims-Williams is a scholar who specializes in

Central Asian Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

history, particularly the study of Sogdian and Bactrian languages. He is also a member of the advisory council of the ''Iranian Studies'' journal. Sims-Williams recently worked on a dedicatory Sogdian inscription, dated to the 1st–3rd centuries CE, that was discovered at Kultobe in Kazakhstan. It alludes to military operations of the principal towns of Sogdiana against the nomads in the north. The inscription tends to confirm the confederational organization of the Kangju state and its various allies that was known previously from the Chinese texts.Nicholas Sims-Williams and Franz Grenet, ''The Sogdian Inscriptions of Kultobe,'' Shygys (Almaty), 2006, pp. 95–111.

Publications

His published works include: * "Sogdian and other Iranian inscriptions of the Upper Indus II", London (1992) * "Bactrian ownership inscriptions" BAI 7, pp173–9 (1993) * "New light on ancient Afghanistan: the decipherment of Bactrian", London (1997) * "Bactrian documents from Northern Afghanistan I: Legal and economic documents" Oxford (2000) * "Recent discoveries in the Bactrian language and their historical significance", Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage (Afghanistan). (2004) * "Some Bactrian seal-inscriptions" in "Afghanistan, ancien carrefour entre l'est et l'ouest" BREPOLS * Nicholas Sims-Williams and Franz Grenet, ''The Sogdian Inscriptions of Kultobe,'' Shygys (Almaty), 2006, pp. 95–111. * Nicholas Sims-Williams, Franz Grenet, and Alexandr N. Podushkin, ''Les plus anciens monuments de la langue sogdienne: les inscriptions de Kultobe au Kazakhstan,'' Compte-rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2007 009pp. 1005, 1025–1033. * Nicholas Sims-Williams (ed.), ''Biblical and other Christian Sogdian texts from the Turfan Collection'', Turnhout: Brepols, 2014. * "A new Bactrian Inscription from the time of

Kanishka Kanishka I (Sanskrit: कनिष्क, '; Greco-Bactrian: Κανηϸκε ''Kanēške''; Kharosthi: 𐨐𐨞𐨁𐨮𐨿𐨐 '; Brahmi: '), or Kanishka, was an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, under whose reign (c. 127–150 CE) the empire ...

." In: ''Kushan Histories: Literary Sources and Selected Papers from a Symposium at Berlin, December 5 to 7, 2013''. Edited by Harry Falk. Hempen Verlag, Bremen (2015), pp. 255–264.

References

External links

Bactrian documents from Ancient AfghanistanNicholas Sims-Williams profileNicholas Sims-Williams MAHRS Profile
Academics of SOAS University of London Iranologists Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the French Academy of Sciences Living people 1949 births People from Chatham, Kent Zoroastrian studies scholars Fellows of the British Academy {{UK-academic-bio-stub