Featured Articles
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JADE
(nephrite; Pers. yašm, yašb, yašf, yaṣb). An extremely small range of pre-Islamic Iranian jades have thus far been published, despite the very ancient employment of jade in eastern Iran. The known material is often of extraordinary refinement, and testifies to an extensive influence on other jadecarving cultures, including the Chinese.
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CUT PAPER
(qeṭʿa “decoupage,” also monabbat-kārī “filigree work”), a type of applied ornament documented in Persian manuscripts and sometimes on bookbindings from the approximate period 895-1060/1490-1650.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Fascicle 1 of Volume XVI

The next fascicle in the print edition of Encyclopædia Iranica will become available by the end of May 2012. This fascicle marks the beginning of the sixteenth volume and continues coverage of letter “K.” It begins with the city of KASHAN and ends with the start of the entry on the Shiʿite biographer KAŠŠI, ABU ʿAMR MOḤAMMAD. Other multi-part entries, in addition to KASHAN, are KASHMIR and AHMAD KASRAVI.
For Encyclopædia Iranica order information, please visit the website of Eisenbrauns, Inc.
For a list of the Fascicle XVI/1 entry titles and authors, select the button below. Some are already online; the rest will be posted in May.
In Focus
New Online Entries

ZIGGURAT
by Michael Herles
“Tepe Sialk. The ziggurat lies on the southern mound, and dates to the Proto-Elamite Layer IV. It is probably the oldest known ziggurat not only in Iran but worldwide. ... The ziggurat had at least three stages, the lowest of which measured 56 m from east to west and 45 m from north to south of 45 m, and had a height of 4 m. The second stage measured 35 by 35 m, while from the third stage only two courses of mud brick have survived.”
The above title is one of the entries that have been posted to the website recently.
For the full list (updated 25 April 2012), select the button below.


