Table of Contents

• CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY

  Willem Floor

  In 1933, Iran’s first cement plant, the state-owned company Simān-e Ray (100 tons per day), became operational  in Ray. It had only 360 workers in 1936, but after expansion in 1939 to a capacity of 300 tons per day it had 1,000 workers. Its output did not suffice to satisfy domestic demand.

  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.