Table of Contents

  • IRAQ vi. PAHLAVI PERIOD, 1921-79

    Mohsen M. Milani

    Relations between Iran and Iraq underwent three different phases between 1921, when Britain installed Faysal Ibn Hossein as king of a newly formed nation-state of Iraq and 1979, when the Pahlavi dynasty was swept away by revolution.

  • IRAQ vii. IRAN-IRAQ WAR

    Saskia M. Gieling

    The war between Iran and Iraq commenced with the Iraqi invasion of Iran on 22 September 1980, and ended with the bilateral acceptance of the UN Security Council Resolution 598 on 20 July 1988.

  • IRAQ viii. THE SHIʿITE SHRINE CITIES OF IRAQ

    cross-reference

    See ʿATABĀT.

  • IRAQ ix. IRANIAN COMMUNITY IN IRAQ

    cross-reference

    See DIASPORA vi.

  • IRAQ x. SHIʿITES OF IRAQ

    Meir Litvak

    Iraq was the cradle of Shiʿism, where it evolved as a political and religious movement, yet, Shiʿites became a majority there only during the 19th century.

  • IRAQ xi. SHIʿITE SEMINARIES

    Meir Litvak

    The communities of learning in the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbalā emerged as the most important centers of Twelver Shiʿite learning during the 19th century.

  • IRAQ xii. PERSIAN SCHOOLS IN IRAQ

    Eqbal Yaghmaʾi

    At the time of the 1905-11 Constitutional Revolution in Persia, local committees in Iraq created Persian-language schools with the backing of the leading, progressive religious scholars.

  • IRAQ xiii. PERSIAN NEWSPAPERS IN IRAQ: 1909-22

    Nassereddin Parvin

    The publication of Persian-language newspapers in Iraq began with the implementation of the 1909 Ottoman Constitutional Law.

  • IRON AGE

    Oscar White Muscarella

    In Iran the term Iron Age is employed to identify a cultural change that occurred centuries earlier than the time accorded its use elsewhere in the Near East, and not to acknowledge the introduction of a new metal technology.

  • IRON IN EASTERN IRAN

    B. A. Litvinsky

    Ancient iron objects in Central Asia were found for the first time at the southern mound of Anau (Turkmenistan) in 1904; these should be dated to the 9th-8th centuries BCE.

  • IRONSIDE, WILLIAM EDMUND

    Denis Wright

    (1880-1959), Field Marshall, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and Ironside, noted for his important role as commander of British forces in Persia in 1920-21.

  • ʿISĀ B. ṢAHĀRBOḴT

    L. Richter-Bernburg

    medical author of the third/ninth century, from Gondēšāpur. descendant of an apparently Nestorian Christian Syro-Persian family.

  • ʿISĀ B. YAḤYĀ MASIḤI JORJĀNI

    David Pingree

    (d. after 925), Abu Sahl, physician, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. Little is securely known about the life of this Christian scholar.

  • ISAAC

    Sebastian Brock

    bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and Catholicos of the Church of the East (399-410). At the importnt church synod held, with permission of the Sasanian king, not long before his death, he worked with Marutha, bishop of Maipharqat, to obtain the approval of the creed of the Council of Nicaea (325) on the part of  the Church of the East.

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  • ISAIAH, BOOK OF

    Shaul Shaked

    one of the books of the Hebrew Bible, traditionally arranged among those of the latter Prophets.

  • ISARDĀS NĀGAR

    Mario Casari

    (or Išwar Das, 1655-1749),  Hindu historian writing in Persian, author of  Fotuḥāt-e ʿālamgiri, a contemporary account of the reign of Awrangzēb.

  • ISFAHAN

    Multiple Authors

    ancient province and old city in central Iran. Isfahan city has served as one of the most important urban centers on the Iranian Plateau since ancient times.

  • ISFAHAN i. GEOGRAPHY

    EIr, Xavier de Planhol

    The province consists of 52 hydrological units belonging to 9 basins and 27 sub-basins. Rivers are small and temporary, with the exception of the Zāyandarud, which totals 405 km in length, with an average annual discharge of 1,053 mcm, average annual precipitation of 450 mm, and a basin area of 27,100 km.2.

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  • ISFAHAN ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

    Xavier de Planhol

    The Isfahan oasis, as a prosperous area of agricultural life, eventually fostered the foundation of a major city—one whose strategic location helped it to dominate the entire area of Iran.

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  • ISFAHAN iii. POPULATION

    Heidi Walcher, Habibollah Zanjani

    Isfahan’s population size from the Safavid through the Qajar periods, as reported by European travelers and diplomats, remained largely a matter of speculation.

  • ISFAHAN iii. POPULATION (1) The Qajar Period

    Heidi Walcher

    Moḥammad-Mahdi Arbāb, a native of Isfahan, maintained that, at the time of Nāṣer-al-Din Shah’s accession in 1848, there were 200,000 city inhabitants, with that number decreasing to about 80,000 for a period before growing again.

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  • ISFAHAN iii. POPULATION (2) Isfahan Province

    Habibollah Zanjani

    In 2001, the sub-provinces of Isfahan (with more than 1.6 million), Kāšān, and Najafabād (with more than 300,000) were the most populated, while the sub-provinces of Naṭanz, Fereydunšahr, and Ardestān were the least populated with populations of less than 50,000 persons.

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  • ISFAHAN iii. POPULATION (3) Isfahan City

    Habibollah Zanjani

    As the capital of Isfahan Province, the city accounted, in 1996, for about 32.2 percent of the total population of the province and 43.4 percent of its urban population. Isfahan is also the third most populated city in the country, behind Tehran and Mashad.

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  • ISFAHAN iv. PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

    J. Hansman and EIr

    The Arab geographers  report that the Sasanian city of Isfahan comprised two adjoining towns: Jayy, the fortified town and province center and, two miles (mil) away, Yahudiya, a Jewish settlement.

  • ISFAHAN v. LOCAL HISTORIOGRAPHY

    JÜRGEN PAUL

    Isfahan is exceptional in the number and variety of works of local historiography; no other Persian city has attracted nearly as many such works.

  • ISFAHAN vi. MEDIEVAL PERIOD

    Hossein Kamaly

    The history of Isfahan prior to the city’s efflorescence in the 17th century often traced alternating cycles of urbanization and de-urbanization.

  • ISFAHAN vii. SAFAVID PERIOD

    Masashi Haneda and Rudi Matthee

    Isfahan came under Safavid rule in 1503 following Shah Esmāʿil’s defeat of Solṭān Morād, the Āq Qoyunlu ruler of Erāq-e ʿAjam, near Hamadān.

  • Isfahan ix. THE PAHLAVI PERIOD AND THE POST-REVOLUTION ERA

    Habib Borjian

    In the process of consolidating his power in Isfahan, Reza Shah managed to constrain two powerful social groups: the Shiʿite clergy and the Baḵtiāri tribesmen.

  • ISFAHAN x. MONUMENTS

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

    According to the French traveler Jean Chardin, in the late 17th century Isfahan housed some 162 mosques, 48 theological colleges (madrasa), 1,802 caravansaries, and 273 bathhouses.

  • Isfahan x. MONUMENTS (1) A Historical Survey

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

     Isfahan’s monuments developed in the early medieval period first under the ʿAbbāsid caliphate and Buyid patronage. But many of the extant monuments of Isfahan date to the periods in history when the city served as the capital of the ruling dynasties of the Great Saljuqs (1040-1194) and the Safavids (1501-1722).

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  • Isfahan x. Monuments (2) Palaces

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

    European visitors to Safavid Persia, for example, found themselves increasingly bound by Isfahan, where they were able to gain a royal audience or conduct their business with the court and government bureaucracy without having to follow the itinerant monarchs.

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  • Isfahan x. Monuments (3) Mosques

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

    Isfahan is known historically for its large number of mosques. According to Abu Noʿaym of Isfahan, the first large mosque in Isfahan was built during the Caliphate of Imam ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb (r. 656-61). The French traveler Jean Chardin counted 162 mosques during his travels to Isfahan in the middle of the 17th century.

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  • Isfahan x. Monuments (4) Madrasas

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

    The earliest extant madrasa in Isfahan is the 1325 Emāmi Madrasa, which is also known as the Madrasa-ye Bābā Qāsem after the name of its first teacher, who is buried in a nearby tomb. As in Persian mosque type, this and most other madrasas in Persia follow the four-ayvān courtyard-centered plan.

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  • Isfahan x. Monuments (5) Bridges

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

    On the southern edge of the city of Isfahan lies the Zāyandarud River, the unnavigable river that has been the major source of water in the region since the earliest settlements in its environs. Until the transfer of the Safavid capital to Isfahan in the late 16th century, the river was well outside the city walls.

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  • Isfahan x. Monuments (6) Bibliography

    Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug

  • Isfahan xi. SCHOOL OF PAINTING AND CALLIGRAPHY

    Massumeh Farhad

    The “Isfahan” school of painting and calligraphy generally refers to works of art associated with the city, when it was chosen as the Safavid capital. The school has two distinct phases of first the followers of Reżā ʿAbbāsi and then the European style.

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  • Isfahan xii. BAZAAR: PLAN AND FUNCTION

    Willem Floor

    It is one of the best-preserved examples of a large, enclosed, and covered bazaar complex that was typical of most cities in the Muslim world prior to the 20th century. The oldest areas of the present-day bazaar date from the early 17th century; its first stone was laid in 1603.

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  • Isfahan xiii. CRAFTS

    Habib Borjian and EIr

    Isfahan has maintained its position as a major center for traditional crafts in Persia. The crafts of Isfahan encompass textiles, carpets, metalwork, woodwork, ceramics, painting, and inlay works of various kind. The work is carried out in different settings including small industrial and bazaar workshops, in the homes of craftsmen and women, and in rural cottage industries.

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  • Isfahan xiv. MODERN ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIES

    Habib Borjian

    This sub-section is divided into the following parts: (1) Modern Economy of the Province; (2) Industries of Isfahan City.

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  • Isfahan xiv. MODERN ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIES (1) The Province

    Habib Borjian

    The distribution of economic activities within Isfahan, with an urbanism of 76 percent, is highly uneven. The oasis of Isfahan, watered by the Zāyandarud, is responsible for nearly half of rural activities.

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  • Isfahan xiv. MODERN ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIES (2) Isfahan City

    Habib Borjian

    The stagnation experienced after the fall of the Safavids was even more marked in the 19th century, owing to European competition that had rendered many local industries practically extinct.

  • Isfahan xv. EDUCATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

    Maryam Borjian and Habib Borjian

    The Lazarists, with the support of the prince-governor, founded in 1875 schools for both boys and girls and an infirmary. These appear to be the predecessors of the boys school L’Etoile du Matin and the girls school Rudāba.

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  • Isfahan xvi. FOLKLORE AND LEGEND

    Mahmoud Omidsalar

    Systematic collection of the folklore of Isfahan is mostly due to Amirqoli Amini, whose first publication was a collection of Persian dicta entitled hazār o yak soḵan.

  • Isfahan xvii. ARMENIAN COMMUNITY

    Cross-Reference

    See JULFA.

  • Isfahan xviii. JEWISH COMMUNITY

    Amnon Netzer

    According to Armenian sources, the Sasanian Šāpūr II transferred many Jews from Armenia and settled them in Isfahan. According to the Middle Persian text Šahristānihā ī Ērān, Yazdegerd I settled Jews in Jay (Gay) at the request of his Jewish wife Šōšan-doḵt.

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  • ISFAHAN xix. JEWISH DIALECT

    Donald Stilo

    The Jewish dialects of Isfahan, Kāshān, Hamadān, Borujerd, Yazd, Kermān and others belong to the Central dialect group of Northwestern Iranian. All of Northwestern Iranian languages, in turn, are descended from Median.

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  • Isfahan xx. GEOGRAPHY OF THE MEDIAN DIALECTS OF ISFAHAN

    Habib Borjian

    The continuum of Central Plateau Dialects appears along a northwest-souteast axis traversing the modern provinces of Hamadān, Markazi, Isfahan, and Yazd, that is, the area of Ancient Media Major.

  • Isfahan xxi. PROVINCIAL DIALECTS

    Donald Stilo

    The Iranian languages of Isfahan Province are of three basic types: Northwest Iranian dialects belonging to the Central Plateau Dialect group, and two different types of Southwest Iranian  languages: slightly divergent dialects of Persian and  large pockets of Lori.

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  • Isfahan xxii. GAZI DIALECT

    Donald Stilo

    Gazi belongs to the Central Plateau Dialect group of Northwestern Iranian (NWI) languages. Gazi, the Jewish dialect of Isfahan, Sedehi, and probably other uninvestigated dialects of the area are grouped together as one subgroup of CPD.

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  • Isfahan Mode

    Cross-Reference

    a dastgāh in Persian music. See BAYĀT-E EṢFAHĀN.