Table of Contents

• FELT

  Daniel Balland and Jean-Pierre Digard

  (namad), material produced by process of felting, the entanglement of animal fiber in all directions, done to form a soft and homogeneous mass. The technique was originally devised in nomadic communities of Central Asia (Pazyryk, 5th to 3rd centuries BCE).

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• FEMINIST MOVEMENTS i. INTRODUCTION, ii. IN THE LATE QAJAR PERIOD

  EIr, Janet Afary

  The struggle for women’s rights that began in the mid-19th century and, more specifically, on the eve of the 1905-09 Constitutional Revolution and continued to the present time has been one of the main forces for democratic change in the 20th century Persia.

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• FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iii. IN THE PAHLAVI PERIOD

  Hamideh Sedghi

  The fundamental political, socio-cultural, and economic changes which Persia underwent in the Pahlavi era (1921-78) had drastic repercussions on the women’s rights movement and the condition of women.

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• FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iv. IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

  Ziba Mir-Hosseini

  After the Revolution of 1978-79, “feminism,” because of its associations with the West and its appropriation by the previous regime, soon became viewed by the ruling clerics as synonymous with decadence.

• FENDERESK

  Mīnū Yūsofnežād

  a rural district (dehestān) of the county (šahrestān) of Gonbad-e Qābūs and situated north of the Alborz range in the eastern part of Māzandarān.

• FENDERESKĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See MĪR FENDERESKI, ABU’L-QĀSEM.

• FENNEL

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  the aromatic sweetish potherb and medicinal plant Foeniculum vulgare Mill. (= Anethum foeniculum L., etc.; fam. Umbelliferae).

• FEQH

  Norman Calder

  lit. "jurisprudence"; term used to designate the processes of exposition, analysis, and argument which constitute human effort to express God’s law (šarīʿa).

• FERDAWS AL-MORŠEDĪYA FĪ ASRĀR AL-ṢAMADĪYA

  Īraj Afšār

  a major hagiography of Abū Esḥāq Kāzarūnī (963-1033), a famous Sufi and founder of a selsela variously referred to as Kāzarūnīya, Esḥāqīya, or Moršedīya.

• FERDOWS

  Baqer Parham

  šahrestān in Khorasan consisting of three administrative districts: the city of Ferdows and its immediate suburbs, Bošrūya and Sarāyān.

• FERDOWSĪ MAGAZINE

  Esmail Nooriala

  the name of two periodicals, a bi-monthly and a weekly magazine published in Tehran.

• FERDOWSI, ABU'L-QĀSEM

  Multiple Authors

  (940-1019 or 1025), one of the greatest epic poets and author of the Šāh-nāma, the national epic of Persia.

• FERDOWSI, ABU'L-QĀSEM i. Life

  Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

  Apart from his patronymic (konya), Abu’l-Qāsem, and his pen name (taḵallosá), Ferdowsī, nothing is known with any certainty about his names or the identity of his family.

• FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM ii. Hajw-nāma

  Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

  Hajw-nāma is the title of a verse lampoon of Sultan Maḥmūd of Ḡazna attributed to Ferdowsī. According to Neẓāmī ʿArūżī, after Ferdowsī presented his Šāh-nāma, the sultan used the pretext of the poet’s alleged Muʿtazilite and Shiʿite orientation to give him only twenty thousand dirhams as the reward for the epic.

• FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM iii. MAUSOLEUM

  A. Shahpur Shahbazi

  The Ferdowsī mausoleum (Ārāmgāh-e Ferdowsī), a monumental tomb in Ṭūs, Khorasan, was built between 1928 and 1934 and remodeled in 1969.

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• FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM iv. MILLENARY CELEBRATION

  A. Shahpur Shahbazi

  Already in 1922 Moḥammad-Taqī Bahār, the most influential poet of the time and a politician-journalist, urged Reżā Khan (later Reżā Shah), who had recently seized power, to prove his asserted nationalism by celebrating Ferdowsī and building a worthy mausoleum for the “resurrector of Iranian national identity and people.”

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• FERDOWSI, ABU’L-QĀSEM v. HOMAGES TO FERDOWSI

  EIr

  Ever since the appearance of the Šāh-nāma, Ferdowsī has been held in high esteem, and many poets have referred to him and his work, the best known being Saʿdī’s tribute in the Būstān to “Ferdowsī-ye pāk-zād.” 

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• FERİDUN AḤMED BEG, ʿABD-AL-QĀDER

  Rudolf Vesel

  or FEREYDŪN AḤMAD BAYG (d. 1583), Ottoman secretary, administrator, head of the chancery, and author.

• FERĒDŪN

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  Iranian mythic hero.

• FEREŠTA

  Cross-Reference

  angels in Islam and Persian folklore. See Supplement, ANGELS.

• FEREŠTA, MOḤAMMAD-QĀSEM

  Cross-Reference

  See FEREŠTA, TĀRĪḴ-E.

• FEREŠTA,TĀRĪḴ-E

  Gavin R. G. Hambly

  popular title of Golšan-e ebrāhīmī, a general history of Muslim India by Moḥammad-Qāsem Hendušāh Astarābādī (b. Astarābād ca. 1570), the celebrated historian of the Deccan known by the pen name (taḵalloṣ) of Ferešta.

• FEREYDŪN

  Cross-reference

  (Faridun, Fereydoun, Fereydoon) Iranian mythic hero. See FERĒDŪN.

• FERŌD

  Cross-Reference

  See FORŪD.

• FERQA-YE DEMOKRĀT-E ĀḎARBĀYJĀN

  Democratic Party of Azerbaijan

  Democratic Party of Azerbaijan; the dominant political party in Azarbayjan during the Pīšavarī period. See Supplement.

• FERRIER, JOSEPH PHILIPPE

  Jacqueline Calmard-Compas

  (1811-1886), French soldier in the Persian service (1839-42, 1846-50).

• FERRIER, JOSEPHE-PIERRE

  Gavin R. G. Hambly

  19th-century French traveler and intrepid explorer in Afghanistan.

• FERTILITY AND MORTALITY

  Mehdi Amani

  Up to 1986 the Persian birthrate was high (as high as 48-49 per 1,000), compared to the world rate but had dropped from 1966, as a result of official policies on family planning.  In 1994 the Persian birthrate equaled the average for Asia and Central America, 26 to 30 per 1,000 population, reflecting a continued very high fertility rate.

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• FESANJĀN

  Etrat Elahi

  (fesenjūn, fasūjan), a well known Persian dish (ḵoreš, a kind of stew) made of walnut or almond, poultry (usually duck) or small meat balls (kalla gonješkī) and pomegranate sauce or juice.

• FESTIVALS

  Multiple Authors

  This article treats mainly religious or communal festivals and commemorations in Persia and Afghanistan.

• FESTIVALS i. ZOROASTRIAN

  Mary Boyce

  There are the seven feasts of obligation, that is, No Rōz (Nowrūz) and the six gāhānbārs (gāhāmbār; q.v.), which formed the framework of the religious year, and which it was a sin not to keep; and others, which it was a merit, not a duty, to observe.

• FESTIVALS ii. MANICHEAN

  Werner Sundermann

  The Manichean calendar of holidays proves independence from that of the Zoroastrians. Even if the heptavalent number of the Manichean Yimkis was correlated to the Zoroastrian gāhānbār and Nowrūz

• FESTIVALS iii, iv, v

  Anne H. Betteridge and EIr, Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Keith Hitchins

  iii. SHI'ITE, iv. YAZIDI AND AHL-E HAQQ, v. KURDISH (SUNNI).

• FESTIVALS vi, vii, viii

  Moojan Momen, Amnon Netzer, A. Arkun

  vi. BAHAI, vii. JEWISH, viii. ARMENIAN.

• FESTIVALS ix. Assyrian

  WILLIAM PIROYAN and EDEN NABY

  The adoption of Christianity by the Assyrians in the latter part of the 1st century led to the harmonization of older community celebrations and commemorations with Christian doctrine as well as the introduction of specifically Christian religious holidays.

• FESTIVALS x. IN AFGHANISTAN

  NANCY HATCH DUPREE

  Festive ceremonies in Afghanistan mark special religious days and major events in individual life cycles. Few are formally organized, being celebrated primarily to keep family bonds strong and community ties congenial.

• FEṬR

  Cross-Reference

  See FESTIVALS iii.

• FEṬRAT ZARDŪZ SAMARQANDĪ, SAYYED KAMĀL

  Michael Zand

  (1660-1699), Tajik poet.

• FEṬRAT, ʿABD-AL-RAʾŪF BOḴĀRĪ

  Habib Borjian

  (b. Bukhara, ca. 1886; d. Tashkent, 1938), teacher, man of letters, and the most important thinker of the Jadid movement of modern Central Asia.

• FETYĀN

  Cross-reference

  See ʿAYYĀR; JAVĀNMARDI.

• FEUDALISM

  Cross-Reference

  European term sometimes applied to medieval Persia; see EQṬĀʿ.

• FEUVRIER, JEAN-BAPTISTE

  Jean Calmard

  (1842-1926), Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah’s personal physician (1889-1892), author of Trois ans à la cour de Perse, with engravings from photographs in the collections of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah and his retinue, Feuvrier’s own drawings, and Persian contemporary paintings. The book is a major source of information, notably on the Tobacco Concession and its aftermath.

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• FEVZİ EFENDİ, MEḤMED

  Tahsın Yazici

  or FAWZĪ (b. Denizli, 1826; d. Istanbul, 1900), Ottoman author who wrote some books in Persian.

• FEVZİ MOSTĀRĪ

  Hamid Algar

  or FAWZĪ (d. 1747), author of the Bolbolestān, an imitation of Saʿdī’s Golestān, the only prose work written in Persian known to be by a Bosnian author.

• FEYLĪ

  Pierre Oberling

  group of Lor tribes located mainly in Luristan.

• FEYLĪ DIALECT

  Cross-Reference

  See LORĪ.

• FICTION

  Multiple Authors

  i. Traditional Forms. ii. Modern Fiction. ii(a). Historical Background. ii(b). The Novel. ii(c). The Short Story. ii(d). The Post-Revolutionary Short Story. ii(e). Post-Revolutionary Fiction Abroad. ii(f). By Persians in Non-Persian Languages. ii(g). In Afghanistan. ii(h). In Tajikistan.

• FICTION, i

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  OVERVIEW of the entry: i. TRADITIONAL FORMS. This article deals with all kinds of stories written for specifically literary purposes up to the time when narrative prose in the modern style, derived from the West, was introduced in Persia.

• FICTION, ii(a)

  SĪMĪN BEHBAHĀNĪ and EIr

  ii(a). HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF MODERN FICTION.  The long reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1848-96) and the Constitutional Revolution a decade after his death witnessed the gradual emergence of modern fiction in Persia.

• FICTION, ii(b)

  Houra Yavari

  ii(b). THE NOVEL.