Table of Contents

  • DIOGENES LAERTIUS

    Wolfgang Felix

    author of a biographically arranged history of Greek philosophy in ten books that also deals with the Persian Magi, especially in the first book on the origins of philosophy.

  • DIONYSIUS

    RüDIGER SCHMITT

    (Gk. Dionýsios) of Miletus, Greek historiographer, who may have lived in the 5th century B.C.E. and is said to have written a book about Persian history after the death of Darius I.

  • DIPLOMACY

    Cross-Reference

    See under individual countries; see also FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

  • 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

    After graduating from high school, Djanbazian went to Leningrad to study dance. He graduated from Vaganova Dance Academy of Leningrad in 1936 and from Lesgaf University with a Masters of Arts degree in 1936. After graduation, he worked as a principal dancer, choreographer, and artistic director in Kirov Theatre.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • DJEITUN WARE

    Cross-Reference

    See CERAMICS i.