Table of Contents

  • CUMIN

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    an umbelliferous plant of the Old World and its aromatic seeds.

  • CUMONT, FRANZ VALÉRY MARIE

    Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin

    classical philologist and historian of religions, whose research resulted in a substantial contribution to the understanding of Mithraism and other oriental reli­gions in the Roman empire.

  • CUNAXA

    A. Shapur Shahbazi

    the Greek form of the name of a village located some 50 miles north of Babylon, where a decisive battle was fought on 3 September 401 B.C.E. between Cyrus the Younger and his brother Artaxerxes II.

  • CUNEIFORM SCRIPT

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    the conventional name for a system of writing ultimately derived from the pictographic script developed by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia (Uruk) around 3000 B.C.E. Cuneiform was written with a reed stylus, which left wedge-shaped impressions on soft clay tablets.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • ČŪPA

    Cross-Reference

    See DANCE.

  • ČŪPĀN

    Jean-Pierre Digard

    or čōbān “shepherd” (Mid. Pers. and NPers. šobān); even today the shepherd remains a central figure, in both the technological life and consequently the symbolic life, of all systems of animal husbandry.

  • ČUPĀNĪĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See CHOBANIDS; ČOBĀN.

  • CUPBEARER

    James R. Russel

    one who fills and distributes cups of wine, as in a royal household.

  • CUPPING

    Cross-Reference

    See BLOODLETTING.

  • CURTIUS RUFUS, QUINTUS

    Philip Huyse

    (probably fl. 1st century c.e.), author of the only extant Latin mono­graph on Alexander the Great, usually called Historiae Alexandri Magni, in many respects the most complete and liveliest account of Alexander’s exploits in Asia.

  • CURZON, GEORGE NATHANIEL

    Denis Wright

    (1859-1925), 1st Marquess of Kedleston, British statesman, traveler, and writer.

  • CUSTOMS DUTIES

    Willem Floor

    a tax levied on the movement of trade. A new law ensuring Persian autonomy in establishing tariffs (ḥoqūq-e gomrokī) was enacted on 1 May 1928; it provided for an ad valorem tariff on most goods, with special rates for certain luxuries like gold, silver, and tobacco.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • CUT PAPER

    Barbara Schmitz

    (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.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • CYAXARES

    I. M. Diakonoff

    (Gk. Kyaxárēs) king of Media in the 6th century B.C.E.

  • CYLINDER SEALS

    Edith Porada

    CYLINDER SEALS. The seals of ancient Persia correspond in their types and use to those of Mesopotamia, beginning with amuletic pendants, which could also be used as seals, and developing into elaborately engraved seal stones, with a change in the Uruk period from stamp to cylinder seals.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • CYPRESS

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    (sarv), Cupressus (Tourn.) L. The genus Cupressus is represented in Persia by one spe­cies (sempervirens L.), with three varieties: the cereiform (cereiformis Rehd.), called sarv-e nāz in Shiraz; the more common pyramidal or fastigiate, variously called sarv-e šīrāzī (Shiraz cypress) and sarv-e kāšī (Kāšān cypress); and the horizontal, known popularly by several names but usually referred to as zarbīn by modern Persian botanists.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • CYPRUS

    Michael Weiskopf

    an island in the eastern Mediterranean off the southern coast of central Anatolia, not men­tioned in any of the Old Persian imperial inscriptions but under Achaemenid control from the reign of Cambyses son of Cyrus (520s B.C.E.) to the reign of Darius III (336-31 B.C.E.).

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • CYPRUS in the Achaemenid Period

    Antigone Zournatzi

    ,in the Achaemenid period. The kings of the southeastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus reportedly submitted willingly to Cyrus II and offered military assistance to the Persians in their campaigns against Caria and Babylon (539 BCE).

  • CYRIACUS AND JULITTA, ACTS OF

    Nicholas Sims-Williams

    Chris­tian martyrological text.

  • CYROPAEDIA

    Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg

    (Gr. Kúrou paideía, The educa­tion of Cyrus), a partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great (559-29 b.c.e.), founder of the Achaemenid empire.