Table of Contents

• ḤEKMAT

  Nasseredin Parvin

  the first Persian-language newspaper to be published in an Arab country,  published in Cairo, 1892-1911.

• ḤEKMAT BEY

  Tahsin Yazici

  , ʿĀREF, Ottoman šayḵ-al-eslām (supreme authority in religious matters) 1845-54, poet in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.

• HEKMAT, ʿALI-AṢḠAR

  EIr, with an initial contribution by Abbas Milani

  man of letters, university professor, cabinet minister, and the chief architect of the modernization of the educational system under Reza Shah (1893-1980). Once Reza Shah decided to unveil Persian women, he placed Hekmat in charge of mapping out a plan of action, which included co-education in the first four years of elementary school.

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• HEKMAT, REŻĀ SARDĀR FĀḴER

  Abbas Milani

  politician and powerful speaker of the House of Representatives (Majles; 1891-1978).

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• HEKMAT, ŠAMSI MORĀDPUR

  Houman Sarshar

  educator and philanthropist (1917-1997). Founder, owner and principal of Hekmat International School (1950-79) in Tehran.

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• HELĀLI ASTARĀBĀDI JAGATĀʾI

  Michele Bernardini

  Mawlānā Badr-al-Din (Nur-al-Din) accomplished Persian poet of Turkish origin (1470-1529).

• HELIOCLES I

  Osmund Bopearachchi

  the last Greek king to reign in Bactria (ca. 145-130 BCE),  known only through his monolingual coins.

• HELL

  Philippe Gignoux

  This entry will treat the concept of hell in the Iranian culture under two rubrics.

• HELL ii. Islamic Period

  Mahmoud Omidsalar

  Duzaḵ and jahannam are the terms commonly used in Persian for hell.

• HELL i. IN ZOROASTRIANISM

  Philippe Gignoux

  Hell is not explicitly mentioned in the Gathas. There are only allusions, where it is said that the soul and the daēnā of the wicked will be guests in the “house of falsehood.”

• HELLANICUS OF LESBOS

  J. Wiesehöfer

  a polyhistorian, probably younger than Herodotus but older than Thucydides (ca. 480-395 B.C.?), who was much read in the ancient world.

• HELLENISM

  Laurianne Martinez-Sève

  a term created in Judea in the 2nd century BCE, signifying the adoption by some of the Jews of Greek language, customs, and manners. By extension it came to mean Greek culture and all the characteristics which made a Greek recognize himself as such.

• HELLESPONT

  cross-reference

  See XERXES.

• ḤELLI, ḤASAN B. YUSOF B. MOṬAHHAR

  Sabine Schmidtke

  generally referred to, using his title, as “ʿAllāma Ḥelli,” prominent Imami theologian and jurist (1250-1325).

• ḤELLI, NAJM-AL-DIN ABU’L-QĀSEM JAʿFAR

  Etan Kohlberg

  known as Moḥaqqeq or Moḥaqqeq-e awwal, a leading jurist of the Twelver Shiʿite school of Ḥella (b. ca. 1205-06, d. 1277).

• HELMAND RIVER

  M. Jamil Hanifi and EIr, Gherardo Gnoli, C. Edmund Bosworth, Arash Khazeni

  the border river of Afghanistan and Persia. It originates in the mountains in the Hazārajāt (q.v) and flows into the Sistān in southeastern Persia and finally drains into the Hāmun Lake.

• HELMAND RIVER i. GEOGRAPHY

  M. Jamil Hanifi and EIr

  At approximately 1,300 km, the Helmand River is the longest river in Afghanistan. Originating from the Koh-e Bābā heights of the Hindu Kush mountain range (about 40 km west of Kabul), the Helmand receives five tributaries—Kajrud (Kudrud), Arḡandāb, Terin, Arḡastān, and Tarnak.

• HELMAND RIVER ii. IN ZOROASTRIAN TRADITION

  Gherardo Gnoli

  According to Avestan geography, the region of the Haētumant River extends in a southwest direction from the point of confluence of the Arḡandāb with the Helmand.

• HELMAND RIVER iii. IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  The early Islamic geographers refer variously to the Helmand River as Hendmand, Hilmand, Hirmid, Hidmand, Hermand, or Hirmand, the usual name in Persian down to the present time.

• HELMAND RIVER iv. IN THE LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

  Arash Khazeni

  The late 19th and 20th centuries saw a number of colonial and national schemes, including boundary commisions and large-scale irrigation projects, that aimed to demarcate the Iran-Afghan borderlands.

• HELMET

  Multiple Authors

  OVERVIEW of the entry: i. In Pre-Islamic Iran. ii. In the Islamic period.

• HELMET i. In Pre-Islamic Iran

  B. A. Litvinsky

  The Iranian tradition of helmet making is very old. Elam produced hemispherical bronze helmets with decorative figures that can be dated to the 14th century BCE.  Bronze and iron helmets from the 9th-8th centuries have been found at western Iranian sites (Ḥasanlu, Mārlik, Safidrud). They are either conical or hemispherical, and some are richly decorated.

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• HELMET ii. In the Islamic Period

  M. V. Gorelik

  By the time the Muslims conquered the Iranian world (the territory now occupied by Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Azerbaijan), two helmet types were already known: egg-shaped and conical.

• ḤELMI, RAFIQ

  Joyce Blau

  Kurdish historian, poet, and political activist (1898-1960).

• ḤELYAT AL-MOTTAQIN

  Hamid Algar

  (“The Adornment of the Godfearing”), a compendious work that has remained highly popular, on recommended customs, norms, and modes of behavior.

• HEMIN MOKRIĀNI

  Joyce Blau

  the pen name of Sayyed Moḥammad Amini Šayḵ-al-Eslām Mokri, Kurdish poet and journalist (1921-1986).

• HEMP

  cross-reference

  See BANG.

• HENDAVĀNA

  cross-reference

  See WATERMELON.

• HENDUŠĀH B. SANJAR

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  B. ʿABD-ALLAH SAḤEBI KIRANI,  author of a Persian history  Tajāreb al-salaf (fl. first half of the 8th/14th century).

• HENNA

  Hušang ʿAlam

  (Pers. ḥanā, Ar. ḥennāʾ), a russet or orange dye obtained from the pulverized leaves of the henna plant, Lawsonia alba Lam. (= L. inermis/spinosa L.; fam. Lythraceae).

• HENNING, WALTER BRUNO

  Werner Sundermann

  (1908-1967), celebrated Iranist and linguist, one of the leading philologists of the past century.

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• HEPHTHALITES

  A. D. H. Bivar

  (Arabic Hayṭāl, pl. Hayāṭela), a people who formed apparently the second wave of “Hunnish” tribal invaders to impinge on the Iranian and Indian worlds from the mid-fourth century CE.

• HERACLEIDES OF CYME

  J. Wiesehöfer

  (fl. ca. 350 BCE), Greek author of a “Persian History” (Persika) in five books, which survives only in a few fragments.

• HERACLEITUS OF EPHESUS

  J. Wiesehöfer

  (fl. ca. 500 BCE), Greek philosopher traditionally credited as the first to have written on the magi.

• HERACLES

  Albert de Jong

  (Gk. Hēraklēs, Lat. Hercules), one of the most popular Greek gods in the Hellenistic East and by far the best-attested Greek god in the Iranian world.

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• HERACLIUS

  cross-reference

  See ḴOSROW II

• HERAT

  Multiple Authors

  ancient city and province in northwestern Afghanistan. OVERVIEW of the entry: i. Geography. ii. History, Pre-Islamic Period. iii. History, Medieval Period. iv. Topography and urbanism. v. Local histories. vi. The Herat question. vii. The Herat frontier, 19th and 20th centuries.

• HERAT i. GEOGRAPHY

  Arash Khazeni and EIr

  The province of Herat constitutes roughly the northern one-third of the western lowlands of Afghanistan, bordering on Persia and comprising the eastern extensions of the province of Khorasan.

• HERAT ii. HISTORY, PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

  W. J. Vogelsang

  The present town of Herat dates back to ancient times, but its exact age remains unknown. In Achaemenid times (ca. 550-330 BCE), the surrounding district was known as Haraiva.

• HERAT iii. HISTORY, MEDIEVAL PERIOD

  Maria Szuppe

  When the Arab armies appeared in Khorasan in the 650s, Herat was counted among the twelve capital towns of the Sasanian empire.

• HERAT iv. TOPOGRAPHY AND URBANISM

  Maria Szuppe

  In the medieval period, Herat, together with Nišāpur, Marv, and Balḵ, was one of the four main urban centers of the eastern Iranian world. In contrast to other ancient towns of the Iranian east, such as Marv or Samarqand, which successively occupied two or more sites, Herat has existed on the same location since its foundation.

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• HERAT v. LOCAL HISTORIES

  Jürgen Paul

  Local histories of Herāt belong to three distinct literary genres: the biographical dictionary, the dynastic history, and the guide for pilgrims.

• HERAT vi. THE HERAT QUESTION

  Abbas Amanat

  From the middle of the 18th century, following Nāder Shah’s assassination in 1747, Herat became the focus of a century-long power struggle and regional rivalry.

• HERAT vii. THE HERAT FRONTIER IN THE LATTER HALF OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

  Arash Khazeni

  In the latter half of 19th century, following the settlement of the Khorasan frontier with Persia in 1857, the rulers of Kabul, with British support, sought to make Herat a part of the Afghan state.

• HERAUS

  D. W. Mac Dowall

  Central Asian clan chief of the Kushans, one of the five constituent tribes of the Yuezhi confederacy in the early first century CE. He struck tetradrachms and obols in relatively good silver.

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• HERBARIUMS

  cross-reference

  See BOTANICAL STUDIES iii.

• HĒRBED

  Philip G. Kreyenbroek

  a Zoroastrian priestly title, at present used for a “priest in minor orders,” that is, a man of priestly family who has undergone the initiatory Nāwar ceremony and is qualified to officiate at lower rituals.

• HĒRBEDESTĀN

  Firoze M. Kotwal

  (school for priests, religious school), a Middle Persian term designating (1) Zoroastrian priestly studies and (2) an Avestan/Pahlavi text found together with the Nērangestān manuscripts.

• HERBELOT de MOLAINVILLE, BARTHÉLEMY D’

  Moti Gharib Shojania

  (1625-95), one of the first orientalists to produce a systematic survey and alphabetized account of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature with dictionaries for each language.

• HERBERT, THOMAS

  R. W. Ferrier

  , Sir (1606-1682), author of the first English account of Persia, having accompanied the royal embassy from King Charles I to the Safavid Shah ʿAbbās I in 1626-29.