Table of Contents

  • GEORGIA ii. History of Iranian-Georgian Relations

    Keith Hitchins

    Between the Achaemenid era and the beginning of the 19th century, Persia helped to shape Georgian political institutions, modified social structure and land holding, and enriched literature and culture. 

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  • GEORGIA iii. Iranian elements in Georgian art and archeology

    Gocha R. Tsetskhladze

    Ancient Georgian tribes had close cultural contacts with Near Eastern civilizations from the 18th century BCE. Iranian elements appeared from the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E., as they did in the art of the entire Caucasian region.

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  • GEORGIA iv. Literary contacts with Persia

    Aleksandre Gvakharia

    The tribes of Georgia had a well-established and vast literary tradition and folklore long before the Christian era. None of the pre-Christian Georgian literary works have survived, however. Christianity became established in Georgia as an official religion at the beginning of the 4th century.

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  • GEORGIA v. LINGUISTIC CONTACTS WITH IRANIAN LANGUAGES

    Thea Chkeidze

    Due to many centuries of close contacts between Georgia and Persia, a large number of Iranian loanwords came into the Georgian language.

  • GEORGIA vi. Iranian studies and collections in Georgia

    Keith Hitchins

    The institutional foundations of Iranian studies in Georgia were laid after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

  • GEORGIA vii. Georgians in the Safavid Administration

    Rudi Matthee

    Safavid interaction with Georgia and its inhabitants dates from the inception of the state in the early 16th century, when Georgians fought alongside the Qezelbāš in Shah Esmāʿīl I’s arm.

  • GEORGIA viii. Georgian communities in Persia

    Pierre Oberling

    Many thousands of Georgians, Armenians, and Circassians who were transplanted to Persia by Shah ʿAbbās I (996-1038/1588-1629) were peasants, and they were settled in villages in the Persian hinterland.

  • GEORGIEVSK, TREATY OF

    Cross-Reference

    See GEORGIA, iii.

  • GEOY TEPE

    Ezat O. Negahban

    a rich archeological site located in western Azerbaijan about 7 km south of the town of Urmia (Reżāʾīya) plain made known through the aerial survey of ancient sites in Persia carried out by Erich F. Schmidt in the 1930s.

  • GERĀMĪ

    Cross-Reference

    son of Jāmāsp. See JĀMĀSP.

  • GERĀYLĪ

    Pierre Oberling

    a Turkic tribe of Khorasan, Gorgān, and Māzandarān.

  • GERDKŪH

    Farhad Daftary

    a fortress on the summit of an isolated rocky hill in the Alborz mountains, situated some 18 km west of Dāmḡān in northern Persia.

  • GERDŪ

    Cross-Reference

    See WALNUT.

  • GEREH-SĀZĪ

    Marcus Milwright

    (lit. "making knot”), a form of geometric interlaced strapwork ornament that is commonly found in architecture and the minor arts throughout the Islamic world. In Persian Islamic architecture gereh-sāzī designs exist in a variety of media, particularly cut brickwork (bannāʾī), stucco, and cut tilework (mosaic faïence).

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  • GEREŠK

    Daniel Balland

    a small oasis-city on the right bank of the Helmand river in Southern Afghanistan, the headquarters of the district (woloswālī) of Nahr-e Serāj within the province of Helmand.

  • GERMANIKEIA

    Erich Kettenhofen

    city in the ancient country of Commagene in the Roman province of Syria, present-day Maraş in southeast Turkey.

  • GERMANIOI

    Pierre Briant

    (also Karmanians, Carmanians), name of an ancient Persian tribe engaged in farming.

  • GERMANY

    Multiple Authors

    i. German-Persian diplomatic relations, ii. Archeological excavations and studies, iii. Iranian studies in German: Pre-Islamic period, iv. Iranian studies in German: Islamic period, v. German travelers and explorers in Persia, vi. Collections and study of Persian art in Germany, vii. Persia in German literature, viii. German cultural influence in Persia, ix. Germans in Persia, x. The Persian community in Germany.

  • GERMANY i. German-Persian diplomatic relations

    Oliver Bast

    Around 1555 a man coming from Italy, who called himself the son of the “king of Persia,” turned up at the University of Wittenberg.

  • GERMANY ii. Archeological excavations and studies

    Dietrich Huff

    The first Germans who reported on the historical and archeological monuments of the ancient Persian world, were, as in other nations, adventurers and travelers of a different kind. 

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  • GERMANY iii. Iranian studies in German: Pre-Islamic period

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    This contribution aims at presenting an overview of the studies on all aspects of the culture of pre-Islamic Iran as conducted by German, Austrian, and Swiss scholars.

  • GERMANY iv. Iranian studies in German: Islamic Period

    Bert G. Fragner

    Until World War I, there were only a few scholars concentrating on subjects specifically Iranian, but many Orientalists did not refrain from dealing with Iranian, particularly Persian, affairs.

  • GERMANY v. German travelers and explorers in Persia

    Oliver Bast

    Hans Schiltberger, a Bavarian soldier, was the first German to give an eyewitness account of his travels in Persia. Initially captured by the Ottomans in 1396, he later became a prisoner of Tīmūr at the battle of Ankara (1402).

  • GERMANY vi. Collections and Study of Persian Art in Germany

    Jens Kröger

    From the 19th century on, Persian works of art were collected systematically to acquire knowledge of the world and to educate and inspire artists and craftsmen. Collecting, exhibiting, and studying Persian art reached an unprecedented scale in the 20th century.

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  • GERMANY viii. German cultural influence in Persia

    Christl Catanzaro

    A lasting influence was mainly exercised on Persians who either attended a German school in Persia, had other personal contacts with Germans, studied in Germany, or worked there.

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  • GERMANY ix. Germans in Persia

    Oliver Bast

    The Germans in Persia who have risen to a certain prominence fall mainly into one or more of the following categories: a) travelers and explorers (see above); b) experts in the service of the Persian government; c) agents and soldiers; d) members of German institutions in Persia.

  • GERMANY x. The Persian community in Germany

    Asghar Schirazi

    Only a small number of Persians resided in Germany before World War I. They were for the most part students besides several merchants and a few political emigrants.

  • GERMANY xi. Iranian Coins in the Federal Bank of Germany

    Karin Mosig-Walburg

    The collection of Iranian coins in the Deutsche Bundesbank comprises a number of pieces of rare or very rare specimens, almost all minted in precious metal, from Achaemenids to Pahlavi dynasties.

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  • GEROWGĀN-GĪRĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See HOSTAGE CRISIS; IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR.

  • GEŠNĪZ

    Cross-Reference

    See CORIANDER.

  • GĒSŪ-DARĀZ

    Cross-Reference

    See GĪSŪ-DARĀZ.

  • GĒTĪG AND MĒNŌG

    SHAUL SHAKED

    a pair of Middle Persian terms that designate the two forms of existence according to the traditional Zoroastrian view of the world as expressed in the Pahlavi books.

  • GƎUŠ TAŠAN

    William W. Malandra

    (the fashioner of the Cow), a divine craftsman who figures prominently in the Gathas of Zoroaster but falls into obscurity in the Younger Avesta, being there associated with the fourteenth day of the month, known in Middle Persian simply as Gōš.

  • GƎUŠ URUUAN

    William W. Malandra

    “the soul of the Cow,” the name of the archetypal Bovine, whose plight is a subject of Zoroaster’s gāθā, often identified as “the Cow’s Lament.”

  • GĒV

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    one of the foremost heroes of the national epic in the reigns of Kay Kāvūs and Kay Ḵosrow.

  • GHAFFARY, FARROKH

    Michele Epinette

    (1922-2006), Iranian artist and one of the founders of the National Archives of Iranian Cinema; he served as one of the directors of the National Iranian Radio-Television, worked as the chief organizer of the Shiraz Festival of Arts.

  • GHAZNAVIDS

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    an Islamic dynasty of Turkish slave origin 977-1186, which in its heyday ruled in the eastern Iranian lands, briefly as far west as Ray and Jebāl; for a while in certain regions north of the Oxus, most notably, in Kᵛārazm; and in Baluchistan and in northwestern India.

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  • GHILAIN, Antoine

    Aloïs van Tongerloo

    In addition to his demanding teaching responsibilities, Ghilain continued with his academic work at the University of Leuven. The commitment documents his intellectual stamina and iron will, as he had to travel by train between La Louvière and Leuven, even in the dark days of World War II when Belgium was under German occupation.

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  • GHIRSHMAN, ROMAN

    Laurianne Martinez-Sève

    Ghirshman came from an affluent family in Kharkov and was enlisted in 1914 into the Russian army. In 1917, he joined the counter-revolutionary camp, and after the Communist victory took refuge in Istanbul, where he earned a living as a violinist.

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  • GHURIDS

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    There were at least three raids by the early Ghaznavids into Ḡūr, led by Sultan Maḥmūd and his son Masʿūd, in the first decades of the 11th century; these introduced Islam and brought Ḡūr into a state of loose vassalage to the sultans.

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  • GĪĀH-ŠENĀSĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See BOTANICAL STUDIES.

  • GĪĀʾĪ, ḤAYDAR

    Mina Marefat

    or Heydar Ghiaï-Chamlou (b. Tehran, 1922; d. Cap d’Antibe, 1985), an influential pioneer of modern architecture in Persia and professor at the University of Tehran. Stylistically, his work was thoroughly “modern,” introducing aspects of the contemporary and International Style architecture of Europe.

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  • GĪĀN TAPPA

    Cross-Reference

    See GIYAN TEPE.

  • GĪĀNĪ

    Cross-Reference

    a Lori dialect. See GĪŌNĪ.

  • GIANTS, THE BOOK OF

    Werner Sundermann

    a book mentioned as a canonical work of Mani in the Coptic Kephalaia, in the Homilies and Psalms, as well as in the Chinese compendium of Mani’s teachings.

  • ḠĪĀṮ AL-LOḠĀT

    Solomon Bayevsky

    lit. "Aid in [the explication of] vocabulary," punning on the author’s name; a Persian dictionary compiled in India in 1827 by the linguist, philologist, and poet Moḥammad Ḡiāṯ- al-Din b. Jamāl-al-Din b. Jamāl-al-Din b. Šaraf-al-Din Rāmpuri Moṣṭafā-ābādi.

  • ḠĪĀṮ BEG, ʿEʿTEMĀD-AL-DAWLA

    Mehrdad Shokoohy

    or Gīāṯ-al-Dīn Moḥammad Tehrānī (d. 1622), prime minister of the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr and father of the emperor’s wife, Nūr Jahān.

  • ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN BALBAN

    Cross-Reference

    See DELHI SULTANATE.

  • ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN DAŠTAKĪ

    Cross-Reference

    (1462-1541), scholar, philosopher, and motakallem (theologian) of the late Timurid and early Safavid period, and, for a brief interval under Shah Ṭahmāsb, one of two ṣadrs (chief clerical overseers). See DAŠTAKI, ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN.

  • ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD

    Peter Jackson and Charles Melville

    (d. 1336), Il-khanid vizier, the son of Rašīd-al-Dīn Fażl-Allāh Hamadānī (executed 1318), the celebrated historian and vizier of Ḡāzān Khan.

  • ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD TEHRĀNĪ

    Cross-Reference

    (d. 1622), prime minister of the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr and father of the emperor’s wife, Nūr Jahān. See ḠĪĀṮ BEG.

  • ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN NAQQĀŠ

    Priscilla Soucek

    a painter (naqqāš) active in Herat ca. 1419-30, where he was in the employ of the Timurid Bāysonḡor b. Šāhroḵ.

  • ḠIĀṮ-AL-DIN RĀMPURI

    Gregory Maxwell Bruce

    (1785-1852), MOḤAMMAD, Persian lexicographer, literary scholar, philologist, poet, and teacher.

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  • ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DĪN ŠĪRĀZĪ

    Lisa Golombek

    master architect in Khorasan during the reign of the Timurid Šāhroḵ (1405-47).

  • ḠĪĀṮ-AL-DIN TOḠLOQ

    Cross-Reference

    See DELHI SULTANATE i; TUGHLUQIDS.

  • ḠĪĀṮVAND

    Pierre Oberling

    a Kurdish tribe of the Qazvīn region.

  • GIBB MEMORIAL SERIES

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    or GMS; a series of publications, which has continued for almost a century, mainly, but not exclusively, dedicated to editions and translations of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts.

  • GIBBON, EDWARD

    Michael Rogers

    (1737-1794), author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, 1776-88). Relations of Persia and the later steppe nomads with the East Roman/Byzantine empire are an essential component of Gibbon’s celebrated history.

  • GIFT GIVING

    Multiple Authors

    various aspects of gift giving in Persia.

  • GIFT GIVING i. Introduction

    EIr

    The following article constitutes a preliminary attempt at studying various aspects of gift giving in a chronological and historical framework, from the pre-Islamic era to the early modern period.

  • GIFT GIVING ii. In Pre-Islamic Persia

    JOSEF WIESEHÖFER

    Giving and receiving gifts appears to have assumed a particular significance and a specific manner in the ancient Near East, and especially in ancient Iran.

  • GIFT GIVING iii. In The Medieval Period

    Cross-Reference

    See Supplement.

     

  • GIFT GIVING iv. In The Safavid Period

    Rudi P. Matthee

    Virtually all available information on the practice of gift giving in pre-modern Persia is limited to the political elite; It is clear, though, that offering gifts was a conspicuous part of traditional social and political life in Persia.

  • GIFT GIVING v. In the Qajar Period

    Willem Floor

    This habit of gift giving was part of the fabric of Persian life and held for all classes and ranks or social and ethnic groups.

  • GĪLAKĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See GĪLĀN x. Languages

  • GILĀN

    Multiple Authors

    or Ḡelān; province at the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea. 

  • GĪLĀN i. GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

    Marcel Bazin

    Gīlān includes the northwestern end of the Alborz chain and the western part of the Caspian lowlands of Persia. The mountainous belt is cut through by the deep transversal valley of the Safīdrūd between Manjīl and Emāmzāda Hāšem near Rašt. 

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  • GĪLĀN ii. Population

    Habibollah Zanjani

    The first general census was carried out in 1956 and the sixth in 1996. The geographical boundaries and area have varied from one census to another; at the present time it is 14,819 square kilometers and includes 99 districts, 30 counties and 12 townships. In 1996, there were 2,700 settlements and 35 cities.

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  • GĪLĀN iii. Archeology

    Ezat O. Negahban

    The archeology of Gīlān, particularly in the pre-Islamic period, is usually studied in the wider context of the entire south Caspian region, including Mazandarān and Gorgān. Articles on three important locations, Marlik Tepe, Amlaš, and Deylamān, illustrate the perennial difficulties faced by archeological research in Persia.

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  • GĪLĀN iv. History in the Early Islamic Period

    Wilferd Madelung

    The Gelae (Gilites) seem to have entered the region south of the Caspian coast and west of the Amardos River (later Safīdrūd) in the second or first century B.C.E.

  • GĪLĀN v. History under the Safavids

    Manouchehr Kasheff

    Gīlān has traditionally been considered by its local population as a land of two distinct regions divided by the course of Safīdrūd River.

  • GĪLĀN vi. History in the 18th century

    EIr and Reza Rezazadeh Langaroudi

    The rapid decline of the Safavids in the first decades of the 18th century, leading to their ultimate demise in 1722, created a general state of chaos in the country.

  • GĪLĀN vii. History in the 19th century

    EIr and Reza Rezazadeh Langaroudi

    Sealed off by mountains from the rest of the country, political and social life in Gīlān had always been highly influenced, if not determined, by its geographical position. The history of 19th-century Gīlān began with the continuation of the binary division of Bīa-pas and Bīa-pīš and the rule of local families.

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  • GILĀN viiia. In the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11

    Pezhmann Dailami

    Two classes featured prominently in Gilān as the driving forces of the revolution, and the alliance of these two, the peasantry and the urban petty-bourgeoisie of artisans, shopkeepers, and petty traders, was the hallmark of a radical movement on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.

  • GĪLĀN ix. Monuments

    Manouchehr Sotoudeh

    Most buildings of historical interest in Gilān have been repeatedly repaired and rebuilt. Some have clear records of their history, but most lack reliable, primary documents, and one has to rely on a variety of indirect evidence, such as the dates engraved on entrance doors or tombstones to reconstruct part of the past of a given edifice.

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  • GĪLĀN x. LANGUAGES

    Donald Stilo

    In Gīlān there are three major Iranian language groups, namely Gīlakī, Rūdbārī, and Ṭālešī, and pockets of two other groups, Tātī and Kurdish. The non-Iranian languages include Azeri Turkish and some speakers of Gypsy (Romany, of Indic origin).

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  • GILĀN xi. Irrigation

    Christian Bromberger

    In the rice-growing regions of the Caspian hinterland, water requirements are considerable and irrigation requires careful organization. It is estimated that one hectare of rice, on average,  requires 12,400 cubic meters of water. To meet this demand various techniques are used.

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  • GILĀN xii. Rural Housing

    Christian Bromberger

    In the north of the province, these minimal constructions (wells and rice barns) are traditionally complemented by a covered area for rice threshing, and, in Rašt district, by a separate building for drying paddy, known as a dudḵāna, garmḵāna, or bujḵāna. In the silkworm growing areas, the silkworm nursery occupies a place of honor.

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  • GILĀN xiii. Kinship and Marriage

    Christian Bromberger

    According to a 1991 sample survey, in Iran, the plain of Gilān has the lowest proportion of marriages whether with paternal or maternal cousins or with a near or distant (non-consanguineous) relation. 

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  • GILĀN xiv. Ethnic Groups

    Christian Bromberger

    Each group living in the province is characterized by one or several specific production activities, so that an ethnonym refers as much to territorial, linguistic, and cultural roots as to any dominant professional specialization.

  • GILĀN xv. Popular and Literary Perceptions of Identity

    Christian Bromberger

    In Afghanistan, Uzbeks are called “noodle eaters” by their neighbors and in Persia the Arabs from Khuzestan are stigmatized as susmārḵor “lizard eaters”.

  • GILAN xvi. FOLKLORE

    Christian Bromberger

    Even today, old women believe that cutting down an āzād tree is an act of sacrilege. Whether they are themselves objects of worship or simply grow near the tombs of saints, near cemeteries or inside mosques, these trees are places of devotion, each one dedicated to a specific type of wish (naẕr).

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  • GILAN xvii. Gender Relations

    Christian Bromberger

    In Gilan roles and tasks are distributed according to a more flexible pattern: to a large extent, women take an important part in agricultural work; in their homes, the line between male and female spaces is blurred; craftwork, industrial, and commercial activities are not the exclusive prerogative of men in this region.

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  • GILAN xviii. Rural Production Techniques

    Christian Bromberger

    Chaff produces a great amount of smoke and was once used to punish miscreants or disobedient children who were locked up in the dud otāḡ (literally “smoke room,” where sheaves of rice were dried and cocoons stifled). This punishment was called fal-a dud (“the smoke from the rice chaff”).

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  • GILĀN xix. Landholding and Social Stratification

    Christian Bromberger

    Prior to the Land Reform of 1962 that began the process of land redistribution, the dominant production system in Gilān, as in the majority of Persianprovinces, was of a feudal nature.

  • GILĀN xx. Handicrafts

    Christian Bromberger

    Gilān was a region that produced raw materials (including silk), to which one came for supplies, much more than a region where finished products were made; and the area long remained rural, with only minor importance accorded to towns housing professionals, workshops, and master craftsmen.

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  • GILĀN xxi. Cooking

    Christian Bromberger

    Eating habits and culinary preparations in Gilān have several distinct characteristics. In this rice-producing region, the consumption of rice is much higher than elsewhere in Persia. Garden vegetables and kitchen herbs (sabzi) generally appear in the makeup of most dishes and give the regional cuisine the green touch that is its hallmark.

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  • GĪLĀN NEWSPAPERS

    Nassereddin Parvin

    title of four newspapers published in Rašt.

  • GILANENTZ CHRONICLE

    Ina Baghdiantz McCabe

    a compendium of reports collated as a journal by Petros di Sarkis Gilanentz (Gilanencʿ), which constitutes an important source for the history of events in Transcaucasia and Persia during the period March 1722 to August 1723, notably the Afghan invasion and siege of Isfahan.

  • GĪLĀNŠĀH

    Cross-Reference

    See ONṢOR-AL-MAʿĀLĪ.

  • GĪLĀS

    Cross-Reference

    See CHERRY.

  • GILCHRIST, JOHN BORTHWICK

    John R. Perry

    (1759-1841), physician, Indologist, and teacher of Persian and Urdu who pioneered the Western study and teaching of modern Indian languages in British India.

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  • ḠILZĪ

    M. Jamil Hanifi

    or ḠALZĪ, one of three major Pashtun/Paxtun tribal confederations in Afghanistan.

  • GINDAROS

    Erich Kettenhofen

    present-day Jendīres, a town in the ancient region of Cyrrhestike in Syria.

  • GIŌNI

    Colin MacKinnon

    or Giāni; a Persian dialect of the Northern Lor type, spoken in the village of Giān/Giō, 12 km west of the city of Nehāvand.

  • GISTĀN QARA

    Cross-Reference

    b. Jani Beg. See KISTĀN QARĀ b. Jani Beg.

  • GISU-DARĀZ

    Richard M. Eaton

    or Gēsu-darāz (b. Delhi, 1321-d. Gulbarga, 1422), the popular title of Sayyed MOḤAMMAD b. Yusof Ḥosayni, the most important transmitter of Sufi traditions from North India to the Deccan plateau.

  • GITI

    Nassereddin Parvin

    a leftist daily paper published from 24 June 1943 to December 1943 by Ḵalil Enqelāb Āḏar as the official organ of the Workers union.

  • Giv

    Cross-Reference

    Giv. See Gēv.

  • GIV, ROSTAM

    Farhang Mehr

    In 1953, Giv created the Rostam Giv Charitable Foundation for the promotion of the education and welfare of the Zoroastrian community. In the same year, he encouraged his brother’s heirs to endow an elementary school for girls in Tehran. He also built sixty low-rent houses, equipped with modern amenities, for needy Zoroastrians.

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