Table of Contents

  • HEDAYAT, SADEQ vi. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

    EIr

    This article contains a selected bibliography of the works of Sadeq Hedayat.

  • HEDGEHOG

    Steven C. Anderson

    (ḵār-pošt, juja-tiḡi, čula), member of the Erinaceinae sub-family of the Erinaceidae family of insectivores; animals the size of a small rabbit. The various species of hedgehogs are found in deciduous woodlands, cultivated fields, and desert regions. 

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  • HEDIN, SVEN

    Håkan Wahlquist

    Swedish explorer of, and prolific writer on, Central Asia and Persia (1865-1952).

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  • ḤEFẒ AL-ṢEḤḤA

    Nasseredin Parvin

    the first Iranian medical journal, published as a  monthly during 1906.

  • HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH

    M. Azadpour

    German idealist philosopher (1770-1831). Hegel based his discussion of pre-Islamic Persia on two main sources: 1. ancient Greek sources on Persia, such as Herodotus; 2. A. H. Anquetil-Duperron’s pioneering work, Le Zend-Avesta (1771).

  • ḤEJĀB

    cross-reference

    See ČĀDOR (2).

  • ḤEJĀZ

    Jean During

    in Persian music, an important modal type (šāh-guša) of the Persian radif.

  • ḤEJĀZI, MOḤAMMAD MOṬIʿ-AL-DAWLA

    M. Ghanoonparvar

    novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, translator, government official, and member of the Senate (1901-1974)—one of a small group of Persians with Western-style education in the early twentieth century who displayed a sense of responsibility and mission to change and modernize Persia.

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  • ḤEJLA

    Jean Calmard

    a bridal chamber (ḥejla-ye ʿarusi), generally in the shape of a curtained canopy, built by a ḥejla-sāz.

  • 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

    Hekmat was a staunch critic of the infamous 1919 agreement between Persia and Britain and joined forces with the anti-British Tangestāni movement. Because of these activities, ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Mirzā Farmānfarmā, the powerful governor of Fārs, confiscated Ḥekmat’s properties.

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  • HEKMAT, ŠAMSI MORĀDPUR

    Houman Sarshar

    Hekmat, as the honorary treasurer of the High Council of Women’s Organization of Iran, she represented Iran in various international conferences on the status of women and was instrumental in organizing ten daycare centers and orphanages throughout the country.

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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. His power, in contrast to that of his Greco-Bactrian predecessors, was limited to the south and southwest territories of Bactria.

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  • HELL

    Multiple Authors

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

  • 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.”

  • HELL ii. Islamic Period

    Mahmoud Omidsalar

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

  • 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

    Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Achaemenid Empire between 334 and 324 and the submission of the East under Greek political control provided Hellenism with much greater significance. Greek culture became that of the rulers. Cultural exchange was, however, by no means one-sided.

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  • 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

    Multiple Authors

    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). 

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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

    The emphasis on the philological character of Henning’s work is justified not only because all his discoveries were made through deductions from or new interpretations of original sources, but also because his working system kept astonishingly aloof from theorems regarding contemporary linguistics, the philosophy of history, ethnology, and comparative religion.

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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

    Heracles entered many other religions of the ancient world. He was adopted into the Roman pantheon in an early stage of its development and was identified—both as a “translation” and in the development of cultic practices—with the Phoenician god Melqart and the Babylonian god Nergal, as well as with Zoroastrian Verethraghna.

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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 some other ancient towns, Herat has existed on the same location since its foundation.

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