Table of Contents

  • ČAIŠPIŠ

    Cross-Reference

    See ČIŠPIŠ.

  • CAITYAPRADAKṢIṆĀGĀTHĀ

    Ronald E. Emmerick

    lit. “the song (Skt. gāthā) about circumambulating (Skt. pradakṣiṇā) a holy place (Skt. caitya),” the title of a Buddhist text, a Khotanese version of which is extant.

  • ČAK

    Willem Floor

    legal document, testament, money draft, check.

  • ČAḴĀNSŪR

    Daniel Balland

    principal town of the large Ḵāšrūd delta oasis in northeastern Sīstān.

  • ČĀKAR

    Etienne de la Vaissiere

    personal soldier-retainer of the nobility in pre-Islamic Central Asia.

  • ČAKAR

    Mansour Shaki

    a Middle Persian legal term denoting a widow who at the death of her “authorized” (pādixšāyīhā) husband without issue was obliged to enter into a levirate marriage (čakarīh) in order to provide him with male offspring (frazand).

  • ČAKĀVAK

    Hūšang Aʿlam, Hūšang Aʿlam

    (Mid. Pers. čakōk). i. The lark. ii. A melody in Persian music.

  • ČAKZĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See ACƎKZĪ.

  • ČĀL

    Ehsan Yarshater

    Like most Persian villages, Čāl had several quarters (maḥallas), but the major division was between Upper and Lower Čāl (locally Gali-kiá and Jarina-ma:la, respectively), with some local variation between the dialects, for instance, Upper Čāli berbinden “to cut,” veškenja “sparrow,” nāngun “pinch” versus Lower Čāli bervinden, meškenja, and nāngur.

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  • ČĀL TARḴĀN

    Jens Kröger

    (Čāl Tarḵān-ʿEšqābād), a site about 20 km southeast of Ray with remains from the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods.

  • ČALABĪ, ʿĀREF

    Cross-Reference

    See ČELEBĪ, ʿĀREF.

  • ČALABĪĀNLŪ

    Pierre Oberling

    a Turkicized tribe dwelling, for the most part, in the dehestān of Garmādūz in Aras­bārān region of northern Azerbaijan.

  • ČĀLDERĀN

    Michael J. McCaffrey

    battle of, an engagement fought near Ḵᵛoy in northwestern Azerbaijan on 23 August 1514, resulting in a decisive victory for the Ottoman forces under Sultan Salīm I over the Safavids led by Shah Esmāʿīl I. No single event prompted Salīm’s decision to wage war. It was the direct and inevitable result of the establishment of the Safavid state.

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  • CALENDARS

    Antonio Panaino, Reza Abdollahy, Daniel Balland

    i. Pre-Islamic calendars. ii. In the Islamic period. iii. Afghan calendars. iv. Other modern calendars. Although evidence of calendrical traditions in Iran can be traced back to the 2nd millennium B.C., before the lifetime of Zoroaster, the earliest calendar that is fully preserved dates from the Achaemenid period. 

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  • ČĀLI

    Cross-Reference

    See ČĀL.

  • CALIPHS AND THE CALIPHATE

    Hamid Algar

    as viewed by the Shiʿites of Persia.

  • CALLIAS, PEACE OF

    Ernst Badian

    peace made by Xerxes and/or Artaxerxes I with Athens and her confederacy in the 5th century B.C.

  • CALLIGRAPHY

    Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

    (ḵaṭṭāṭī, ḵᵛošnevīsī), the writing system in use in Persia since early Islamic times, which grew out of the Arabic alphabet. Comparison of some of the scripts that developed on Persian ground, particularly Persian-style Kufic, with the Pahlavi and Avestan scripts reveals a number of similarities between them.

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  • CALLIGRAPHY (continued)

    Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

    In the handwriting of the various Muslim peoples, three distinct styles are recognizable: Turco-Arab, Persian, and Indo-Afghan. In the style once current in Turkey and the similar styles now prevalent in the Arab countries, most scripts are written with sharp outlines and a downward slope.

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  • CALLISTHENES

    Marie Louise Chaumont

    the name of a 4th-century BCE Greek historian of the period of Alexander the Great. On Aristotle’s recom­mendation Alexander engaged Callisthenes to write the history of his planned expedition against Persia. The existing History of Alexander is now commonly referred to as “Pseudo Callisthenes” or the Alexander Romance.

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