Table of Contents

• GENDARMERIE

  Stephanie Cronin

  the first modern highway patrol and rural police force in Persia. The Government Gendarmerie (Žāndārmerī-e dawlatī) was established in 1910 by the second Majles and proved the most enduring in a series of official projects for the modernization of the armed forces under the leadership of foreign officers.

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• GENDER RELATIONS i

  Farzaneh Milani

  Gender relations in Persia.  Overview of article: i. In Modern Persia, ii. In the Islamic Republic.

• GENDER RELATIONS ii

  Hammed Shahidan

  ii. In the Islamic Republic.

• GENGHIS KHAN

  Cross-Reference

  See ČENGĪZ KHAN.

• GENIE

  Mahmoud Omidsalar

  name of a category of supernatural beings believed to have been created from smokeless fire and to be living invisibly side-by-side the visible creation.

• GENOA

  Michele Bernardini

  an important port city in Liguria, in northwestern Italy, which during the Middle Ages played a significant role between Europe and the East, including Persia. Genoa was sacked by Muslim raiders from North Africa in 935 but became an economic and commercial power during the First Crusade (1096-1101).

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• GEOGRAPHY

  Multiple Authors

  Geography of Persia and Afghanistan. Overview of the entry: i. Evolution of geographical knowledge, ii. Human geography, iii. Political geography, iv. Cartography of Persia.

• GEOGRAPHY i. Evolution of geographical knowledge

  Xavier de Planhol

  Geography of Persia and Afghanistan. The concept of Iran and ancient Iranian geography (Justi; Spiegel, I, pp. 188-243 and especially pp. 210-12; Herzfeld, pp. 671-720; Gnoli, 1980, 1989).

• GEOGRAPHY ii. Human geography

  Xavier de Planhol

  The primordial component of the land of Iran, since it was a sedentary world as opposed to the nomadic Tūrān, must have been situated above the level of the internal steppes and deserts, in the highland river valleys having both arable alluvial soils and plenty of water from the rainfall in the mountains.

• GEOGRAPHY iii. Political Geography

  Xavier de Planhol

  The significant Persian-speaking areas of the world are divided today into three states.

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• GEOGRAPHY iv. Cartography of Persia

  CYRUS ALAI

  The world’s oldest known topographical map is a Babylonian clay tablet (ca. 2300 B.C.E.) found at Nuzi in northeastern Iraq. It is a relatively advanced picture map, showing two ranges of hills, as seen from the side, and the rivers they flank, by a series of parallel lines. The site covered by this map may have lain between the Zagros mountains and the hills running through Kirkuk.

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• GEOLOGY

  Eckart Ehlers

  This article is concerned with those aspects of the geology of Persia that are of immediate economic and cultural significance for the country and its inhabitants, primarily (1) geological structure and orohydrographic differentiation of Persia, (2) geology and natural hazards, and (3) geology and natural resources.

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• GEOMANCY

  Cross-Reference

  or raml. See OCCULT SCIENCES.

• GEOPOTHROS

  Cross-Reference

  See GŌDARZ.

• GEORGIA

  Multiple Authors

  (Pers. Gorjestān; Ar. al-Korj). This series of entries covers Georgia and its relations with Iran.

• GEORGIA i. The land and the people

  Keith Hitchins

  Located at the eastern tip of the Black Sea to the south of the Caucasus Mountains, Georgia experienced continuous, decisive, political relations and cultural contacts with Persia from the Achaemenid period until the early 19th century.

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• GEORGIA ii. History of Iranian-Georgian Relations

  Keith Hitchins

  Between the Achaemenid era and the beginning of the 19th century, Persia played a significant and at times decisive role in the history of the Georgian people. The Persian presence helped to shape political institutions, modified social structure and land holding, and enriched literature and culture. Persians also acted as a counterweight to other powerful forces in the region.

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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, and in the 5th century the first surviving literary work was created.

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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.