Table of Contents

  • EXCAVATIONS

    Multiple Authors

    i. In Persia, ii. In Afghanistan, iii. In Central Asia, iv. In Chinese Turkestan

  • EXCAVATIONS i. In Persia

    David Stronach

    a diachronic survey of the main patterns of archaeological field research in Persia from the time of the first excavations in the middle of the 19th century down to the late l990s.

  • EXCAVATIONS ii. In Afghanistan

    Warwick Ball

    Archeological investigation, both excavation and recording of sites and monuments, began in Afghanistan in the early 19th century. Most such work was by travelers and British Indian army officers and often consisted of little more than passing observations.

  • EXCAVATIONS iii. In Central Asia

    B. A. LitvinskiĬ

    Archeological and architectural monuments of Central Asia are mentioned in reports from the 18th and early 19th centuries by European and Russian travelers, merchants, and diplomats. Major archaeological work began, however, only after the Russian conquest of the region; at first it was done by amateurs, especially military officers.

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  • EXCAVATIONS iv. In Chinese Turkestan

    B. A. LitvinskiĬ

    Chinese Turkestan refers to Xinjiang (Sinkiang), the Uighur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. Other names have often been applied to this part of Central Asia: Serindia (English and French); Ost-Turkestan, Chinesische Ost-Turkestan, Mittelasien (German); Vostochnyĭ Turkestan (Russian). Some of these terms are purely geographical (Mittelasien), some historical (Serindia), and others ethno-cultural (Turkestan).

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  • EXECUTIONER

    Forthcoming

    See JALLĀD.

  • EXEGESIS

    Multiple Authors

    (Ar. tafsīr), commentary on or interpretation of sacred texts.

  • EXEGESIS i. In Zoroastrianism

    Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    Zoroastrian exegesis consists basically of the interpretation of the Avesta (q.v.). However, the closest equivalent Iranian concept, zand, generally includes Pahlavi texts which were believed to derive from commentaries upon Avestan scripture, but whose extant form contains no Avestan passages.

  • EXEGESIS ii. In Shiʿism

    Meir M. Bar-Asher

    Shiʿite exegetes, perhaps even more than their Sunni counterparts, support their distinctive views by reference to Koranic proof-texts.

  • EXEGESIS iii. In Persian

    Annabel Keeler

    The writing of commentaries on the Koran in Persian seems to have begun during the second half of the 4th/10th century. The principal objective of such tafsīrs was ostensibly to give Persian speakers who were not proficient in Arabic direct access to the exegesis of the Koran.