H-Judaic is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Shaul Shaked (1933-2021), Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies, Religious Studies, Aramaic and Magic in Late Antiquity at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; winner of the Israel Prize; a member of the Israel Academy of Arts and Sciences; and one of Israel's most esteemed scholars. ...Professor Shaked appeared from time to time in PaleoJudaica posts, mostly to do with the Aramaic incantation bowls and the Afgan geniza. A Festschrift for him was published in 2019. H-Judaic has another memorial note on him here.
I thanked him for his help with the Aramaic incantation bowls in the preface to my 2001 book Descenders to the Chariot. That was all by e-mail correspondence. But I finally did meet him in person in 2014 at the Iranian Kingship Workshop. There are photos of him at that post. He was a very gracious gentleman.
May his memory be for a blessing.
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