Maria Macuch held the chair in Iranian Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin prior to her retirement. She is editor of the series Iranica since 1993 (together with Alberto Cantera since 2015).
Her research focuses mainly on pre-Islamic Iranian law and its impact on other legal systems of the Near East in late antiquity, particularly Rabbinic, Eastern Christian and Islamic law in its formative period.
Her publications include an edition of the most important legal source for the Sasanian period, the book of “One Thousand Judgements”, besides other Middle Persian legal texts. A significant part of her research consists in determining the meanings of technical terms and deciphering the specific juristic jargon of the texts, besides reconstructing the legal system and institutions of the Sasanian period.
In recent years she has primarily worked (together with Dieter Weber) on newly found original legal documents from eighth century Tabarestān, written in the Pahlavi cursive script. She is currently preparing a monograph with the title Sasanian Law in its Social Context.
Many of her publications are accessible at https://fu-berlin.academia.edu/MariaMacuch.
