Table of Contents

  • 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

    (d. 1696), FATHER, author of important descriptions of Persia.