Central Eurasian Studies

Phone:

(812) 855-8358

Email:

jmokhtar@indiana.edu

Department:

Affiliated Faculty

Campus:

IU Bloomington

Education

Ph.D. University of California, 2011

Research Interests

• Ancient Judaism
• Rabbinics
• Jews of Ancient Persia
• Talmud in its Iranian Context
• Ancient Iranian Studies

Courses Recently Taught

• Introduction to Judaism
• Introduction to Jewish History: From the Bible to the Spanish Expulsion
• Torah, Temple, and God in Ancient Judaism
• Rabbinic Judaism: Literature and Beliefs

Publication Highlights

"Empire and Authority in Sasanian Babylonia: The Rabbis and King Shapur in Dialogue," Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 19.2 (2012), 148-180.

“Rabbinic Depictions of the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great: The Babylonian Esther Midrash (bMeg. 10b-17a) in its Iranian Context,” in The Talmud in its Iranian Context, eds. Carol Bakhos and M. Rahim Shayegan (Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen, 2010), 112-139.