Table of Contents

• CENSORSHIP

  Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak

  (sānsūr) in Persia; censorship has been exercised in most societies, including Persia, by the religious establishment, by the political authority, and by unofficial groups.

• CENSUS

  Firuz Tawfiq, Daniel Balland

  (Pers. sar-šomārī). No census for the purpose of ascertaining the population and acquiring statistical data was taken in Persia until the present century.

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• CENSUS i. In Iran

  Fīrūz Tawfīq

  No census for the purpose of ascertaining the popu­lation and acquiring statistical data was taken in Persia until the present century, but information about num­bers of persons or families was sometimes collected for the purpose of fixing tax dues or conscript quotas. The introduction of systematic census taking in Persia is attributed to Mīrzā Ḥosayn Khan Sepahsālār, the grand vizier from 1871 to 1873 and his enactment of the Reforms Council.

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• CENSUS ii. In Afghanistan

  Daniel Balland

  The first national census of Afghanistan was not conducted until 1979, but the idea of such a survey had  already taken root  in the reign of Šēr-ʿAlī Khan (r. 1868-79), when gradual suppression of tax farming in favor of direct collection of taxes by government officials made it imperative for the administration to know the number of taxable households.

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• CENTRAL ASIA

  Multiple Authors

  This series of articles covers Central Asia. 

• CENTRAL ASIA i. Geographical Survey

  EIr

  The central expanse of the Asian continent, the land mass situated approximately between 55° and 115° E and 25° and 50° N, comprises two geographically distinct areas.

• CENTRAL ASIA ii. Demography

  Richard H. Rowland

  The combined population of the Uzbek, Kirgiz, Tajik, and Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republics totals more than 30 million people, one tenth of the population of the Soviet Union.

• CENTRAL ASIA iii. In Pre-Islamic Times

  Richard N. Frye

  The main evidence for the history of Central Asia before the coming of Islam comes from archeological excavations, while written sources con­tain little information.

• CENTRAL ASIA iv. In the Islamic Period up to the Mongols

  C. E. Bosworth

  In early Islamic times Persians tended to identify all the lands to the northeast of Khorasan and lying beyond the Oxus with the region of Turan, which in the Šāh-nāma of Ferdowsī is regarded as the land allotted to Ferēdūn’s son Tūr.

• CENTRAL ASIA v. In the Mongol and Timurid Periods

  Bertold Spuler

  At the death of Čengīz (Chinggis) Khan (q.v.) in 624/1227 the territory he had conquered was divided between his sons.

• CENTRAL ASIA vi. In the 16th-18th Centuries

  Robert D. McChesney

  In the 16th-17th centuries Central Asia, includ­ing Transoxania, Greater Balḵ, and Ḵᵛārazm, witnessed a neo-Chingizid (Jochid) political revival, spearheaded by the ʿArabshahid/Shibanid (Shaibanid) lineage in Ḵᵛārazm and the Abulkhairid/Shibanid and Toqay-Timurid lines in Transoxania and Greater Balḵ. In the main, political life was shaped by the neo-Chingizid appanage system of state and its internal dynamic.

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• CENTRAL ASIA vii. In the 18th-19th Centuries

  Yuri Bregel

  By the beginning of the 12th/18th century Central Asia was in a state of a deepening political and economic crisis.

• CENTRAL ASIA viii. Relations with Persia in the 19th Century

  Abbas Amanat

  The question of Central Asia in the 13th/19th century, from the Persian point of view, was a promi­nent one not only because of Persian territorial claims over Marv, Ḵīva, Saraḵs, and other peripheral regions, but also because of the threat of the Turkmen frontier tribes of Tekka, Yomūt, and Gūklān to the security of Khorasan, Astarābād, and Māzandarān.

• CENTRAL ASIA ix. In the 20th Century

  Edward Allworth

  Technology brought by the Russian military and the colonial administration from Europe included advanced arms and material, as well as railroad, telegraph/telephone, and printed com­munication.

• CENTRAL ASIA x. Economy Before the Timurids

  Peter B. Golden

  Climate and geography have, of course, in large measure determined economic pursuits in pre-industrial times.

• CENTRAL ASIA xi. Economy from the Timurids until the 18th Century

  Robert D. McChesney

  The economy of Central Asia after the fall of Central Asia to the descendants of Čengīz Khan and during their rule was centered on agriculture, but with important contributions from pastoralism, especially the breeding and export of horses.

• CENTRAL ASIA xii. Economy in the 19th-20th Centuries

  Ian Matley

  When the Russians arrived in Central Asia in the 1860s they found a predominantly agrarian economy. The main grain crops were wheat, barley, and sorghum.

• CENTRAL ASIA xiii. Iranian Languages

  Ivan M. Steblin-Kamenskij

  Central Asia was the ancient homeland of the Iranians and therefore also of the Iranian languages.

• CENTRAL ASIA xiv. Turkish-Iranian Language Contacts

  Gerhard Doerfer

  Three Turkish languages came together in Central Asia, the territory covered by the modern Turkmen, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kirghiz, and Tajik SSRs, excluding Chinese Turkestan: 1. the Uighur or Eastern Turks, 2. the Oghuz, speaking Khorasani Turkish, 3. and the Kipchaks

• CENTRAL ASIA xv. Modern Literature

  Keith Hitchins

  Central Asian literatures in the twentieth century have developed under diverse influences. Beside classical and modern Persian literature and the poetic traditions and folklore of the Central Asian peoples themselves, Rus­sian thought and letters have been predominant.

• CENTRAL ASIA xvi. Music

  Walter Feldman

  In modern times Central Asia as a musicological unit can be defined as the area extending from Afghanistan north of the Hindu Kush, all of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan in the west, Kirgizia and Chinese Turkestan in the east, and Kazakhstan in the north.

• CENTRAL DIALECTS

  Gernot L. Windfuhr

  designation of a number of Iranian dialects spoken in the center of Persia, roughly between Hamadān, Isfahan, Yazd, and Tehran, that is, the area of ancient Media Major, which constitute the core of the western Iranian dialects.

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• CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

  Mark J. Gasiorowski

  When the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established in September 1947, its predecessors had been operating in Persia for a number of years.

   

• CENTRAL TREATY ORGANIZATION

  Joseph A. Kechichian

  (CENTO), a mutual defense and economic cooperation pact among Persia, Turkey, and Pakistan, with the participation of the United Kingdom and the United States as associate members.

• ČERĀḠ

  Mahmoud Omidsalar

  lamps. Various kinds of lamps were used in Persia before the introduction of electric light. The simplest and cheapest was the čerāḡ-e mūšī “mouse lamp,” so called probably because of its small size and poor light.

• ČERĀḠ KHAN ZĀHEDĪ

  Roger M. Savory

  b. Shaikh Šarīf, a descendant of Shaikh Zāhed Gīlānī, the celebrated moršed (spiritual director) of Shaikh Ṣafī-al-Dīn, the eponymous founder of the Safavid order (Ṣafawīya); hence Čerāḡ Khan was also known as Pīrzāda.

• ČERĀḠ-ʿALĪ KHAN SERĀJ-AL-MOLK ZANGANA

  Denis M. MacEoin

  (d. after 1281/1864-65), a leading govern­ment official during the early reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah.

• ČERĀḠ-E DEHLĪ

  Sharif Husain Qasemi

  (b. at Avadh, ca. 675/1276-77; d. at Delhi, 18 Ramażān 757/14 September 1356), the title of Shaikh Naṣīr-al-Dīn Maḥmūd, the last of the five great early saints of the Indian Češtī order (see Âčeštǰya).

• ČERĀḠ-E HEDĀYAT

  J. R. Perry

  (“lamp of guidance”), a monolingual Persian dictionary by the Indo-Muslim poet and scholar Serāj-al-Din ʿAli Khan Ārzu.

• ČERĀḠĀNĪ

  Mahmoud Omidsalar

  (also čerāḡān, čerāḡbānī, čerāḡbārān), the decoration of buildings and open spaces with lights during festivals and on occasions like weddings, coronations, royal birthdays, circumcision ceremonies, and so on.

• ČERĀḠHĀ RĀ MAN ḴĀMUŠ MIKONAM

  Elham Gheytanchi

  (I turn off the lights, Tehran, 2001), the first and most acclaimed novel by Zoya Pirzad (Zoyā Pirzād, b. Abadan, 1952), and the second to be penned by an Iranian-Armenian writer, after Ālice Ārezumāniān’s Hama az yek (All from one,Tehran, 1963).

• ČERĀM

  Pierre Oberling

  or ČORŪM, a small tribal confederacy (īl) inhabiting the dehestān of Čerām, in the Kūhgīlūya region, in southwestern Persia.

• CERAMICS

  Multiple Authors

  Ceramics in Persia from the Neolithic period to the 19th century.

• CERAMICS i. The Neolithic Period through the Bronze Age in Northeastern and North-central Persia

  Robert H. Dyson

  The ceramic tradition of northeastern Persia devel­oped in parallel but distinct sequences in the Gorgān lowlands and the Dāmḡān highlands, including the parts of the Atrak (q.v.) region adjacent to both. 

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• CERAMICS ii. The Neolithic Period in Northwestern Persia

  Mary M. Voigt

  The initial occupation of Persian Azerbaijan by farming groups took place in the second half of the 7th millennium B.C.E. The best known site of this period is Hajji Firuz (Ḥājī Fīrūz) Tepe, located in the Ošnū-­Soldūz valley and approximately contemporary with Hasanlu X (ca. 6000-5000 B.C.E.). 

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• CERAMICS iii. The Neolithic Period in Central and Western Persia

  Peder Mortensen

  Present knowledge of the development of Neolithic ceramics in Luristan and Kurdistan, covering a period from the late 8th millennium to the middle of the 6th millennium B.C.E. is based primarily on evidence from three excavated sites and from surveys carried out southwest of Harsīn, on the Māhī­dašt plain, and in the Holaylān valley.

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• CERAMICS iv. The Chalcolithic Period in the Zagros Highlands

  Elizabeth F. Henrickson

  The Zagros Chalcolithic, spanning more than two millennia (ca. 5500-3300 cal. B.C.E.), is characterized by diverse ceramic assemblages, of which the distri­bution and interrelations are still imperfectly understood.

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• CERAMICS v. The Chalcolithic Period in Southern Persia

  Thomas W. Beale

  The evolution of ceramics in southern Persia between 5000 and 3300 B.C.E., reflects an increasingly distinct regional culture and evolving economic interaction with other parts of Persia.

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• CERAMICS vi. Uruk, Proto-Elamite, and Early Bronze Age in Southern Persia

  William M. Sumner

  local pro­duction in Fārs province from approximately 4000 to 1600 B.C.E., divided into four chronological groups: Lapui ware (ca. 4000-3500 B.C.E.), Banesh ware (ca. 3500-2800 B.C.E.), Jalyan ware (ca. 2800-2400 B.C.E.?), and Kaftari ware (ca. 2200-1600 B.C.E.). 

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• CERAMICS vii. The Bronze Age in Northwestern, Western, and Southwestern Persia

  Robert C. Henrickson

  During the 3rd millennium B.C.E. there were two major ceramic traditions in northwestern Persia, a shifting mosaic of ceramic traditions in central western Persia, and polychrome ware was made in the piedmont valleys of northern Susiana.

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• CERAMICS viii. The Early Bronze Age in Southwestern and Southern Persia

  Elizabeth Carter

  Knowl­edge of the ceramic sequence of southwestern Persia between 2000 and 1000 B.C.E. is based primarily on excavated material from the Ville Royale at Susa, the Susiana sites of Haft Tepe, Sharafabad, and Chogha Zanbil, which are dated to the 2nd millennium B.C.E. 

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• CERAMICS ix. The Bronze Age in Northeastern Persia

  Serge Cleuziou

  Archeologists have traditionally linked the ap­pearance of burnished gray wares at Tepe Hissar (Ḥeṣār) and Tureng (Tūrang) Tepe in Gorgān during the second half of the 4th millennium b.c., and their possible diffusion westward in the first half of the 2nd millennium.

• CERAMICS x. The Iron Age

  Robert C. Henrickson

  The pottery of Iron Age Persia presents a vast array of problems, not least the huge area and long span of time that must be taken into consideration.

• CERAMICS xi. The Achaemenid Period

  Remy Boucharlat and Ernie Haerinck

  Although information on architecture and sculpture at major Achaemenid sites in Persia is plentiful, knowl­edge of the pottery of this period is almost totally lacking.

• CERAMICS xii. The Parthian and Sasanian Periods

  Remy Boucharlat and Ernie Haerinck

  the distribution pattern of pottery characterized by a wide range of different techniques and styles was quite complex, probably owing to diverse environments that have traditionally been reflected in major differences in the material culture of Persia.

• CERAMICS xiii. The Early Islamic Period, 7th-11th Centuries

  David Whitehouse

  Early Islamic pottery has been found in two main regions of Persia: Ḵūzestān and the Persian Gulf and the Persian plateau, including Khorasan. Study of all Islamic pottery of the first four hundred years has been dominated by the finds from Sāmarrā in Meso­potamia.

• CERAMICS xiv. The Islamic Period, 11th-15th centuries

  Ernst J. Grube

  Saljuq and post-Saljuq periods including earthenware and fritwares.

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• CERAMICS xv. The Islamic Period, 16th-19th centuries

  Yolande Crowe

  ceramics from the Zand, Qajar, and Safavid periods. Although several European travelers to Persia in the 17th century reported active potteries at Shiraz, Mašhad, Yazd, Zarand, and especially Kermān, there are no detailed records that would assist in attributing specific pieces surviving from the rule of the Safavid dynasty (1501­-1732) to any one of them.

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• CEREALS

  Cross-Reference

  See under individual cereals.

• ČERĪK

  Willem Floor

  (also jerīk, from Mongol tserig “warrior[s]”), originally troops sent by an individual or camp (yort) to serve in the royal army.