Table of Contents

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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. 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• 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.