Table of Contents

  • IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (2) Classical

    CHARLES-HENRI DE FOUCHÉCOUR

    We will pay special attention to the early formation and origins of different literary genres in Persian works, even though the very notion of literary genres is somewhat arbitrary and a subject of continuing debate.

  • IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (3) Modern

    Cross-Reference

    See FICTION.

  • IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (1) Pre-Islamic (1.1) Overview

    Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    From the 2nd millennium BCE until Islam became dominant in Iran, a remarkable number of religious traditions existed there.

  • IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (1) Pre-Islamic (1.2) Manicheism

    Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst and Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    Called after the founding prophet Mani (216-74 or 277), Manicheism was a syncretistic religion that, combining elements of the various religions current in Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau at the time, claimed to be the ultimate religion.

  • IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (2) Islam in Iran (2.1) The Advent of Islam

    Hamid Algar

    Persian acquaintance with Islam began already in the time of the Prophet. Well known is the case of Salmān-e Fārsi, the Persian companion of the Prophet around whom many legends have been spun.

  • IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (2) Islam in Iran (2.2) Mongol and Timurid Periods

    Hamid Algar

    It is sometimes assumed that the general predominance of Sunnism in Persia was significantly weakened by the destruction of the ʿAbbasid caliphate by the Mongols in 1258.

  • IRAN ix. RELIGIONS IN IRAN (2) Islam in Iran (2.3) Shiʿism in Iran Since the Safavids

    Hamid Algar

    The Safavids originated as a hereditary lineage of Sufi shaikhs centered on Ardabil, Shafeʿite in school and probably Kurdish in origin. Their immediate following was concentrated in Azerbaijan.

  • IRAN x. Persian art and architecture

    Multiple Authors

  • IRAN xi. MUSIC

    Bruno Nettl

  • IRAN AND THE CAUCASUS

    Victoria Arakelova

    the annual international academic journal of the Caucasian Center for Iranian Studies, Yerevan (CCIS), founded in 1997.

  • IRAN LEAGUE

    Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa

    organization established in 1922 by prominent Parsis with the aim of reviving and strengthening cultural and other ties between the Parsis of India and Iran.

  • IRAN NAMEH

    Abbas Milani

    the oldest post-Islamic Revolution scholarly journal published since 1982 by the Iranian Diaspora.

  • IRAN NATIONAL COMPANY

    Parviz Alizadeh

    established in August 1962, the single pioneer of the automotive industry in Iran, assembling and manufacturing various motor vehicles and their spare parts.

  • IRĀN newspapers

    Nassereddin Parvin

    title of five newspapers, of which four were published in Persia and one in Baghdad, Iraq.

  • IRAN, JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF PERSIAN STUDIES

    C. Edmund Bosworth and Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis

    The British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) was inaugurated in December 1961 in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s official visit to Iran in March of that year.

  • IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIRS

    Malcolm Byrne

    the linkage in the mid-1980s of two separate and distinct U.S. covert operations in Iran and Central America.

  • IRĀN-E JAVĀN

    Nassereddin Parvin

    weekly paper published in Tehran from 5 Esfand 1305 to 28 Bahman 1306 Š. (25 February 1926-17 February 1927) as the organ of an association with the same name (Anjomān-e Irān-e javān).

  • IRĀN-E JAVĀN, ANJOMAN-E

    Jamšid Behnām

    (The society of young Iran), a society founded in January 1921 by a number of young intellectuals who had received their higher education in Europe.

  • IRAN-E KABIR

    Nassereddin Parvin

    periodical published in the city of Rašt by the political activist Grigor Yaqikiān, 1929-30.

  • IRĀN-E MĀ

    Nassereddin Parvin

    a political newspaper published in Tehran, 1943-60, with long interruptions. It was an influential liberal paper with nationalistic orientations.

  • IRĀN-E NOW

    Nassereddin Parvin

    title of two political newspapers published in Tehran during the second and third decades of the 20th century.

  • IRAN-IRAQ WAR

    cross-reference

    See IRAQ vii. IRAN-IRAQ WAR.

  • IRAN-NAMEH

    Vahe Boyajian

    journal of Oriental studies, founded in Yerevan, Armenia, in May 1993 as a scholarly monthly publication in the Armenian language.

  • IRĀN/LA REVUE IRAN

    Nassereddin Parvin

    the first philatelic magazine ever published in Persia; it was published from Mehr 1302 to Bahman 1311 Š. (September 1923-February 1933) as the organ of Kolub-e bayn-al-melali-e Irān, a society founded by Naṣr-Allāh Falsafi (q.

  • IRANI, DINSHAH JIJIBHOY

    Afshin Marashi

    (1881-1938), a prominent member of the Zoroastrian community of Bombay.  He was trained and worked as a professional lawyer, but at the same time he was also active as a philanthropist and scholar of Zoroastrianism and Persian literature.

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  • IRANI, HUSHANG

    Sayeh Eghtesadinia

    (1925-1973), radical modernist poet and pioneer of modern mystical poetry in Iran, whose early poems are categorized among the first examples of concrete or visual poetry in Persian poetry.

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  • IRANIAN IDENTITY

    Multiple Authors

    collective feeling by Iranian peoples of belonging to the historic lands of Iran. This sense of identity, defined both historically and territorially, evolved from a common historical experience and cultural tradition.

  • IRANIAN IDENTITY i. PERSPECTIVES

    Ahmad Ashraf

    Perspectives on Iranian identity have been influenced by competing views on the origins of nations.

  • IRANIAN IDENTITY ii. PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

    Gherardo Gnoli

    The idea of Iran as a religious, cultural, and ethnic reality goes back as far as the end of the 6th century BCE.

  • IRANIAN IDENTITY iii. MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PERIOD

    Ahmad Ashraf

    While Syria and Egypt lost their languages under the hegemony of Arabic, Iran survived as the main cultural area in the emerging Islamic empire that maintained its distinct linguistic and cultural identity.

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  • IRANIAN IDENTITY iv. 19TH-20TH CENTURIES

    Ahmad Ashraf

    Comparative historians of nationalism acknowledge that Iran was among the few nations that experienced the era of nationalism with a deep historical root and experience of recurrent construction of its own pre-modern identity.

  • IRANIAN IDENTITY v. POST-REVOLUTIONARY ERA

    Cross-Reference

    Iranian identity during the post-revolutionary era will be discussed in a future online entry.

  • IRANIAN STUDIES

    Cross-Reference

    See under the names of individual countries and universities.

  • IRANIAN STUDIES, SOCIETY FOR

    Cross-Reference

    See SOCIETY FOR IRANIAN STUDIES.

  • IRĀNŠĀH

    Mary Boyce and Firoze Kotwal

    term now used by the Parsis as the name of their oldest sacred fire, the Ātaš Bahrām established originally at Sanjān and now installed at Udwada, both in Gujarat.

  • IRĀNŠAHR (1)

    cross-reference

    See ĒRĀN, ĒRĀNŠAHR.

  • IRĀNŠAHR (2)

    EIr

    city, formerly Fahraj, and sub-province (šahrestān) in the province of Sistān and Baluchistan.

  • IRĀNŠAHR (3)

    Manouchehr Kasheff

    an encyclopedic collection of articles published under the auspices of the UNESCO National Commission in Iran. The ambitious idea, as presented in the preface of the first volume, was to produce a highly reliable condensed, but comprehensive, sourcebook covering every aspect of the  civilization of Iran from ancient times to 1960.

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  • IRĀNŠAHR (4)

    Jamshid Behnam

    monthly Persian journal, published in forty-eight issues in Berlin by Ḥosayn Kāẓemzāda Irānšahr,  June 1922 to February 1927. Two principal tendencies can be distinguished in these articles:  a strong interest in ancient Persia and its language and culture, and belief in the potency of a nationalistic spirit.

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  • IRĀNŠAHR ii. Population, 1956-2011

    Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

    the population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status for 2006 and/or 2011.

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  • IRĀNŠAHR, ḤOSAYN KĀẒEMZĀDA

    Jamshid Behnam

    (1884-1962), ardent Iranian nationalist active during the First World War, prolific author on political, religious, and educational subjects, and publisher of the journal Irānšahr 1922-27; he resided in Berlin 1917-36, in Switzerland thereafter.

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  • IRĀNŠAHRI

    Dariush Kargar and EIr

    ABU’L-ʿABBĀS MOḤAMMAD b. Moḥammad (fl. 2nd half 9th cent.), mathematician, natural scientist, historian of religion, astronomer, philosopher, and author.

  • IRĀNŠĀN B. ABI’L-ḴAYR

    cross-reference

    See KUŠ-NĀMA.

  • IRANSHENASI

    Abbas Milani

    a journal of Iranian studies, began publication under the editorship of Jalāl Matini and with the help of generous Iranians who have been willing to subsidize it since the spring of 1989, when its first issue was published.

  • IRANZAMIN, TEHRAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

    J. Richard Irvine

    (Irānzamin, Madrasa-ye Baynalmelali-e Tehrān), a combined Iranian and American international school founded in 1967.

  • IRAQ

    Multiple Authors

    the southern part of Mesopotamia, known in the early Islamic period as del-e Irānšahr (lit. “the heart of the kingdom of Iran”), served as the central province of the Sasanian empire as well as that of the ʿAbbasid caliphate.

  • IRAQ i. IN THE LATE SASANID AND EARLY ISLAMIC ERAS

    Michael Morony

    The late Sasanid era. The late Sasanid winter capital was located at the urban complex on the Tigris river called “the cities” (al-Madāʾen) by the Arabs that included Ctesiphon, Aspānpur, Veh-Antioḵ-e Ḵosrow, and Veh-Ardašir.

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  • IRAQ ii - iii. FROM THE MONGOLS TO THE SAFAVIDS

    ʿAbbās Zaryāb

    The Mongol capture of Baghdad in 1258 came at a time when Persian influence was on the rise but the city as a whole in decline.

  • IRAQ iv. RELATIONS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

    Rudi Matthee

    Iraq was frequently the scene and the object of the intermittent wars the Ottomans and the Safavids fought in the 16th and early 17nth century.

  • IRAQ v. AFSHARIDS TO THE END OF THE QAJARS

    Ernest Tucker

    The collapse of the Safavid dynasty in the 1720s ushered in a new round of conflict in Iraq that would continue through the first half of the 18th century.