Table of Contents

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION iii. The Constitution

    Said Amir Arjomand

    The term for “constitution” in Persia, qānūn-e asāsī (lit. “fundamental law”), was borrowed from the Ottoman empire in the 19th century. 

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION iv. The aftermath

    Mansoureh Ettehadieh

    In the decade 1329-39/1911-21, from the Russian ultimatum and the dissolution of the Second Majles until the coup d’etat of 1299 Š./1921 (q.v.), the Constitution was put to a series of crucial tests.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION v. Political parties of the constitutional period

    Mansoureh Ettehadieh

    Political parties were first officially organized after Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah was forced to abdicate in 1327/1909, at about the time elections for the Second Majles were beginning.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION vi. The press

    ʿAlī-Akabr Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

    There are no statistics on literacy in Qajar Persia, but it can be conjectured that the literate population was very small. Until the beginning of the Pahlavi era there were people who could “read” the Koran and prayer books, for teaching in religious schools consisted of memorizing koranic passages.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION vii. The constitutional movement in literature

    Sorour Soroudi

    “constitutional literature” refers here to literature produced from the late 19th century until 1339=1300 Š./1921, under the impact of aspirations for reform and the constitutional movement.

  • CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES in Persian architecture

    Wolfram Kleiss

    The most frequent building material in Iranian cultural areas has always been mud, which is available everywhere. When wet, it can simply be plastered on walls without shaping. Alternatively, it can be tempered and formed into large blocks with more or less rectangular sides.

  • CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY

    Willem Floor

    to sustain its economic development Iran requires construction materials of all kinds; these include cement, lime, plaster, asbestos (products), and decorative stones, which are discussed in this article.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • CONSUMERS AND CONSUMPTION

    Cross-Reference

    See ECONOMY.

  • CONTARINI, AMBROGIO

    Filippo Bertotti

    (1429-99), Venetian merchant and diplomat, author of a noteworthy report on Persia under the Āq Qoyunlū Uzun Ḥasan.

  • CONTI, NICOLO` DE’

    Paola Orsatti

    (1395-ca. 1469), Venetian merchant who traveled in the east from 1414 until 1438.

  • CONTINENTS

    Cross-Reference

    See KEŠVAR.

  • CONTRACTS

    Muhammad A. Dandamayev, Mansour Shaki, EIr

    (usually ʿaqd), legally enforceable undertakings between two or more consenting parties.

  • CONVERSION

    Multiple Authors

    the act of adopting another religion.

  • CONVERSION i. Of Iranians to the Zoroastrian faith

    Gherardo Gnoli

    Although modern Zoroastrians question whether their religion even allows conversion, Zoroastrianism, as an ethical and essentially monotheistic religion based on a historical figure, originally had pronounced missionary characteristics, as is clear from the extent of its dissemination.

  • CONVERSION ii. Of Iranians to Islam

    Elton L. Daniel

    Iranians were among the very earliest converts to Islam, and their conversion in significant numbers began as soon as the Arab armies reached and overran the Persian plateau.

  • CONVERSION iii. To Imami Shiʿism in India

    Juan Cole

    South Asians adopted Imami, or Twelver, Shiʿism in great numbers, mostly after the Safavid conquest of Persia in the first decade of the 16th century. 

  • CONVERSION iv. Of Persian Jews to other religions

    Amnon Netzer

    In the Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian periods relations between the Jews and the Persian authorities were friendly, and there is no evidence of forced or voluntary conversion of Jews to Zoroastrianism.

  • CONVERSION v. To Babism and the Bahai faith

    Juan R. I. Cole

    In 1279/1863 the prominent Babi Bahāʾ-Allāh, while in exile in Baghdad, had declared himself to a very small group of close disciples and relatives as the messianic figure (man yoẓheroho ʾllāh) whose advent had been pre­dicted by Sayyed ʿAlī-Moḥammad Šīrāzī, the Bāb.

  • CONVERSION vi. To Protestant Christianity in Persia

    Paul S. Seto

    The conversion of Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, Muslims, and Zoroastrians in Persia to Protestantism as the result of missionary activity by foreign societies and national churches is discussed here.

  • CONVERSION vii. To the Zoroastrian faith in the modern period

    Pargol Saati

    Modern Zoroastrians disagree on whether it is permissible for outsiders to enter their religion. Now scattered in small minority communities in Persia, India, Europe, and North America and without a reli­gious hierarchy, the Zoroastrians are governed by councils and high priests whose authority is only local.