Table of Contents

• DONBOLĪ, ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ BEG

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ BEG.

• DONKEY

  Mahmoud Omidsalar and Teresa P. Omidsalar, Daniel T. Potts

  i. In Persian tradition and folk belief. ii. Domestication in Iran.

• DONKEY i. In Persian tradition and folk belief

  Mahmoud Omidsalar and Teresa P. Omidsalar

  domesticated species descended from the wild ass, probably first bred in captivity in Egypt and western Asia, where by 2500 B.C.E. the domesticated donkey was in use as a beast of burden.

• DONKEY ii. Domestication in Iran

  Daniel T. Potts

  The domestication of the African ass (Equus africanus) and the development of the donkey (Equus asinus) for transport and traction have been discussed in the scholarly literature for many years.

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• DONYĀ

  Nassereddin Parvin

  lit., “The world”; name of several Persian journals and newspapers.

• DONYĀ-YE EMRŪZ

  Nassereddin Parvin

  lit. "Today’s world"; name of a weekly magazine published in Tehran and two weekly newspapers founded in Qazvīn and Isfahan, respectively.

• DOORS AND DOOR FRAMES

  Sheila Blair, Mortażā Momayyez

  in Persian architecture major foci of decoration, varying in size and elaboration with the function and importance of the building and the location of the entrance in relation to the total composition.

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• DŌRĪ

  Daniel Balland

  river in southern Afghanistan, the main tributary of the Arḡandā.

• DORN, JOHANNES ALBRECHT BERNHARD

  N. L. Luzhetskaya

  (1805-1881), pioneer in many areas of Iranian studies in Russia. He was particularly interested in the Pashtuns and published annotated editions and translations of texts on tribal history. Dorn never visited Afghanistan, but he nevertheless established the scientific basis for Afghan studies, particularly the first systematic description of Pashto.

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• DORNĀ

  Cross-Reference

  See CRANE.

• DORR

  Cross-Reference

  See PEARL i. Pre-Islamic Period and PEARL ii. Islamic Period.

• DORRĀNĪ

  Daniel Balland

  probably the most numerous Pashtun tribal confederation, from which all Afghan dynasties since 1747 have come. The Dorrānī confederation is a political grouping of ten Pashtun tribes of various sizes, which are further organized in two leagues of five tribes each.

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• DORRĀNĪ DYNASTY

  Cross-Reference

  See AFGHANISTAN x.

• DORRĀNĪ, AḤMAD SHAH

  Cross-Reference

  See AFGHANISTAN x.

• ḎORRAT

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  maize or (Indian) corn, Zea mays L. (fam. Gramineae), with many varieties and hybrids.

• DORRAT AL-NAJAF

  Nassereddin Parvin

  lit. "Pearl of Najaf"; monthly religious journal published in Persian at Najaf in southern Iraq at the end of the first decade of the 20th century.

• DORRAT-AL-MAʿĀLĪ

  Afsaneh Najmabadi

  (b. Tehran, 1873, d. Tehran, Šahrīvar 1924), pioneer in female education in Persia.

• DORRI EFENDI

  Cross-Reference

  See DÜRRI EFENDI.

• DORŪD

  ʿALĪ ĀL-E DĀWŪD

  a town in Lorestān province, situated at the foot of Oštorānkūh, at an altitude of 1,460 m on the route from Tehran to Ḵorramābād at the confluence of the rivers Tīra and Mārbara.

• DŌŠĪ

  Daniel Balland

  small town and district on the northern slope of the central Hindu Kush in Afghanistan.

• DOŠMANZĪĀRĪ

  Pierre Oberling

  name of two Lor tribes in southern Persia, the Došmanzīārī-e Mamasanī and the Došmanzīārī-e Kūhgīlūya.

• DŌST MOḤAMMAD KHAN

  Amin H. Tarzi

  (b. Qandahār December 1792, d. Herat, 9 June 1863), first ruler of the Bārakzay/Moḥammadzay dynasty of Afghanistan. He was the first to bring the region that today constitutes Afghanistan under the control, occasionally tenuous, of a single central government.

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• DOTĀR

  Jean During

  long-necked lute of the tanbūr family, usually with two strings (do tār). The principal feature is the pear-shaped sound box attached to a neck that is longer than the box and faced with a wooden soundboard. Dotārs can be classified in several different types.

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• DOZĀLA

  Jean During

  kind of flute consisting of two parallel pipes pierced with holes and fitted with a removable vibrating mouthpiece made by cutting a U-shaped incision into a thin reed.

• DOZDĀB

  Cross-Reference

  See ZĀHEDĀN.

• DOZY, REINHARD PETRUS ANNE

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  (b. Leiden, 21 February 1820, d. Leiden, 29 April 1883), Dutch orientalist renowned especially as a lexicographer of Arabic and a historian of Muslim Andalusia.

• DRAGON

  Cross-Reference

  See AŽDAHĀ.

• DRAINAGE

  Eckart Ehlers

  ,the carrying away of excess surface water through runoff in permanent or intermittent streams. Persia can be divided into four main drainage regions: the Caspian region, the Lake Urmia region, the Persian Gulf region, and the interior. Most of it is characterized by endorheic basins, that is, by interior drainage.

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• DRAMA

  M. R. Ghanoonparvar

  in formal Western terms a relatively new art form in Persia, though various types of dramatic performance, including religious plays and humorous satirical skits, have long been a part of Persian religious and folk tradition.

• DRANGIANA

  R. Schmitt

  or Zarangiana; territory around Lake Hāmūn and the Helmand river in modern Sīstān.

• DRÁPSAKA

  Frantz Grenet

  Greek name of a Bactrian city in northern Afghanistan, the first town captured by Alexander the Great after crossing the Hindu Kush.

• DRAWING

  M. L. Swietochowski

  , an art form primarily dependent on expressive line. The high quality of Persian drawings maintained from the late 13th to the early 20th century provides a clear indication that this art form was appreciated by the Persian cultural elite.

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• DRAXT Ī ĀSŪRĪG

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  lit. "The Babylonian tree"; a versified contest over precedence between a goat and a palm tree, composed in the Parthian language, written in Book Pahlavi script, and consisting of about 120 verses. 

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• DREAMS AND DREAM INTERPRETATION

  Hossein Ziai

  i. In pre-Islamic Persia. ii. In the Persian tradition.

• DRESDEN, MARK JAN

  Hiroshi Kumamoto

  (b. Amsterdam, 26 April 1911; d. Philadelphia, 16 August 1986), professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught Persian, then various Old and Middle Iranian languages from 1949 until his retirement in 1977.  He worked especially on Khotanese literary texts.

• DREYFUS-BARNEY

  Shapour Rassekh

  joint surname adopted by two leading Bahai figures of the 20th century.

• DRIWAY

  Jean Kellens

  (or Driβi-), Younger Avestan noun from the Vidēvdād; the word probably referred either to a skin disease or to drooling.

• DRIYŌŠĀN JĀDAG-GŌW UD DĀDWAR

  Philippe Gignoux

  Middle Persian title of a Sasanian official, “intercessor and judge of the poor.”

• DṚNABĀJIŠ

  RÜDIGER SCHMITT

  name of the fifth month (July-August) of the Old Persian calendar, equivalent to Akkadian Ābu and Elamite Zillatam.

• DRŌN

  Jamsheed K. Choksy

  Zoroastrian ritual term originally meaning “sacred portion” and designating a ritual offering to divine beings.

• DRUGS

  ṢĀDEQ SAJJĀDĪ

  in medieval Muslim literature any vegetable, mineral, or animal substance that acts on the human body, whether as a medicament, a poison, or an antidote.

• DRUJ-

  Jean Kellens

  Avestan feminine noun defining the concept opposed to that of aṧa-.

• DRUMS

  Jean During

  large group of percussion instruments.

• DRUSTBED

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  chief physician in the Sasanian period.

• DRVĀSPĀ

  Jean Kellens

  or Drwāspā, Druuāspā, lit., “with solid horses”; Avestan goddess.

• DRYPETIS

  RÜDIGER SCHMITT

  (Gk. Drýpĕtis [Arrian] or Drypêtis [Diodorus]), daughter of Darius III Codomannus and younger sister of Stateira; in the collective wedding arranged by Alexander the Great at Susa in 324 B.C.E. she was given in marriage to Hephaestion.

• DU MANS, RAPHAEL

  Francis Richard

  , FATHER (b. Jacques Dutertre, Le Mans, France, d. Isfahan, 1 April 1696), author of important descriptions of Persia.

• ḎŪ QĀR

  Ella Landau-Tasseron

  watering place near Kūfa in Iraq where a battle was fought between Arab tribesmen and Persian forces in the early 7th century.

• ḎŪ-BAḤRAYN

  Sīrūs Šamīsā

  a term in Persian and Arabic prosody designating a poem that can be scanned according to two or more different meters (baḥr).

• ḎU’L-ŠAHĀDATAYN

  Cross-Reference

  See AŠRAF ḠAZNAVĪ.