Table of Contents
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MĀ WARĀʾ AL-NAHR
C. Edmund Bosworth
the classical designation for Transoxania or Transoxiana. It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or Āmu Daryā.
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MAʿĀYEB AL-REJĀL
Afsaneh Najmabadi
a treatise written in 1894 by Bibi Ḵānom Estarābādi/Astarābādi as a counterargument to the anonymous Taʾdib al-neswān/Taʾdib al-nesāʾ, a tract on how to discipline women, published in the mid-19th century.
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MACHALSKI, FRANCISZEK
Anna Krasnowolska
(1904-1979), Polish Iranist. Some of his best papers are devoted to cultural and political life in Pahlavi Persia.
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MACKENZIE, DAVID NEIL
Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst
Believing that the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies would be the institution most suited to his interests, Mackenzie enrolled there in September 1948. Because Pashto was not offered, he chose Persian, and completed the three-year B.A. course in 1951.
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MADĀʾEN
Michael Morony
the Sasanian metropolitan area of several contiguous cities, on both sides of the Tigris and connected by floating bridges, about 35 km southeast of Abbasid Baghdad.
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MADĀR AL-AFĀŻEL
Solomon Bayevsky
dictionary of the Persian language compiled in 1001/1593 by the poet and historian Allāh-dād Fayżī b. Asad al-ʿOlamāʾ ʿAli-šir Serhendi.
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MĀDAR-E SOLAYMĀN
Cross-Reference
"Solaymān's mother," local name of the tomb of Cyrus. See CYRUS v. The Tomb of Cyrus.
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MĀDAYĀN Ī HAZĀR DĀDESTĀN
Maria Macuch
(Book of a Thousand Judgements), Pahlavi Law-Book from the late Sasanian period (first half of the seventh century).
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MĀDDA TĀRIḴ
Paul Losensky
chronogram poem, a poetic genre characterized by the inclusion of the year in which an event occurred.
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MADRASA
Cross-Reference
school for the study of the Islamic sciences and related subjects. For the institution, see under entry EDUCATION: iv. The Medieval Madrasa, v. The Madrasa In ShiʿIte Persia; vi. The Madrasa In Sunni Kurdistan. Other entries contain passing references to madrasas in relation to specific mosques; see, e.g., GOWHAR-ŠĀD MOSQUE, BĪBĪ KHANOM MOSQUE. For the architecture of madrasas, see ISFAHAN x. Monuments x(4). Madrasa.
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MAFĀTIḤ AL-ʿOLUM
George Saliba
(Keys to sciences) by Ḵᵛārazmi, a book in which key terms used by various classes of scholars, artisans, state officials, and others are explained (comp. ca. 366/976).
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MAGI
Muhammad A. Dandamayev
the only recorded designation of priests of all western Iranians during the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian (mgw), and Sasanian periods.
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MAGIC i. MAGICAL ELEMENTS IN THE AVESTA AND NĒRANG LITERATURE
Antonio Panaino
The presence of magical elements in the strict sense in Avestan literature has been considered rare.
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MAGIC ii. IN LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD
Mahmud Omidsalar
Magic can be briefly described as the art of influencing the course of events by the occult control of natural phenomena through the application of ritual observances acquired through a study of esoteric and often closely guarded corpus of knowledge and traditions.
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MAGOPHONIA
Muhammad A. Dandamayev
An appropriate Iranian word for magophonia is the Sogdian mwγzt- (killing of the Magi).
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MĀH YAŠT
William W. Malandra
one of what have been termed ‘minor Yašts’ of the Avesta; it is dedicated to the moon.
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MAḤALLĀTI, Moḥammad
Javad Golmohammadi
a master calligrapher of the Timurid period, known only through three surviving works on wood and stone (a cenotaph, a door, and a stone plaque), which reflect the stylistic influence of the Timurid prince and master calligrapher Ḡiāṯ-al-Din Bāysonqor (d. 1493).
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MĀHĀNI, ABU ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD
Bijan Vahabzadeh
mathematician and astronomer from Māhān, near Kerman, Iran, who flourished in the second half of the 9th century; he was a learned arithmetician and geometer, generally recognized among his peers.
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MAHĀRLU LAKE
Karāmat-Allāh Afsar
a picturesque, rather extensive body of water to the southeast of Shiraz.
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MAḤĀSEN EṢFAHĀN
David Durand-Guédy
(The beauties of Isfahan), a book extolling Isfahan, written by Mofażżal b. Saʿd Māfarruḵi during the reign of the Saljuq sultan Malekšāh.
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MAHDAVI, Yaḥyā
Moḥammad Ḵᵛānsāri and EIr
Mahdavi continued his education at Tehran Teachers College from 1928 until 1931, from which he was among the first to graduate with a bachelor's degree. In 1931, he received a scholarship from the state to continue his education in France until his graduation in 1938, writing his doctoral thesis under André Lanlande and Emile Bréhier.
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MAHDI
Cross-Reference
“the rightly-guided one” in Arabic, designation of the descendant of the Prophet who is expected to return to rule the world.
See in entry ISLAM in IRAN:
vi. THE CONCEPT OF MAHDI IN SUNNI ISLAM;
vii. THE CONCEPT OF MAHDI IN TWELVER SHIʿISM;
viii. THE OCCULTATION OF MAHDI;
ix. THE DEPUTIES OF MAHDI. -
MAḤFEL-E RUḤĀNI
Moojan Momen
current designation of the Bahai governing councils elected at local and national level.
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MAHJUB, MOHAMMAD JA’FAR
Mahmoud Omidsalar
prominent scholar of Persian literature, essayist, translator, university teacher, and one of the founders of the discipline of folklore in Iran.
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MAḤJUBI, Morteżā
Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi and EIr
(1900-1965), composer and pianist, noted for his use of the piano to perform traditional Iranian music.
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MAḤJUBI, Reżā
Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi and EIr
(1898-1954) composer and violinist, brother of Morteżā.
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MAḤMUD B. SEBÜKTEGIN
C. Edmund Bosworth
the first fully independent ruler of the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty, who reigned (388-421/998-1030) over what had become by his death a vast military empire.
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MAḤMUD MIRZĀ
Dominic Parviz Brookshaw
(b. 1799, d. between 1854 and 1858), fifteenth son of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah Qajar (r. 1797-1834), calligrapher, poet, and anthologist.
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MAHMUD, AHMAD
Saeed Rezaei and Maryam Seyedan
(1931-2002), Iranian contemporary novelist and short story writer.
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MAJALLA-ye JAMʿIYAT-e NESWĀN-e WAṬANḴᵛĀH-e IRĀN
Nassereddin Parvin
magazine of the women's association of that name, 1923-26.
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MAJALLA-ye RASMI-e ṮABT
Nassereddin Parvin
official journal of the Ministry of Justice from 1928.
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MAJD, Loṭf-Allāh
Morteżā Ḥoseyni Dehkordi and EIr
tār player known for his brilliant virtuosity and distinctive style (1917-1978).
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MAJD-AL-ESLĀM KERMĀNI
Maryam Kamali
Shaikh Aḥmad (1871-1923), journalist, participant/observer in the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11. One of his basic concerns was to spread knowledge, a notion expressed through foreign and national news coverage in the newspaper Adab.
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MAJD-AL-MOLK II
M. Dabirsiāqi
Majd-al-Molk was a learned man with a knowledge of Persian and Arabic literature. He was knowledgeable in philosophy and religious sciences and was an expert in calligraphy, engraving, and all kinds of secretarial craft. As a poet, he followed the style of past masters. Samples of his poetry mentioned by Ebrāhim Khan Madāyeḥnegār.
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MAJDUʿ, ESMĀʿIL
Ismail K. Poonawala
(d. 1769-70), an Ismaʿili scholar from India, well-known for his Bibliography (Fehrest) of extant Ismaʿili manuscripts.
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MAJLESI, Moḥammad-Bāqer
Rainer Brunner
(b. 1627; d. 1699 or 1700), an eminent Twelver Shiʿite jurist in Safavid Iran (1501-1722) and one of the most important hadith scholars of Twelver Shiʿism.
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MAJLESI, MOḤAMMAD-TAQI
Rainer Brunner
b. Maqṣud-ʿAli Eṣfahāni, commonly referred to as Majlesi-ye Awwal, an important Twelver Shiʿite jurist and Hadith scholar of the Aḵbāri school.
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MAḴDUM ŠARIFI ŠIRĀZI
Kioumars Ghereghlou
(1540-41 to 1587), Sunni bureaucrat and polemicist; he held office as ṣadr or minister of religious affairs and endowments at the court of Shah Esmāʿil II Ṣafawi, and eventually fled to the Ottoman Empire.
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MAKRĀN
C. E. Bosworth
(also Mokrān) the coastal region of Baluchistan, extending from the Somniani Bay to the northwest of Karachi in the east westwards to the fringes of the region of Bashkardia/Bāšgerd in the southern part of the Sistān and Balučestān province of modern Iran.
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MAKTAB
Cross-Reference
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MĀKŪLĀ DYNASTY
Cross-Reference
See ĀL-E MĀKŪLĀ.
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MALABĀRI, BEHRĀMJI MERWĀNJI
Firoze M. Kotwal and Jamsheed K. Choksy
Malabari began his journalistic and editorial career after Sir Cowasji Jehangir, an eminent Parsi businessman, introduced him to Martin Woods, then the editor of the Times of India. Malabari also began writing a serial column for the Indian Spectator, an English language weekly magazine.
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MALAKUT
Saeed Honarmand
the highly acclaimed and the only published novella by the noted modernist fiction writer Bahram Sadeqi.
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MALARIA
Mohammad Hossein Azizi
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2013, Iran, after several decades of fighting against the disease, has now entered the pre-eliminated stage of malaria control; it is anticipated that, by 2025, malaria will be completely eradicated in Iran.
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MALEKŠĀH
David Durand-Guédy
the Great Saljuq sultan, during whose reign the Saljuq empire attained its maximum extension.
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MALIĀN
Kamyar Abdi
an important archeological site in the Kor River basin in central Fārs, identified as ancient Anshan, the highland capital of Elam. At nearly 200 ha, Maliān is the largest pre-Achaemenid settlement in Fārs and one of largest archeological sites in Iran.
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MĀLIK, DĀWĪD GĪWARGĪS
David G. Malick
(1861-1931), Assyrian poet and historian, born in the village of Sipūrḡān in the Urmia plain; served as secretary of the Patriarchal Church Committee.
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MĀLIK, GĪWARGĪS DĀWĪD
David G. Malick
(1836-1909), Assyrian writer, educator, and missionary, born in the village of Sipūrḡān in the Urmia plain, Azerbaijan; his work with Americans and Europeans enabled him to travel widely in the Middle East and Europe.
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MĀLIK, NISṬŌRĪS GĪWARGĪS
David G. Malick
(1864-1927), Assyrian priest, educator, and writer was born in the village of Sipūrḡān in the Urmia plain, Azerbaijan; he succeeded in persuading Norwegian Lutherans to sponsor missionary work aimed at supporting, rather than converting, the Church of the East.
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MALKŪS
Kianoosh Rezania
a malignant demon in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature, of pestilential nature and a descendant of the Turanian Brādarōrēš, who killed Zarathustra.