Table of Contents

• CLOTHING xxvi. Clothing and jewelry of the Turkmen

  P. A. Andrews

  Until the 1970s the clothing and jewelry of the Turkmen formed the most elaborate tribal costume still used in Persia. The principal women’s garment is a shift (köynek), formerly of silk, now replaced by synthetic fibers; a raspberry red was common in the hand-woven material, sometimes with shot effects.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• CLOTHING xxvii. Historical lexicon of Persian clothing

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  The lexicon has been compiled from personal observations, descriptions in Persian and other sources, and from old paintings, drawings, and photographs.

• CLOTHING xxviii. Concordance of clothing terms among ethnic groups in modern Persia

  EIr

  This concordance has been compiled from xiii-xxvi, above.

• CLOUDS

  Eckart Ehlers

  Large tracts of central Persia and the adjacent arid plateaus of Afghanistan lie under cloudless skies for most of the year, which contributes to typical “conti­nental” climatic conditions.

• CLOVER

  Cross-Reference

  See ŠABDAR.

• CLOWN

  Cross-Reference

  See DALQAK.

• COAL

  Willem M. Floor

  (zoḡāl-e sang). Although Persia and Afghanistan are rich in coal deposits, these deposits have only recently come to be exploited.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• COASTAL REGION

  Cross-Reference

  See BALUCHISTAN, FĀRS.

• COBALT

  Elisabeth West FitzHugh and Willem M. Floor

  a chemical element that imparts a blue color to glass and glazes and to certain pigments.

• ČOBĀN

  Charles Melville

  eponymous founder of the Chobanid dynasty and the leading Mongol amir of the late Il-khanid period.

• ČŌBĪN, BAHRĀM

  Cross-reference

  See BAHRĀM ČŌBĪN.

• COCK

  James R. Russell, Mahmoud Omidsalar

  the male of the subfamily Phasianinae (pheasants), usually having a long, often tectiform tail with fourteen to thirty-two feathers.

• COCKSCOMB

  Cross-Reference

  See BOSTĀNAFRŪZ.

• COCONUT

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  the fruit of the palm Cocos nucifera L., which grows in the East Indies, as well as in most other humid tropical regions.

• CODES

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (romūz, sg. ramz), including the use of secret writing and cryptanalysis, in Persia.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• CODEX CUMANICUS

  D. N. MacKenzie

  a manuscript of eighty-two paper leaves, measuring approximately 20 x 14 cm, preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale of the cathe­dral of San Marco in Venice and comprising princi­pally vocabularies and texts of the Northwest Middle Turkic language of the Cumans, or Komans, recorded in Latin script.

• CODICES HAFNIENSES

  Jes P. Asmussen

  forty-three Avestan and Pahlavi codices acquired by Rasmus Kristian Rask (1787-1832) in Bombay, India, and Niels Ludvig Westergaard (1815-1878) in Persia, all originally de­posited in the library of the University of Copenhagen but later transferred to the Royal Library.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• CODOMANNUS

  Cross-Reference

  See DARIUS III.

• COFFEE

  ʿAlī Āl-e Dāwūd

  a drink made by steeping in boiling water the dried, roasted, and ground berries of the coffee tree (Coffea arabica).

• COFFEEHOUSE

  ʿAlī Āl-e Dawūd

  a shop and meeting place where coffee is prepared and served.

• COFFEEHOUSE PAINTING

  Cross-Reference

  See PAINTING.

• ČOḠĀ BONUT

  Abbas Alizadeh

  archeological site in lowland Susiana, in the present-day province of Ḵuzestān in southwestern Iran; to date, Čoḡā Bonut has provided evidence of the earliest stages of settled agricultural life in Ḵuzestān.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ČOḠĀ MĪŠ

  Helene J. Kantor

  (Chogha Mish), the largest prehistoric and protohistoric site (ca. 17 ha) in the area below the Zagros foothills between Dezfūl and Šūštar.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ČOḠĀ SAFĪD

  Frank Hole

  or Chogha Sefid, a prehistoric site on the Dehlorān (Deh Luran) plain in Ḵūzestān, dating back to the 8th millennium B.C.E.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ČOḠĀ ZANBĪL

  Elizabeth Carter

  or Chogha Zanbil, a city founded by the Elamite king Untaš Napiriša (ca. 1275-40 B.C.E.) about 40 km southeast of Susa at a strategic point on a main road leading to the highlands. After his death it remained a place of religious pilgrimage and a burial ground until about 1000 B.C.E.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• ČOḠONDAR

  Cross-Reference

  See BEET.

• ČOḠŪR

  Jean During

  (also čoḡor, čogūr, more commonly called sāz in former Soviet Azerbaijan), is the typical pyriform lute of the ʿāšeq, the professional minstrel of Azerbaijan.

• COINS AND COINAGE

  Stephen Album, Michael L. Bates, and Willem Floor

  During the reign of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (1797-1834) the first steps toward a modern currency were taken. At the Tabrīz and Isfahan mints well-executed silver and gold coins were struck along with the normal, less carefully minted products, with full, even pressure and reeded edges similar to those found on contemporary British Indian coins. It is unclear whether these coins were intended only for presentation or as prototypes for a technically superior circulating coinage,

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• COLCHIS

  Fridrik Thordarson

  ancient Greek name of the region at the eastern end of the Black Sea and south of the Caucasus mountains, corresponding to the Georgian provinces of Imeretia, Mingrelia (Samegrelo), Guria and Ač’ara and the Pontic regions of northeastern Turkey.

• COLETTI, Alessandro

  Adriano Rossi

  (b. Trieste, 1928, d. Rome, 1985), Italian scholar of Iranian languages and general oriental subjects, co-author with his wife, Hanne Grünbaum, of the most comprehensive Persian-Italian dictionary (1978) published in modern times.

• COLLEGE

  Cross-reference

  term used to designate the American College, founded by Presbyterians and later renamed: see ALBORZ COLLEGE.

• COLLEGES

  Cross-reference

  For important individual colleges, see EDUCATION; FACULTIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEHRAN.

• COLOGNE MANI CODEX

  Werner Sundermann

  or Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis, a lump of parchment fragments the size of a matchbox, containing a portion of the life and teachings of Mani, discovered in 1969 at an indeterminate spot in the area of Asyūṭ (ancient Lycopolis) in upper Egypt, the smallest ancient codex known to date.

• COLOR

  Annemarie Schimmel, Priscilla P. Soucek

  (Pers. rang). i. Color symbolism in Persian literature. ii. Use and importance of color in Persian art. 

• COLUMNS

  Wolfram Kleiss

  one of several kinds of upright, load-bearing architectural members encompassed, along with piers, in the term sotūn. In the Achaemenid palaces at Persepolis and Susa columns, whether plain or fluted, reached a height of 19 m and a diameter up to 1.60 m; they were topped by double-protome capitals, themselves an additional 8 m high.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• COMISENE

  Cross-Reference

  See KŪMEŠ.

• COMMAGENE

  Michael Weiskopf

  the portion of southwestern Asia Minor (modern Turkey) bordered on the east by the Euphrates river, on the west by the Taurus mountains, and on the south by the plains of northern Syria. It was part of the Achaemenid empire and its successor kingdoms and did not achieve status as an independent kingdom until the mid-2nd century B.C.E.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• COMMERCE

  Multiple Authors

   within Persia and between Persia and other regions.

• COMMERCE i. In the prehistoric period

  Oscar White Muscarella

  In this early period “commerce” is best defined as the movement or exchange of material or goods between cultures within the present boundaries of Persia and those in other regions.

• COMMERCE ii. In the Achaemenid period

  Muhammad A. Dandamayev

  The longest of many caravan routes was the Royal Road, which stretched for nearly 2,400 km from Sardis in Asia Minor through Mesopotamia and down the Tigris to Susa; stations with service facilities were located every 25-30 km along its length.

• COMMERCE iii. In the Parthian and Sasanian periods

  Richard N. Frye

  There are few contemporary sources on commerce in the Parthian period, and no archeological site on the Persian plateau has yielded finds that shed light on the subject.

• COMMERCE iv. Before the Mongol Conquest

  Bertold Spuler

  There were no centers of trade of supraregional importance in either Persia or Central Asia during the Middle Ages. In the Islamic world Baghdad, the seat of the caliphate, was the primary center for the exchange of goods, which arrived overland or by sea through the port of Baṣra at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

• COMMERCE vi. In the Safavid and Qajar periods

  Willem Floor

  The Dutch and English East Indies companies were the first well-capitalized trading partners established in Persia, initially providing a much-needed source of cash for the shahs. In return the companies demanded and obtained treaties (in 1617 and 1623) granting them freedom of trade, exemption from duties and various other charges, and even extraterritorial rights.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• COMMERCE vii. In the Pahlavi and post-Pahlavi periods

  Vahid Nowshirvani

  A prominent feature of Persian export trade was the steady rise in both the value and volume of oil shipments through almost the entire Pahlavi period until the Revolution, when this trend was reversed. Because of the large increase in price in 1352 Š./1973 the value of Persian oil exports climbed substantially more than the volume in the 1970s. Other exports fared less well.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• COMMUNICATIONS in Persia

  Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi and ʿAlī Mohammadi

  the growth of post, telegraph, and telephone service in Persia was closely linked with the growth of railway and highway networks and other modern transportation systems; it was thus a central element in the development of a modern infrastructure in Persia.

• COMMUNISM

  Multiple Authors

  Communism i. In Persia to 1941, ii. In Persia from 1941 to 1953, iii. In Persia after 1953, iv. In Afghanistan, v. In Tajikistan (see Supplement).

• COMMUNISM i. In Persia to 1941

  Cosroe Chaqueri

  The Persian communist movement was born among Persian immigrant workers in the Baku oilfields. In the years 1323-25/1905-07 some of them had founded Ferqa-ye ejtemāʿīyūn-e ʿāmmīyūn-e Īrān.

• COMMUNISM ii. In Persia from 1941 to 1953

  Sepehr Zabih

  With the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Persia and the abdication of Reżā Shah on 25 Šahrīvar 1320 Š./16 September 1941, the climate for resumption of political activities was vastly improved.

• COMMUNISM iii. In Persia after 1953

  Torāb Ḥaqšenās

  Whereas in the previous period Persian communism had been embodied primarily in the Tudeh party, which followed the ideological and political dicta of the Soviet Union, after the coup d’etat of 1332 Š./1953 it was characterized by ideological and organizational diversity.

• COMMUNISM iv. In Afghanistan

  Anthony Arnold

  The Afghan Communist party, Ḥezb-e demōkrātīk-e ḵalq-e Afḡānestān (People’s democratic party of Afghanistan, P.D.P.A.) was officially founded in 1344 Š./1965, at a time when political parties were illegal in Afghanistan. Two other durable Afghan Marxist-Leninist groups were active in the same general period.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.