Table of Contents

  • CHALDEANS

    Muhammad Dandamayev

    (Kaldu), West Semitic tribes of southern Babylonia attested in Assyrian texts from the early 9th century B.C.

  • CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRIES, AND MINES OF PERSIA

    Ahmad Ashraf

    a national federation of local chambers and syndicates created in Esfand 1348 Š./March 1970 through the merger of various local chambers of commerce and the national chamber of industries and mines of Iran.

  • CHAMBER of GUILDS

    Ahmad Ashraf

    (Oṭāq-e aṣnāf), a federation of various guilds formed in 1350 Š./1971 under the “guild-organization act” (Qānūn-e neẓām-e ṣenfī) in most urban centers.

  • CHAMBERLAIN

    Cross-Reference

    See ḤĀJEB.

  • CHAMPION, JOSEPH, ESQ.

    Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak and Estelle Whelan

    (b. London? ca. 1750, d. London? ca. 1813), English poet and translator of selections from the Šāh-nāma and other Persian poetry.

  • CHĀNGĀ ĀSĀ

    Mary Boyce and Firoze M. Kotwal

    an eminent Parsi layman who lived in the 15th-16th centuries A.D. at Navsari in Gujarat.

  • CHARACENE and CHARAX

    John Hansman

    (Spasinou) in pre-Islamic times; Characene is the name Pliny gives for the later region of Mesene (called Mēšān or Mēšūn in Middle Persian, Maysān/Mayšān in Syriac, and Maysān in Arabic) in southernmost Mesopotamia, which formed a political district of that name in the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods.

  • CHARAX

    A. Shapur Shahbazi

    town in the Seleucid and Parthian province of Rhagiana, the area around modern Ray.

  • CHARCOAL

    Willem Floor

    car­bonized wood and other vegetal material, an important household and industrial fuel in Persia and Afghanistan.

  • CHARDIN, Sir JOHN

    John Emerson

    (born Paris, 16 November 1643, died Chiswick, London? 5 January 1713), an Huguenot jeweler who traveled extensively in Asia and wrote the most detailed foreign account of the Persia of his time.

  • CHARES of MITYLENE

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Greek historiographer, who participated in Alexander’s expedition and wrote “Stories about Alexander” (Perì Aléxandron historíai), of which fragments remain.

  • CHARIOT

    William W. Malandra

    chariots in ancient Iran were light horse-drawn, two-wheeled vehicles designed for speed and maneuverability in battle and races.

  • CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS

    Maria Macuch; John R. Hinnells, Mary Boyce, and Shahrokh Shahrokh

    (MPers. ruwānagān lit. “relating to the soul”), pious endow­ments to benefit the souls of the dead, as specified by the individual founders.  i. In the Sasanian period.  ii. Among Zoroastrians in Islamic times.

  • CHARMS

    Mahmoud Omidsalar

    originally verbal formulas recited to prevent or ward off potential harm by magical power but now also denoting written and even talismanic magic.

  • CHARON OF LAMPSACUS

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Greek historiographer, son of Pytho­cles or Pythes.

  • CHARPENTIER, JARL

    Bo Utas

    (Hellen Robert Toussaint; b. 17 December 1884, d. 5 July 1935), Swedish Indologist, Indo-Europeanist, and Iranist, born in Gothenburg as the son of an army officer.

  • CHASE

    Cross-Reference

    See HUNTING IN IRAN.

  • CHASE, THORNTON

    Moojan Momen

    (b. Springfield, Mass., 22 February 1847), regarded by Bahais as the first Amer­ican Bahai and the first Bahai of the West.

  • CHAVANNES, EMMANUEL-ÉDOUARD

    Werner Sundermann

    (b. Lyons, France, 5 October 1865, d. Fontenay-aux-Roses, 29 January 1918), French sinologist who also contributed to the study of Iranian history and religions.

  • CHEESE

    Daniel Balland

    (Pers. panīr), with milk and other dairy products a significant part of the diet in Persia and Afghanistan.

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