Table of Contents

• Great Britain x. Iranian Studies in Britain, the Islamic Period

  Charles Melville

  British interest in, and scholarship on, Persia and Persian culture in the Islamic period goes back to the first formal contacts between the two countries, that is, at least to the 16th century and the growth of Britain’s involvement in the Levant and East Indian trades.

• Great Britain xi. Persian Art Collections in Britain

  J. Michael Rogers

  The collecting of Persian art in Great Britain goes back at least to the missions despatched by the Safavid Shah ʿAbbās I (1588-1629) and the activities of the Sherley brothers at his court in Isfahan. The early 17th century also saw the growth of trade with Persia through the East India Company.

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• Great Britain xii. The Persian Community in Britain (1)

  Kathryn Spellman

  This entry will be treated in two separate articles: (1) Persian Community and (2) The Library for Iranian Studies.

• Great Britain xii. The Persian Community in Britain (2)

  Namdar Baghaei-Yazdi

  The Library for Iranian Studies in London was opened to members on 16 November 1991 and at that time the library consisted of a collection of 2,500 books and other publications.

• Great Britain xiii. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

  F. Safiri and H. Shahidi

  In the late 1930s, the British Government began to fund BBC broadcasts in languages other than English designed to counter anti-British broadcasts from Germany and Italy. The first were  in Arabic, in January 1938, followed by Spanish and Portuguese to Latin America in March. Persian broadcasts followed  in December 1940.

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• Great Britain xiv. The British Institute of Persian Studies

  D. Stronach

  was founded in the spring of 1961, thanks to the vision and commitment of a small group of scholars in Britain, each of whom had a special interest in the arts and letters of Persia.

• Great Britain xv. British Schools in Persia

  Gulnar E. Francis-Dehqani

  This article will outline the major educational efforts of the British missionaries in Persia from 1871. The British schools in Persia were primarily founded by missionary organizations, most notably the Church Missionary Society (CMS).

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• Greece

  Multiple Authors

  OVERVIEW of the entry: i. Greco-Persian Political Relations, ii. Greco-Persian Cultural Relations, iii. Persian Influence on Greek Thought, iv. Greek Influence on Persian Thought, v. Greek Influence on Philosophy, vi. The Image of Persia and Persians in Greek Literature, vii. Greek Art and Architecture in Iran, viii. Greek Art in Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Northwest India, ix. Greek and Persian Romances, x. Greek Medecine in Persia, xi. Greek Inscriptions in Iran, xii. Persian Loanwords and Names in Greek, xiii. Greek Loanwords in Middle Iranian Languages, xiv. Greek Loanwords in Medieval New Persian, xv. Ancient Greek borrowings of Perisan herbs and plants of medicinal value.

• Greece i. Greco-Persian Political Relations

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  After subjugating the Medes, Cyrus II started his first expedition westwards. In 547 B.C.E. he turned against Lydia and its king, Croesus.

• Greece ii. Greco-Persian Cultural Relations

  Margaret C. Miller

  This article is addresses the evidence for receptivity to Persian culture in Greece, the North Aegean, and West Anatolia, including receptivity on the part of the non-Greek peoples of these regions.

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• Greece iii. Persian Influence on Greek Thought

  Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin

  The idea of Iranian origins of Greek philosophy had a legendary aura, either by declaring that Pythagoras had been Zoroaster’s pupil in Babylon, or by writing, as did Clement of Alexandria, that Heraclitus had drawn on “the barbarian philosophy.”

• Greece iv. Greek Influence on Persian Thought

  Mansour Shaki

  After the conquest of Ionia, Lydia, and other regions of Asia Minor by Cyrus II, the Persians came into close contact with the Hellenes, their skilled artisans, renowned physicians, artists, statements, men-of-arms, and the like.

• Greece v - vi. The Image of Persia and Persians in Greek Literature

  Reinhold Bichler and Robert Rollinger

  The image of Persia in Greek literature is highly stylized and may not be considered as a reflection of actually experienced cultural contacts.

• GREECE vii. GREEK ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN IRAN

  Rémy Boucharlat

  The influx of elements of Greek art into Persia during the Achaemenid period was primarily the result of the importation of artists and artisans from Hellenized Asia Minor and rarely due to a direct supply of objects.

• Greece viii. Greek Art in Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Northwest India

  Claude Rapin

  The emergence of Greek art as a phenomenon following the expedition of Alexander the Great was a major cultural event in Central Asia and India. Its effects were felt for almost a thousand years, down to the early Islamic period.

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• Greece ix. Greek and Persian Romances

  Richard Davis

  Three Persian verse romances of the 11th century stand out as significantly unlike other Persian verse romances, and they share enough features with the Greek Hellenistic Romances to suggest the existence of links between the two sets of tales.

• GREECE x. GREEK MEDICINE IN PERSIA

  Gül Russell

  The question of Greek medicine in Iran is closely bound up with the history of Greco-Arabic medicine, which developed with the impetus of the “translation movement” between the 8th and the 10th centuries.

• Greece xi - xii. Persian Loanwords and Names in Greek

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  The Greeks came into direct contact with speakers of Iranian languages when Cyrus II conquered the Lydian empire in 547 B.C.E. However, the possibility of linguistic borrowings in prehistoric times cannot be ruled out.

• Greece xiii. Greek Loanwords in Middle Iranian Languages

  Philip Huyse

  The number of loanwords borrowed from Greek into the pre-Islamic Iranian languages is far less impressive than the number of borrowings in the other direction.

• Greece xiv. Greek Loanwords in Medieval New Persian

  Lutz Richter Bernburg and EIr

  In the Islamic period, Persian learned literature was largely modelled upon Arabic antecedents and that these, whether  translations from Greek or Arabic originals, strove to minimize foreign and unfamiliar-sounding vocabulary.