Table of Contents

• DĪRAKVAND

  Pierre Oberling

  Lor tribe belonging to the Bālā Garīva group and inhabiting a mountainous area between Ḵorramābād and Dezfūl in the Pīš-Kūh region of Lorestān.

• DĪRGHANAKHA-SŪTRA

  Yutaka Yoshida

  a Buddhist text in which the Buddha expounds the merits of observing the eight commandments to a parivrājaka named Dīrghanakha.

• DIRHAM

  Philippe Gignoux, Michael Bates

  a unit of silver coinage and of weight. The dirham retained a stable value of about 4 g throughout the entire pre-Islamic period. The tetradrachm, or stater (> Pahl. stēr), was equivalent to 4 drachmas and was already in circulation in the Achaemenid period at the time of Alexander’s departure for Persia.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• DĪV

  Mahmoud Omidsalar

  demon, monster, fiend; expresses not only the idea of “demon,” but also that of “ogre,” “giant,” and even “Satan.”

• DĪV SOLṬĀN

  Roger M. Savory

  title of ʿALĪ BEG RŪMLŪ, a qezelbāš officer first mentioned at the battle of Šarūr (1501), in which the Safavid Esmāʿīl I defeated the Āq Qoyūnlū prince Alvand.

• DĪVĀL-E ḴODĀYDĀD

  Klaus Fischer

  an extensive area of historic remains in the center of an ancient canal system fed by the rivers Helmand and Ḵāšrūd and located between the eastern border of the Hāmūn-e Aškīnʿām and the lower Ḵāšrūd, about 45 km to the northeast of Zaranj in southwest Afghanistan.

• DĪVĀN

  François de Blois

  archive, register, chancery, government office; also, collected works, especially of a poet.

• DĪVĀN-E KEŠVAR

  Cross-Reference

  See JUDICIAL AND LEGAL SYSTEMS v. Judicial System in the 20th Century.

• DĪVĀNA NAQQĀŠ

  Priscilla P. Soucek

  15th-century painter whose work is known primarily from single-page paintings preserved in the Topkapı Sarayı library, Istanbul.

• DĪVĀNBEGĪ

  Shiro Ando, Roger M. Savory

  originally, the designation for the highest-ranking officer in the Timurid office of finance and justice; in the Safavid administrative system, the dīvānbegī was one of the high-ranking amirs residing at court.

• DĪVĀNĪ, ḴAṬṬ-E

  Cross-Reference

  See CALLIGRAPHY.

• DĪVDĀD

  Cross-Reference

  See BANŪ SĀJ.

• DIVINATION

  Mahmoud Omidsalar

  the art or technique of gaining knowledge of future events or distant states by means of observing and interpreting signs.

• DIVORCE

  Muhammad A. Dandamayev, Mansour Shaki, Sachiko Murata, Akbar Aghajanian, Jenny Rose, Mujan Momen

  legal termination of marriage. In the following series of articles only those communities are taken into consideration which are either Iranian or are focused in Persia. For this reason Jewish and Christian practices have not been included.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• DIZK

  Cross-Reference

  See JIZAK.

• DJANBAZIAN, Sarkis

  Maria Sabaye Moghaddam

  (1913-1963), the first male ballet master and a founder of a ballet academy in Iran.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• DJEITUN WARE

  Cross-Reference

  See CERAMICS i.

• DO-BARĀDARĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See JĀMI.

• DO-BAYTĪ

  Stephen Blum

  a quatrain of sung poetry in many Persian dialects.

• DO-PAYKAR

  Cross-Reference

  See NOJŪM.

• DOʿĀ

  Hamid Algar

  the act of offering supplicatory or petitionary prayer, a principal manifestation of Muslim piety.

• DOʿĀ-NEVĪSĪ

  Aḥmad Mahdawī Dāmḡānī

  the act of writing charms against various evils.

• DOĀB-E MĪḴZARĪN

  Klaus Fischer

  a group of archeological sites with numerous pre-Islamic mud-brick ruins on either side of the Sorḵāb river, on the road from Bāmīān to Došī, opposite the entrance to the Kahmard valley.

• DOCUMENTS

  Mansour Shaki, Muhammad A. Dandamayev

  i. In pre-Islamic period. ii. Babylonian and Egyptian documents in the Achaemenid period. iii. In the modern period.

• DŌDĀ-BĀLĀÇ

  Cross-Reference

  See BALUCHISTAN iii/II.

• DODDER

  Cross-Reference

  See AFTĪMŪN.

• DOG

  Mahmoud Omidsalar and Teresa P. Omidsalar, Mary Boyce, Jean-Pierre Digard

  Canis familiaris; i. In literature and folklore. ii. In Zoroastrianism. iii. Ethnography.

• DOḠLAT, MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD ḤAYDAR

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• DOGONBADAN

  Cross-Reference

  See GAČSARĀN.

• DOJAYL

  Cross-Reference

  See KĀRŪN.

• DOḴĀNĪYĀT

  Willem Floor

  tobacco projects; referring to the State tobacco-monopoly law (Qānūn-e enḥeṣār-e dawlatī-e doḵānīyāt) of 20 March 1909 and to the state monopoly of tobacco products itself.

• DOKKĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See BĀZĀR i.

• DOKKĀN-E DĀWŪD

  Hubertus von Gall

  lit., “shop of David"; rock-cut tomb of the Achaemenid period in the Zagros range a few kilometers southeast of Sar-e Pol-e Ḏohāb, in the province of Kermānšāhān. The relief of a priest with a barsom bundle probably belongs to the early Hellenistic period.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• DOḴTAR-E NŌŠERVĀN

  MARKUS MODE

  lit., “daughter of Nōšervān”; rock-cut architectural complex with important wall paintings in the Ḵolm valley in northern Afghanistan, discovered in 1924. Surrounding the deity’s head is a tripartite nimbus with attached animal protomes. This complex system seems to emphasize the supernatural force of the “king of gods” as ultimate creator of all life.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• DOḴTARĀN-E ĪRĀN

  Nassereddin Parvin

  lit., “Daughters of Iran”; a monthly variety magazine for girls published in Shiraz from 23 July 1931 to November 1932.

• DOKUZ ḴĀTŪN

  Charles Melville

  (d. 16 June 1265), chief wife of the Il-khan Hülegü and granddaughter of Wang Khan, leader of the Nestorian Christian Kereyit tribe domiciled near present-day Ulan Bator.

• DOLAFIDS

  Fred M. Donner

  family of Arab origin that became politically prominent in western Persia during the 9th century.

• DOLDOL

  Aḥmad Mahdawī Dāmḡānī

  or Doldūl, in Ar. lit., “large porcupine”; name of a female mule that Moqawqes, governor of Egypt, sent to the Prophet Moḥammad as a gift.

• DOLGORUKOV MEMOIRS

  Moojan Momen

  document published under the title Eʿterāfāt-e sīāsī yā yāddāšthā-ye Kenyāz Dolqorūkī (Political confessions or memoirs of Prince Dolgorukov) in the historical portion of the “Khorasan yearbook,” issued in Mašhad in 1943.

• DOLICHĒ

  Erich Kettenhofen

  city in the Roman province of Syria conquered together with the surrounding area by Šāpūr I  during his second campaign against Rome in 252 or 253.

• DOLMA

  M. R. Ghanoonparvar

  or dūlma; Turkish term for stuffed vegetable or fruit dishes common in the Middle East and in Mediterranean countries.

• DOLOMITAE

  Cross-Reference

  See DEYLAMITES i.

• DOMAN

  Erich Kettenhofen

  city in the Roman province of Cappadocia, conquered along with the surrounding area by the Sasanian Šāpūr I (240-70) during his second campaign against Rome.

• DOMES

  Bernard O’Kane

  circular vaulted roofs or ceilings. The variety of forms and decoration of Persian domes is unrivaled. Domes on squinches first appeared in Persia in the Sasanian period in the palace at Fīrūzābād in Fārs and at nearby Qalʿa-ye Doḵtar, both erected by Ardašir I (r. 224-40).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• DOMESTIC ANIMALS

  Daniel Balland and Jean-Pierre Digard

  This article is devoted to the principal characteristics of the predominant systems of domestication in Afghanistan and Persia, what they owe to neighboring or preceding systems, how they have departed from them, and whether or not it is possible to speak of a typically Iranian system of domestication.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• DONALDSON, BESS ALLEN

  Peter Avery

  (1879-1974) and DWIGHT MARTIN (1884-1976), American Presbyterian missionaries and writers about Persia.

• DONBA

  M. R. Ghanoonparvar

  the fatty part of the sheep’s tail, traditionally used as a cooking fat, sometimes in melted form, or as an inexpensive meat substitute.

• DONBAK

  Cross-Reference

  See TONBAK.

• DONBĀVAND

  Cross-Reference

  See DAMĀVAND.

• DONBOLĪ

  ʿALĪ ĀL-E DĀWŪD and Pierre Oberling

  name of a turkicized Kurdish tribe in the Ḵoy and Salmās regions of northwestern Azerbaijan and of the leading family of Ḵoy since the 16th century.