Nicholas Sims-Williams
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
File:Nicholas Sims-Williams. Berlin Symposium on Kushans. Dec. 2013.JPG, Dec. 2013]]
Nicholas Sims-Williams, FBA (born 11 April 1949, Chatham, Kent)Exegisti monumenta: Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams, Wiesbaden 2009, p. XIII. ([https://archive.org/stream/ExegistiMonumentaFestschriftInHonourOfNicholasSims-williamsiranica17/FestschriftInHonourOfSims-williams#page/n1/mode/2up Internet Archive]). is a British professor of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London,{{cite web |title= Achaemenid inscription names uncle of Darius in Old Persian for first time |url= http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=166159 |date= 13 April 2008 |work= Tehran Times|accessdate=13 June 2009}} where he is the Research Professor of Iranian 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 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 was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, at the same time as his twin brother, the Celtic Studies scholar Patrick Sims-Williams; he graduated with BA, MA (Cantab.) and PhD degrees.{{Who's Who | title = SIMS-WILLIAMS, Prof. Nicholas John | id = U34969 | volume = 2024 | edition = online}} Sims-Williams has 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 {{ISBN|0-19-727502-8}} (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 {{ISBN|2-503-51681-5}}
- 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 [2009] pp. 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." 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
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070610192252/http://www.gengo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~hkum/bactrian.html Bactrian documents from Ancient Afghanistan]
- [http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff31817.php Nicholas Sims-Williams profile]
- [http://www.mahrs.org/members/n_sims-williams.php Nicholas Sims-Williams MAHRS Profile]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims-Williams, Nicholas}}
Category:Academics of SOAS University of London
Category:Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society
Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Category:People from Chatham, Kent
Category:Zoroastrian studies scholars
Category:Fellows of the British Academy
Category:Presidents of the Philological Society
{{UK-academic-bio-stub}}